at any rate. You deserve it, you miserable bastard.”
“And if my path to marital bliss should happen to run smoother than yours?”
Burke shrugged. “If she agrees, you may announce whatever you wish. Your sister will be inordinately pleased if she says yes. I will be inordinately pleased if she says no. One of us will at least come out of the situation happy.”
“You’re an ass, Burke. I’m glad I didn’t tell Olivia you wanted to court her,” Algernon replied and rose to his feet. “Good day.”
Daphne Fennelworth was making her way down Piccadilly, having only just left Fortnum and Mason where she’d indulged in a bit of sweets for herself. It was so very difficult to treat herself to any decadent things at home when the children were always about looking sad eyed and forlorn as if she ought to share with them. Really! Who would waste good chocolates on terrible, ungrateful children?
She was across the street from White’s when she saw her neighbor emerge from the club. He looked frustrated and miserable. Lingering, she watched him for a bit, only to see Viscount Holland emerge moments later, grinning from ear to ear. Another man approached him.
“You’re in fine spirits, Holland!” the man observed.
“That’s because I just put twenty quid on the books that my brother-in-law will be rejected when he proposes marriage to his lady love!”
“Dunne has a lady love? Is it Sheffield?”
“I’ll never tell,” Viscount Holland replied. “You’ll have to place your bets on the lady’s good sense while she remains anonymous. Good day, Ellersleigh!”
Oh, it was better than she’d hoped, Daphne thought with a thrill in her heart. It would crush Persephone to imagine that not only was she being used to lure Lady Sheffield back to Mr. Dunne, but that she was now being wagered on at White’s. Heavens, it was better than Boxing Day! The only question was whether or not she should impart that little gem immediately or wait until the night of the ball.
Percy had kept to the house for most of the day. She didn’t have any desire to roam the gardens and risk some awkward encounter. The very idea of facing him after her behavior the night before, when she’d been impossibly forward and perhaps even wanton—well, the humiliation ran too deep. Eating her dinner in the nursery with the children, she fought back another wave of melancholy as the terrible truth of her situation gripped her.
It wasn’t love. Not real love. Telling herself that did not east her misery. Perhaps it wasn’t love just yet, but it was the beginnings of it. It had been hope and promise and dreams—all the things she hadn’t indulged herself in for a very long time. The attention he paid her, the way he could make her blood sing with little more than a glance, those things had made her feel alive in a world when she’d been doing little more than existing for years. And it was all a lie. A ruse so that he could win back his former lover.
“I don’t want beef pies!” Elizabeth shouted. “I hate beef pies! Go get me something else!”
Percy looked up from her now unappetizing plate of food, though in truth the food was not to blame. It was the misery of her own thoughts that put her appetite off. “Well, Elizabeth, beef pie is what the cook prepared and it what you have to eat. Sometimes in life we must all do things we do not wish.”
Elizabeth glowered at her. Before Percy could even recognize the child’s intent, she’d snatched the pie up in her tiny hand and flung it across the expanse of the table until it landed against the bodice of Percy’s dress with a wet splat. Bits of pastry, beef and vegetables clung to the fabric and the thick gravy oozed over her chest to drip into her lap. The sight of it and the terrible smell of it only worsened her existing nausea. Choking back the urge to simply vomit, Percy used her serviette to scrape as much of the disgusting mess from her clothing as possible.
But she said nothing. What could she say? The children had no respect for her because their mother had no respect for her. They would follow Daphne’s example and be cruel to her and belittle her because they perceived it as a way to win their mother’s favor. The terrible reality of what her life was to be, and that the glimpse she’d been given