Page 14 of Her Impeccable Scoundrel
“Your sister?” Graeme looked skeptical, and so he might. Where her half-sibling was tall and fair, like his father, she was of average height and dark, like hers.
And then the earl’s eyes lit. “Ah, I remember. You had a half-brother who went off as a coronet.” He extended his hand. “Welcome, Captain Lynford. Your sister and I were just discussing the need for a chaperone. Of course you’ll stay here with us.”
Trapped, she was. Will needed a place to stay and rooms for both of them at the hotel would sorely tax her funds.
Will’s was another face she hadn’t seen in years, but at least his was a friendly one, and she so very much needed a friend. Plus, she could see him properly fed. She needn’t do more than suffer meals with the odious new earl while fattening up her brother.
He’d be a terrible chaperone though, off visiting alehouses and clubs and probably making the rounds of the London brothels.
Perhaps she would take herself off to Mivart’s. Or… she’d sent a note to Lady Loughton requesting a ride to the Harrington rout that evening. She might as well call and inform her in person of the change in plans.
“Will, you’ll want to settle in, but later this evening the Harringtons are hosting a rout. Will you escort me?”
Her brother’s eyes twinkled. “Putting me to work already?”
“If you’ve made other plans?—”
“I will escort you,” Graeme said. “I had an invitation to the rout in my stack of mail.”
Will turned a solemn look on the new earl. “Of course I’ll accompany my sister.”
She sent Will off with Adwick and beckoned Radley. “The rain has stopped. We may as well walk.”
“Wait and I’ll get my hat,” Graeme said. “Where are you going? I’ll accompany you and then continue on to White’s.”
“I’m calling on Lady Loughton. That is the opposite direction.”
“Nevertheless. It’s been ages since I’ve been in town, and I’ve been cooped up on a ship for months. It will be good to stretch my legs and get my bearings.”
“Do let them come in,” a woman called.
The butler who answered the door at Loughton House dipped his head and ushered first Blythe, and then Graeme, in.
A tall, dark-haired young woman descended the stairs and greeted Blythe with a kiss on the cheek. Blythe introduced Lady Mary Elizabeth Loughton, wife of the current Baron Loughton, who as it happened was not at home.
Graeme tried to excuse himself, but Lady Loughton insisted they both join her in the library.
“Please make yourself comfortable,” Lady Loughton said, pointing to an arrangement of chairs and sofas. “We are all at sixes and sevens here, but I’ll go and fetch my mother-in-law. I know she’ll want to meet you, Lord Chilcombe.”
Graeme eyed the shelves of books and the papers piled on a large desk in the corner.
“I wonder whether Lord Loughton would appreciate us in his domain,” he said.
“It’s as much Mel’s domain as his,” Blythe said.
“Mel?”
“Mary Elizabeth. Mel to her friends.”
“And you are a good friend?”
“Yes. Mel is a banker, you know. A principle shareholder at Sawley’s Bank.”
“Ah.” The mysterious loan in the logbooks was from Sawley’s bank.
Before he could ask more questions, Lady Loughton returned with two other ladies. The dowager Lady Neda Loughton was a petite blond with sparkling blue eyes, who didn’t appear to be much older than forty. The other lady was a comfortably plump woman of perhaps sixty; Lady Hermione Gravelston, the younger Lady Loughton’s older cousin.
A tea tray arrived next, and tea was served while he answered all the polite inquiries about his travels. The ladies were no doubt sizing him up, while he did the same, relieved to find that Blythe’s friends were decent, sensible ladies.
