To Sketch a Sphinx - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,22

fortune have also been returned to the Crown?”

Hal hummed a soft laugh. “One would imagine so, and yet le baron has not seemed to lose a single centime in all the troubles. It’s extraordinary, don’t you agree?”

John did agree, and he began to suspect…

He wasn’t sure what he suspected, but the circumstances were all too fortunate in the baron’s favor, considering what had happened within the rest of France. How could anyone succeed in such a way under both Napoleon and the monarchy? The coincidence was too convenient a thing for his taste. He wouldn’t like to suspect Hal’s relations, particularly given they were also hosting them.

Yet it could not be ignored.

It was far too early into their association with the baron and his family to have any real foundation for his suspicions, but he would not discount them, either. Something to keep his eye on, and that was all. But what else might he discover during his time here? Finery or no finery, if there was betrayal here, he would find it.

And that was an almighty if.

“If half of what I have heard about French cuisine is true, we could be in for a meal of extraordinary delights,” he told Hal as they neared the dining room.

“If we have nothing but boiled potatoes and bread, I’ll be delighted to eat more than I can stomach,” Hal replied without a thought. “I don’t care what it is, Pratt, because I will not be eating it in an inn or a coach.”

“Amen to that.” John forced a smile on his face. “Why does smiling hurt?”

Hal snorted once as she did the same. “Because you are so out of practice.”

“Ah.”

Entering the dining room, they found the family all there, including the children, and all seated before the guests had arrived.

Odd.

“Mes cousins!” de Rouvroy called as he caught sight of them, pushing to his feet with an eagerness that seemed uncalled for, considering the shortness of their acquaintance. “Please forgive us our informality. The children, you know, could not wait.”

John could easily forgive the children; the question was why they were present at all.

“Of course,” Hal murmured, her hand shifting almost awkwardly on John’s arm.

“I see,” de Rouvroy said with a small smile. “You disapprove of children at the table with adults?”

John shook his head at once. “No, not disapprove…”

“Surprise, then,” the baron corrected. “For no doubt it is surprising to the genteel of the English to allow such noise during the evening meal.”

Several rounds of giggles sounded from the table, and de Rouvroy turned to grin at them and put a shushing finger to his lips.

“Surprise would be a better description,” Hal admitted, laughing herself. “I myself was not permitted a seat at the supper meal until I was twelve and could behave myself with decorum.”

“And that, ma petite, is something which saddens me greatly.” De Rouvroy gestured grandly to his family and stepped back to do so. “For what is the proper decorum of a child? Is it not to explore life and find joy in it? To give those of us who have lost some of our youth and exuberance a chance to revisit it? Why should we be so formal and expect them to ignore their natural inclinations when it will leave them all too soon?”

It was an extraordinary statement, especially for a member of the peerage, no matter which kingdom had bestowed it. No parent John had ever met in Society felt that way, even the best of them. Especially not while entertaining guests, though there was no telling how a family would behave in private.

John was a man of reserve and formality, one might say, though he could not admit to especially strong opinions on either subject. He simply saw no reason to alter what was accepted as proper behavior, nor to make any adjustments on his part in order to stand out. Indeed, all he had ever wanted from the times he was forced to attend in public circles was to blend in; to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Had he been that way by nature, or had the rules and traditions of English society made him so?

What a question to ask himself now. A simple family supper and he was questioning his own nature?

He must have been more fatigued than he thought.

“And we are not all assembled, you know,” de Rouvroy continued when his guests had nothing to comment. “René and Agathe have not yet come down, but they will presently. May I introduce you to