Tall, Duke, and Dangerous (Hazards of Dukes #2) - Megan Frampton Page 0,101

a reckless girl—her true sister—somewhere out there horrifying a staid family.

“Of course not,” Lavinia assured her. The passage she’d chosen was the characters’ first meeting in a rose garden, entirely exemplary behavior, although there were mentions of thorns and poking and blooming, mentions that certain listeners would comprehend entirely, while others—like Jane—would entirely miss.

Lavinia had borrowed a variant of her half brother’s name to publish under because lady novelists did not sell as well as male novelists. Percy Waters had become Percy Wittlesford, and she had happily collected the royalty checks from her publisher.

But then her latest book, Storming the Castle, had taken the fancy of many Society ladies, and there was great interest, her publisher said, in the author. Lavinia and Percy had discussed how to proceed, and the two had settled it between them that Percy would pretend to be the author.

Once the interested ladies discovered Percy Wittlesford was actually Percy Waters, the handsome illegitimate son of one of London’s sharpest minds—well, it wasn’t long before Percy was being asked to give public readings.

Even though he would much rather be home working on numbers. He took after their father in that way, but his illegitimacy meant he could only work behind the scenes. That might change, now that Society believed him to be a successful author. Even the queen’s propriety could bend if there was fame involved, which was why Lavinia had encouraged him to make public appearances and why he had agreed to do so. The only other person who knew that Lavinia had actually written all of Percy’s four published works was Jane.

Baron Raddleston, at whose party Percy would be reading, was one of Society’s most influential tastemakers. He and his wife prided themselves on launching the careers of a variety of artists, from Italian opera singers to Russian harpists to homegrown British authors such as Percy.

Lavinia would do anything for her siblings, even including oatmeal-sulking Christina. If her talent for writing meant that Percy could finally do what he truly wished to, she’d happily pretend forever, just making certain Percy was familiar with most of the plots of the books. It was a relief, honestly, not to have to write the books and be the public face of the author.

Plus there was Jane to be considered—all quiet Jane wished for was to marry the equally quiet Mr. Henry McTavish. He and his family were their neighbors, though the two families were complete opposites. The McTavishes, it had been explained many times, were entirely correct and would never allow their only son to marry any type of scandal, even though the “scandalous behavior” was from an earl’s family, and adviser to the queen, no less. But there had been an incident many years past, and it didn’t seem to matter to the McTavishes that the Capels were well-thought-of by many.

Recently, however, the McTavishes seemed to be weakening in their resolve against Henry and Jane since the two were so devoted to one another.

Which would be wonderful, except Jane and Lavinia’s parents—or more specifically, their mother—had insisted Jane and her beauty be introduced to Society in hopes of landing a husband who was in the upper echelons of Society, not a mere neighbor’s son who was respectable. Lavinia knew Jane would suffer anxiety at meeting that many people on her own, and she might end up accidentally engaged to the wrong person if Lavinia weren’t there.

It was Jane and Lavinia’s plan for Jane to be so quiet in Society that nobody would notice her. It wasn’t working—Jane’s dowry overcame her quietness—but thus far her only suitors were desperate men, and their mother would not accept a desperate man.

So, if the Season ended and Jane had not found a suitably important man to marry, their mother might be persuaded to change her mind and let Jane marry Henry, after all.

If Lavinia had made a list of all her tasks for the next few months—which she had not, since Christina had used all their paper on drawing pictures of apparently distressed goats—the list would read thusly:

Lavinia’s List of Responsibilities

1. Keep Jane unmarried until Mama is persuaded to consider Mr. McTavish. Keep Jane unmarried until Mr. McTavish’s parents are persuaded to consider Jane.

2. Try to keep the family out of any current scandalous behavior.

3. Secure Percy’s reputation as an excellent novelist who is also sharp with numbers. Have him announce his retirement from writing to devote himself to his father’s business.

4. Convince Papa to allow Percy to join the business.

5.