Page 5 of A Baron's Scandalous Quill
Henry nodded slowly, then gestured behind him.
“Now, are we ready?” He pointed at the door.
Slowly, William turned around, looking at the fine entrance hall of his house. He had been making changes since his father had passed, and he had inherited the money.
Though the title of baron had been his ever since his mother had passed a few years ago, for the barony came through her bloodline and not his father’s, the money had gone to his father first. Now that the money was his, he was redecorating the house, making it into something other than the prison he had known for so long.
The heavy mahogany boards which once made up the floor had been lifted and replaced with white marble. The paintings that were dark and ominous, with one that had even been titledThe Nightmare,had been replaced with finer and lighter paintings, too.
He had not chosen expensive paintings, but pictures that he liked, pastoral scenes of bright sunshine. There was just one painting in the room that was a portrait and that picture sat near the bottom of the stairs.
His mother smiled out at him from a sunny scene in the garden of their country estate. Dressed in a light blue gown, her shining brown eyes, much the same color as his own, stared back at him. There was a small smile on her lips, curving gently. The image was as he wished to remember her: alive, healthy, and above all, happy.
“My lord?” Henry said, trying to urge him to the door.
William sighed once again, shaking his head at Henry.
“One of these days, you will call me by my name again.”
Henry chuckled softly.
“Trust me. This assembly will not be as bad as you fear. It is a chance to enjoy the world. To show your face and…” He trailed off.
“To come out of my father’s shadow?” William finished for him. “Yes, a dark shadow it has been indeed.” He turned back to glance in the mirror once more again, brushing back the hair that was curling.
It’s as good as I’m going to make it.
“Very well, let us go.” William walked toward the door and stepped out. On the track road leading to his house, his carriage awaited him.
“I do not have to come,” Henry said slowly, following him. “It is hardly customary for a butler to accompany their lord—”
“For tonight, please, come,” William said again. “I’ll be more comfortable with you there.”
William had made up his mind. He knew plenty of gentlemen attended assemblies and balls with some sort of manservant in tow, even if it wasn’t their butler, and out of all of his staff, Henry was the one he wanted there the most. If nothing else, William could speak to him when he grew bored and frustrated with everyone gossiping about him.
As they climbed into the carriage, Henry lit a lantern overhead, lighting the way in the darkness with an orange glow. The carriage set off, and William watched the lantern swing back and forth for a minute.
“You seem much more assured about tonight than I am,” William observed as Henry lowered the stick he often carried at his side onto the bench beside him. It wasn’t a walking stick but a swagger stick, something he had inherited from his father, who had served as a soldier in the war. “You seem even…excited.”
Henry flattened his smile, as if in an effort to be rid of such anticipation.
“It is for you that I am excited,” Henry replied with great passion. “It’s high time you came out from that house and lived life fully.”
“You know why it has not been easy.” William scratched his chin uncomfortably. “All my father’s debtors, all the men he offended and cheated—”
“You are not him. You are just his son.”
“And they see me as being of his blood. They see me as a man built in his image,” William muttered with scorn. “How am Iever supposed to marry and have a family of my own if people in thetonlook at me with this one image in mind?”
It was a thought he had confessed the day after his father had died. William longed to start a family of his own, to be happy as his mother had been. Yet surely such a dream was out of reach, no matter how hard he stretched to take it, when all ladies would be warned off from him, thanks to his father’s reputation.
“Maybe it’s time to rewrite your reputation,” Henry murmured, more to himself than to William at all; then he looked out of the window, his eyes not blinking in thought.
“What do you mean by that?” William tilted his head to the side, watching his butler carefully.
“Nothing.” Henry looked back at him again. “Just go tonight with an open mind, my lord. You might be surprised by what you find there tonight.”
“Hmm. Well, you have more confidence than I do.” William sat back, rubbing his hands together nervously. What he did not speak his mind about was also the nervousness he felt about talking to ladies there tonight. Having been kept locked in the house for so long, he had circulated among very few women.
