The First Proposal - Chasity Bowlin Page 0,34
have a word.”
Percy’s heart sank. “I’ll wait with Lady Holland while you attend to… things.”
“You misunderstand me, Miss Blake,” the man called Westerhaven said. “Lady Sheffield would like to speak to you both and Lord and Lady Holland assuming they can spare a moment.”
Percy glanced up to see Olivia nodding. “We’ll make time. It certainly seems to be important.”
Algernon had no idea what the devil was going on. His plan had been to simply arrange to announce their betrothal, not to be called into a war council with his current betrothed, his former lover, her current lover, his former best friend come brother-in-law and his sister. It all seemed positively absurd. Still, he followed the troupe of characters to the library where Aurora waited. He knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that it could not possibly go well.
“Give me one of those rings,” Percy whispered to him.
“Which one?” he whispered back to her.
She looked at him, her eyes wide and her face pale. “I don’t care. But if I have to be in the same room as your former mistress, I want to know precisely where I stand in things.”
Algernon cursed. He’d hoped she wouldn’t know, but then he was certain he had her sister to thank. Reaching into his pocket, he simply plucked out the first box he came to and placed it in her hand. “For the record, this is not how I planned to do things.”
Her chin notched upward. “You have two more rings to try and get it right.”
“Right,” he said. “I imagine we’ll be keeping all three, then.”
“I suppose that depends on how well you do in round two.”
Algernon shook his head as they entered the darkened room. There were a few candles burning about the room, but it was very dim. “Alright, what’s this about?”
“It’s about Mrs. Daphne Fennelworth,” Aurora said softly. “I’m terribly sorry for all the dramatics, but I assured her I’d speak with you and warn you off about her sister the fortune hunter.”
At that Algernon laughed. “If anyone is a fortune hunter—.”
“I’ve taken Mrs. Fennelworth’s measure, Mr. Dunne,” Aurora stated simply. “But I elected to proceed as if I believed her because I fear she will make a great deal of trouble for you otherwise. Trouble that neither you nor Miss Blake need.”
Algernon spared a glance at Percy whose jaw was clenched tightly with anger. “What nonsense is she spewing then?”
“It’s not what she’s spewing. It’s whom she will spew it to. I understand from a friend that she has the ear of Lady Habersham… a name everyone here has reason to despise. If we do not handle this carefully it could well blow up in everyone’s faces.”
“It hardly signifies,” Algernon retorted. “Miss Blake has accepted my proposal and we mean to marry as soon as the banns are posted.”
“Sooner,” Percy spoke up. “We’ll marry by special license.”
“Which will only support the notion that you are a fortune hunter,” Olivia pointed out. “What we really need is something to use against Mrs. Fennelworth that will sway her to silence.”
“There’s nothing,” Percy stated. “She’s faithful to her husband. She’s a horrid mother, but many women in society have little or no interest in the day to day rearing of their children. Well, her taste is questionable. And she’s a bit of a miser. But nothing in that is truly scandalous.”
Algernon sighed. “She isn’t a miser… not to herself at any rate. Her letters of credit have been revoked at nearly every shop in town and her husband, Mr. Fennelworth, prior to leaving for the West Indies put her on a very limited budget because he’s hovering on the brink of ruin.”
Percy gaped at him then. “How on earth did you find all that out?”
“I employed your method,” he answered smartly. “I bribed people to tell me what I wished to know. Servants. Shopkeepers. Bankers. Information is easily had if one is willing to pay for it.”
Percy looked away abruptly. He could see tears glistening on the sooty sweep of her lashes.
“What is it?” he demanded. “I won’t tell anyone else if yo do not wish it. I would never embarrass your sister knowing that it would hurt you.”
“It isn’t that. You weren’t just using me as a means of making Lady Sheffield jealous, were you? Your courting me wasn’t some elaborate scheme to win her back?”
Algernon simply stood there blinking at her for a moment. He was so stunned by the absurdity of that it was impossible to process it.