The Husband Season. Mary Nichols

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СКАЧАТЬ laughed. ‘And the same goes for you, cousin.’

      ‘Touché.’

      They turned into the club and were soon seated in the dining room, giving an order for onion soup, turbot, roast partridges, raised mutton pie, broiled mushrooms and a selection of vegetables. They followed this with sweet pastries, clotted cream and a jelly. Once replete, they adjourned to the card room for a few hands of whist.

      They played well together, not too deep but enough to satisfy the two gentlemen who made up the four, one of whom was Sir Reginald Swayle, known to Mark, and the other Captain Mountworthy, of the Hussars, on leave and looking for a little diversion. The captain, not being as well up in the stirrups as the other three, broke the party up a little after midnight, having come to the end of the stake he’d allowed himself. Adam and Mark both said they fancied an early night and rose to go.

      They were about to pass two gentlemen who had just arrived when Adam heard his cousin address one of them. ‘Teddy, you here?’

      ‘Yes, you cannot expect me to sit listening all evening to Sophie trying to hold a conversation with Aunt Emmeline. I should die of boredom or laugh aloud and disgrace myself.’

      Mark turned to Adam. ‘Adam, may I introduce my wife’s brother, Mr Edward Cavenhurst. Teddy, my cousin, Adam Trent, Viscount Kimberley.’

      The two men shook hands, murmured, ‘How do you do?’ then Teddy, indicating his companion, said, ‘Do you know Captain Toby Moore?’

      ‘I do.’ Mark’s voice was clipped and made Adam turn to him in surprise. There was obviously no love lost between the two men. He shrugged his shoulders and followed his cousin, leaving Teddy and Captain Moore to make their way into the club. They heard Teddy greeting Sir Reginald with great affability as they made their way out of the building.

      ‘A young dandy,’ Adam said as they walked on. ‘You seemed not pleased to see him.’

      ‘Oh, I like him well enough, but he is too fond of the gaming tables. He is in town to escort his sister, not to indulge his weakness.’

      ‘His sister being the young lady you have recently left in the care of her aunt?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘I would have expected her parents to bring her to town.’

      ‘Lady Cavenhurst is a very poor traveller and Sir Edward much wrapped up in his estate, which is only now recovering from a near disaster two years ago—a disaster I might add, partially brought about by that rake shame, Captain Moore. I wonder at Teddy associating with him. I fear I shall have to keep an eye on him while I am here, though what I can do to stop him, I have no idea. Besides, I shall have to go home to Hadlea after the concert.’

      ‘You are not his keeper, Mark, and he is surely of an age to know what he is about.’

      ‘Gambling is an addiction with him, Adam. He has the best of intentions, but they fly away at the least temptation. I wish he had not come to town, but he was the only person who could escort Sophie, and Sophie was determined.’ He grinned ruefully. ‘When Sophie is determined, there is no gainsaying her. Being the youngest she has always been indulged, not only by her parents but by her brother and older sisters.’

      ‘She sounds like a spoiled filly to me.’

      ‘No, you mistake me. She is a charming young lady, if a little headstrong, which don’t signify to the young blades who crowd round her at Hadlea. Whether she will enjoy the same adoration in town, I cannot say. She will be at the concert, so you may be able to judge then.’

      ‘I shall look forward to being introduced to her and making up my own mind,’ Adam said.

      * * *

      He was busy in the meantime lobbying for support for the mill workers and the repeal of the Corn Laws, but found very few takers, certainly not among his peers. What he needed was support in the Commons, but even there, the rules for standing for that institution were such that very few of them could claim working-class roots. If only he could prevail upon the likes of Orator Hunt to compromise on their demands, he might have some success, but Hunt seemed to have gone to ground. He had asked Alfred Farley if he could winkle out his whereabouts.

      Alfred might be a valet who looked after his clothes and brought him his shaving things of a morning, but he was more than that. He had been serving him since he had found him in a back alley in Seven Dials, half-starved and begging, four years before. Something about the man had made him take pity on him and he had learned he had once been a soldier and had served under Adam’s brother, but he had been discharged when he’d taken a piece of shrapnel from a cannonball in his leg. It had healed, but his leg was scarred and he walked with a limp. He was not an ideal valet, but he was a faithful servant and could be relied on in a crisis.

      * * *

      Adam had had to put all that aside in order to attend Mark’s concert. He could hardly fail to do so considering the house was in an uproar of preparation and Mark distracted. The house was large, airy and well furnished, if a little old-fashioned, not that such a thing would have put off his guests; the Wyndhams were known and respected in town as well as at Hadlea, and he did not for a moment share Mark’s doubts that no one would turn up. All was ready on the night, and after a light repast with Mark at six o’clock, he went up to his room to change.

      He had long given up the exaggerated dress he had adopted in his youth and now favoured simplicity, but it was an elegant simplicity that set off his splendid physique and spoke volumes for his tailor, not to mention Farley, who had learned to make sure his cravats were starched to exactly the right stiffness, enough to maintain their folds, but not enough to cause him discomfort. Tonight he favoured a dark blue tailcoat in superfine that he had been assured was called midnight blue, matching pantaloons and a white brocade waistcoat with silver buttons. Never one to be fussy about his hair, which had a natural curl, he succumbed to Farley brushing it and combing into some semblance of style.

      He could hear people arriving as he left his room to go down to the first floor, where he found his cousin standing sentinel at the ballroom door that had been furnished with a small stage and rows of chairs.

      ‘How goes it?’ Adam asked, standing beside him.

      ‘Well, I think. The chairs are filling up.’

      ‘So I should hope, considering you have the cream of the musical world to entertain everyone.’

      They heard voices down in the hall as more guests arrived, and in a few moments, a party came up, led by a matronly woman in a hideous purple gown and a turban with a long feather, escorted by young Cavenhurst, but he hardly had eyes for them because they were accompanied by a young lady who caused him to catch his breath.

      ‘Lady Cartrose, how do you do,’ Mark said, while Adam endeavoured not to allow his twitching lips to become a broad grin. ‘May I present my cousin, Lord Kimberley.’

      Pulling himself together, Adam bowed. ‘Your servant, my lady.’

      ‘And this is my sister-in-law, Miss Sophie Cavenhurst,’ Mark went on, unaware of the unspoken message going from Sophie to Adam, though that gentleman was fully cognisant of the appeal in her blue eyes.

      ‘Miss Cavenhurst, your obedient servant,’ he said, bowing.

      There СКАЧАТЬ