Page 81 of Ne'er Duke Well
Freddie nodded eagerly. “You’ll need draperies.”
“Chairs. Sofas.”
“Ottomans.” Freddie was warming to the theme. “Books. Candelabra. A pianoforte!”
Next to him, Lu sniffed disgustedly.
Selina looked up. “And for your bedroom, Lu? Is there a particular color you have in mind?”
Lu scowled. “I cannot imagine why I would care.”
“Lu!” said Freddie, his voice a whispered reproach.
Lu’s eyes were bright, her tone brittle. “My apologies. I cannot imagine why I would care,Your Grace.”
Christ. He wanted to ask Selina to be patient with them. He wanted to shake his sister, and he wanted to hug her and tell her it was safe. No one would make her leave ever again.
But of course, that wasn’t precisely true. If he did not get the guardianship, Lu and Freddie would have to leave. Any promises he made would be lies.
He had tried not to show his worry to Selina last night in her office. Yet he could not help but think on what would happen ifhe did not succeed in Chancery. They would lose Freddie and Lu, and he—
He would have failed them all. It would be one more way that he had not lived up to Selina’s expectations, one more black mark against him. A disaster even she could not solve. And as he sat in the carriage with his wife and his siblings, he realized how desperately he wanted to be something more than a disappointment. For all of them.
“Selina,” said his wife. She sounded unflustered, even gentle. “Please call me Selina.”
Lu sniffed again but didn’t reply.
When they reached Bond Street, Selina made for the registry office and gestured for him to take the children on ahead. “First, staff. I’m going to arrange for interviews this week.” She eyed him. “You need quite a lot of staff. And a tutor for the children.”
He made himself smile. “And a fencing master?”
Her eyes softened. “I will try my best. Can you take them down to R. S. Barrett’s? The Ravenscrofts have patronized Barrett for many years. Perhaps we can purchase his whole showroom. I’ll follow on shortly.”
Barrett’s turned out to be not one shop but a whole building, a rabbit’s warren of room after room, each stuffed nearly to the eaves with furniture, rugs, fabrics, and artworks. Lacking Selina’s list, Peter decided to let Freddie and Lu wander at will.
For Freddie, that meant speechless amazement as he took in his surroundings.
“Inform the shopkeeper if you see anything you like,” Peter told him. “Tell them to send the bill to the residence.”
Freddie nodded, wide-eyed and eager.
Lu, meanwhile, surveyed the furnishings before her coolly.
“You may as well choose something,” Peter said. “For yourbedchamber. Hell, you can make up a bedchamber for the cat, if you like.” He refused to refer to the feline by its apparent moniker.
Lu, he was certain, was behind that one.
Even she could not fail to be overcome by the offerings at hand. When Selina arrived a quarter of an hour later, Lu was engrossed in a stack of maritime maps.
“Piracy,” he said to Selina with a nod at his sister.
Selina blinked at him. “I beg your pardon?”
“Lu. She’s plotting out routes around the Atlantic as we speak. First fencing, then the knots, now the maps—piracy is the only explanation for it.”
Selina tipped her head, considering. “Perhaps you ought to encourage privateering instead.”
He wanted to laugh, but instead he nodded seriously. “A government contract, you mean?”
