Page 23 of One Perfect Dance
I remain, your sincere friend,
Elijah Ashby
Rex had brought a runner with him. Ash addressed and sealed the letter and handed it over. The runner saluted, flashed them a cheerful grin, and took off out the gate of the compound.
Rex used a foot to hook a chair closer and sat on the other side of the table Ash was using as a desk. He poured himself a glass from the jug on the table, sipped, and held it away from him to examine it. “Nice,” he proclaimed.
A rattle. A beaded curtain covered the entry to the house from the veranda where they sat, and it shifted in the occasional breeze. This time, though, the disturbance was human—a slender brown hand; Rex’s current mistress was watching her protector from behind the curtain. Rithya had been a gift from an Indian potentate, who had been delighted to find that his English visitor was the youngest son of a British duke.
The official from the East Indian Company who had brokered the introduction had apparently interpreted the worddukeasmaharajah. Rex had protested that he was merely an unworthy fourth son. “But it seems that Indian princes are even more impressed by titles than my father,” Rex told Ash. “He said I was being modest, and that the usual East Indian officials are all merchants with an unwarrantedly high opinion of themselves.”
Rithya had been with them for nine months. Rex had never kept a mistress for so long. Ash kept waiting for him to announce it was time to give her a large dowry and hire a local matchmaker to find her a husband, but Rex seemed to be fonder of the girl than ever. She was certainly very attached to Rex.
If Rex knew he was being watched, he chose to ignore it. “Should I arrange to travel up into the mountains? It’s cooler up there, apparently. Rithya is feeling the heat.”
“It’ll be Spring in England when that letter arrives,” Ash commented.
Rex blinked at thenon sequitur, then followed the new conversational thread in his usual obliging manner. “I miss it, sometimes. England, I mean.”
“We’ve been gone a long time. More than fourteen years.”
Fourteen wonderful years, on the whole.
Which was why Rex’s next remark surprised him. “Do you ever think about returning to England?”
“From time to time,” Ash answered.
Often. Daily.He’d loved seeing the world, but on hot days like today, he remembered England with an ache—a hollow longing that had mysteriously increased with the news that Regina Paddimore was now a widow.
More fool him. No doubt she had married again before the letter reached Ash. Or perhaps caring for an invalid all these years had put her off marriage for life. If so, would he be able to change her mind?
“Perhaps we should go home,” Rex said. “Ash, Rithya is with child.” He took another sip.
Ash had no idea what to say.It is a wonder this hasn’t happened before. At least, not to his knowledge. Rex seldom slept alone, but as far as Ash knew, none of his discarded lovers had been pregnant.
“Lost for words?” Rex’s smile was more wry than usual. “I felt the same when she told me.” He pushed up from his chair and paced. “I’m going to marry her.”
“Marry?” Ash’s head filled with all the standard objections, most of which he profoundly rejected. Society would say a duke’s son couldn’t marry his mistress, or a native girl, for that matter. But what were those rules worth when it came to human feelings? “Do you care for her, Rex?”
“Are you asking do I love her? I’m not sure what that means. But I know I cannot abandon my child, Ash. Nor Rithya, either. In the lands of the East, a concubine is honored almost as much as a wife. She has rights, and her children can inherit side by side with the children we would call legitimate. But English law regards her as nothing, and any child we have as less than nothing.” His face took on the pinched look that accompanied any mention of his ducal father. “No child of mine will feel unwanted, nor will I allow them to be brushed aside like trash.”
He took his seat again and leaned forward, staring intently at Ash. “If anything happens to me, I want you to take Rithya and the child to England and set them up there with anything they need. Promise me, Ash.”
Ash nodded. Probably for the best. Rithya would not be welcomed back to her previous home, and she had no other. And the child would be half-English. “I will, but I’d rather you stuck around to see to the task yourself.”
Rex grinned. “That would be my preference.” Then the grin faded. “My father won’t be pleased, but what can he do? Cut off my allowance? I don’t need it. And Ash, you should go home even if I don’t, now your childhood sweetheart is free.”
“By the time I can get there, even if I took the fastest packet ship, she’ll be married again, Rex. I’ll stay with you if you don’t mind. But yes, I’d like to go home.”
Rex’s mood lightened. “How do you feel about going up through India and beyond to the Silk Roads? Perhaps head west for a while and then strike north for Russia? I believe we can take a boat most of the way from the Caspian Sea to the Baltic Sea. We haven’t been that way, and we can sail for England from St. Petersburg or one of the other Baltic ports.”
He switched to Hindi, speaking slowly so that Ash could understand. “Rithya, I know you’re there. Come out and join the conversation. We need to talk about getting married the English way as well as yours. And how do you feel about going to England?”
Chapter Ten
Leicestershire, January 1818
Regina was delightedto attend the Stancroft house party. Her hostess Arial, the Countess of Stancroft, had become a dear friend the previous Season, as had Arial’s friend Margaret, Countess Charmain, who lived nearby. Cordelia, Marchioness of Deerhaven, and her marquess were also guests.
