The Duke Conspiracy (16 page)

Rose smiled with genuine happiness at her
mother. “That would be lovely.”

They had finally arrived in front of their
own house and an attentive footman was holding open the door
waiting for them to alight. The ladies bade each other a good night
and went their separate ways to secure their rest. Tomorrow was
going to be a big day.

Rose and Mary hurried along the sidewalk up
the fashionable street, barely noticing the elegantly clad noblemen
and women they passed in their haste. Each had their thoughts full
of the respective roles they would be fulfilling that
afternoon.

“This is ever so exciting, Miss,” Mary
exclaimed as they approached Elizabeth's house. “I'm afeared I'm
going to give it all away with my fidgets.”

“I have full confidence in you, Mary. You are
going to be marvelous.”

“How can you be sure?” fretted the maid.

“I have known you nearly all my life, for one
thing. For another, you have already proven your abilities in
Vienna. This is hardly any different.”

Mary blew out the breath she had been holding
and smiled her relief at her mistress. “You're right, Miss Rosie.
Thanks, I needed that confidence booster.”

As they climbed the stairs and were admitted
by the earl's rather imposing butler, Rose hoped fervently that her
words were true. It felt so very different from anything they had
involved themselves with in Vienna. She was unsure if it was
because they had been in another country or if it was her father's
involvement, but in Vienna it had felt like a game. She couldn't
shake the sensation that this was so much more serious and dire. It
was ridiculous, really, since there were no doubt schemes for
marriage taking place throughout the Season, but she just could not
rest easy about Broderick's involvement. Bracing her mind for the
ordeal ahead, Rose smiled bravely, bolstering her own spirits as
she was ushered into Lady Elizabeth's receiving room.

“Miss Rose, it is a pleasure to see you,”
Lady Castleton greeted as Rose was announced. “I shall leave you
girls to your giggles. Elizabeth tells me another young lady will
be joining you for tea. I wish the three of you a good afternoon. I
have some calls of my own to make, but our housekeeper will see to
all that you might need.”

“Thank you, Lady Castleton. I wish you a good
afternoon as well,” Rose answered politely, wishing she was better
acquainted with her friend's mother, who seemed like such a
pleasant woman.

“Come in and sit down,” Elizabeth ordered,
bouncing a little in her seat after her mother left the room. “We
barely had a chance to talk last night.”

“I know,” Rose grinned. “We were both a
little too popular for conversation.”

“Are you complaining?” Elizabeth asked with a
grin.

“Not at all,” Rose replied with enthusiasm
and an answering grin of her own. “I am very much enjoying being a
popular debutante, I will admit freely.”

“Did any of the gentlemen catch your
interest?” Elizabeth was impatient to find out.

“Not in the least,” Rose admitted with a
touch of reluctance. “I fear the efforts of the Season will be for
naught. My poor mother is going through such a trial to sponsor me
and I cannot muster a drop of enthusiasm for any of the eligible
men being introduced to me.”

Catching sight of Elizabeth's raised eyebrow
Rose grinned and continued. “Nor any of the ineligible ones
either.”

“Rosamund Smythe, which ineligible gentlemen
have you been speaking with?”

“I danced with the Earl of Heath last night.
The
on-dit
is that his wife did not die of natural causes.
The whispers are that he helped her fall down those stairs. But he
is so tragically handsome that I could not resist when he asked me
for a dance. Thankfully, although my mother seems to pay no
attention to me when we are at a ball, she chose to join me as he
was escorting me from the dance floor and glared him away from my
presence so I do not have to worry about him trying to call on
me.”

Elizabeth gave a delicate shudder at her
friend's words. “Can you imagine? How would you handle it if he
wanted to take you for a ride in the park?”

Rose shrugged and answered with simple
practicality. “Well, surely I would be perfectly safe…at least
until after the wedding.”

This caused both girls to burst into
laughter. Rose was the first to sober and bring both their
attentions back to the matter at hand. “So you are going to lead
the conversation, I take it, as you are the hostess.”

“Of course,” Elizabeth answered with
pride.

“Have you thought about how you are going to
manage to get Lady Anne to open up about her father's plans?”

“We are going to gossip about the eligible
gentlemen and how we could possibly get any of them to come up to
scratch. You shall lament about your lack of connections and your
fears that this will hold back certain likely candidates. Hopefully
this will play upon her delicate feelings and she will offer you
some suggestions that she has received.”

“You, my dear, are brilliant.”

“I cannot take the credit. I thought of it
last night when you were telling that young baron about your
father's suggestions for getting through boring lectures in the
House.”

“I am so pleased that my father's advice is
getting so much mileage,” Rose answered with dry amusement. They
quickly hushed as they heard the door knocker sound. Elizabeth
pulled the bell for the housekeeper just as the butler announced
Lady Anne.

“Welcome, welcome,” Elizabeth called out,
rising to greet the new arrival.

Both girls feigned believable happiness at
seeing the younger girl arrive. Lady Anne flushed with happiness,
making Rose feel a stab of guilt, which she blithely ignored.

“Thank you so much for inviting me,” Lady
Anne began shyly. “I find it is rather difficult to make friends as
ultimately we are actually in competition, vying for the attentions
of the eligible gentlemen.”

Elizabeth and Rose smiled at Anne briefly
before replying as the housekeeper chose just that moment to
arrive. Elizabeth requested that tea service be provided shortly
and the housekeeper hurried away. Turning back to Lady Anne,
Elizabeth continued as though there had been no interruption.

“It is funny you should say that. Miss Rose
and I were just talking about how difficult it is to catch the eye
of certain gentlemen to whose suit we might be amenable. I have no
wish to appear as though I am competing with any of my friends, but
it is a challenge to get any of the eligibles to commit themselves.
Would you not agree?”

Rose was nodding to indicate her agreement
although inwardly she was grimacing. What foolishness the Season
was, she thought with derision. Variations of this conversation
were likely taking place in all the salons and parlors throughout
Town as they spoke. This prompted her next words.

“Lady Anne, I never thought of it as a
competition, but I fear you are quite correct. Why do we not agree
to lend each other a hand instead of interfering with each other's
efforts? We could compare notes and share strategies.”

“What a lovely idea,” Lady Anne replied,
although her enthusiasm was a trifle weak. “Do either of you have
your sights set on anyone in particular? I saw you went in to
dinner with Lord Terrance Leonard. Did you consider him a potential
partner?”

Rose did not have to feign her sigh of
regret. “Not at all, I am afraid. I think I will require a husband
to be a little older. Since I have traveled and seen a little more
of the world than the average girl, I think I will require someone
with a great deal more experience than poor Lord Terrance. He was
pleasant enough, and I am certain he will make some lady a
wonderful husband, but I am not certain he is even in the market
for a wife at the moment.”

Elizabeth took the reins of the conversation
back into her capable hands. “My dinner companion was pleasant
company as well, but in my opinion he had a little too much to say
about his mother. I need a husband who is ready to set up his own
establishment, or better yet, one who already has. I do not wish to
compete with my mother-in-law for my husband's affections.”

“Oh, good heavens, no, that would be
perfectly dreadful. What about you, Lady Anne, I did not take
particular notice of anyone you were spending time with last night,
were any of the gentlemen eligible for you in your estimation?”

Lady Anne still seemed a trifle shy and Rose
wondered briefly if they would actually be able to get the young
woman to confide in them. Thankfully they were not left wondering
for long.

“A few of the gentlemen I danced with last
night seemed perfectly lovely,” she answered softly with a small
smile. “In particular, Lord Dunbar and Lord Edgecombe.”

“Oh, Lord Edgecombe, I did not even notice
him there last night,” Elizabeth answered, not with complete
honesty. “How lucky for you that he asked you to dance. I had the
pleasure last week. Besides being so handsome, he is also such a
great dancer.”

“Yes, he is,” Lady Anne answered shyly. “And
he seems very interesting.”

“Interesting?” Rose questioned.

“Oh yes, would it not be dreadful to sit down
to breakfast and dinner every day with a dead bore?”

Rose and Elizabeth burst into chuckles at
Anne's words.

“Oh yes, I can see your point entirely,”
Elizabeth agreed while Rose was still giggling too hard to
formulate an answer.

Anne continued, much to the other girls'
surprise. “Most of the gentlemen I have met only wish to discuss
the weather or the Season or their politics. They do not actually
wish for you to have anything to say about their politics, though,
mind you. As a debutante you are expected to merely sit and listen
to them. If you can muster up awe while you do that, it is all the
better. I truly do not think I could playact for the rest of my
life, so then where would we be?”

Rose felt her jaw go a little slack over
Anne's words. The girl obviously had hidden depths of which she had
been unaware. Her predicament grew. She resolved to hold her
silence and wait to see how the afternoon developed.

After pouring the tea that the housekeeper
had delivered unobtrusively, Elizabeth once again steered the
conversation.

“I fear you are absolutely correct, my dear,
Lady Anne. But what are we to do? Many of the gentlemen I have met
thus far are rather dull and the ones who are not are so highly
sought after, I am uncertain how to engage their affections.”

“My father has told me countless times that
affections can be engaged after the nuptials have been arranged, so
really all you have to do is set your mind to the task of which
gentleman is best for you and then arrange it.” Anne said this with
such stark simplicity that both the other girls looked at her,
unsure what she was getting at. This caused her to let escape a
tinkle of laughter.

“I must confess I am not fully certain what
you mean by your words,” Elizabeth apologized.

“That is completely understandable. It is a
trifle unorthodox, I will agree. But my father has assured me that
it will be the best plan to ensure my future happiness. All I have
to do is find myself in a compromising situation with the gentleman
of my choice. He will arrange everything else. And before you know
it, I will be happily wed to a wonderful lord.”

Rose just had to ask. “But do you really
think you could be happy with someone you have tricked? Would he
not be terribly angry? I cannot see how that would be a good way to
start off your new life together.”

“Surely if he allowed himself to get into the
compromising position, he must have feelings for me of some sort,
would you not agree?” Anne reasoned.

Rose was not so certain but did not know how
to articulate her thoughts on such an indelicate subject. She
contained herself to an uncomfortable shrug.

Anne continued. “And maybe he won't even have
to find out that he has been tricked.”

“Do you think that would be possible to pull
off?” Elizabeth asked before she thought of another question. “Have
you tried this already?”

Again Anne let out one of her tinkles of
laughter. “Not yet. I have been setting the stage thus far, making
sure the gentleman in question is actually to my liking, and laying
the groundwork for my plan.”

Rose could only look at her in awe, amazed
that she was able to present such an innocent face to Society and
yet be so devious inside. She had seemed like such a quiet girl,
dull almost. Although she felt a level of sympathy for the girl,
she no longer felt any compunction about trying to waylay her plans
if they still included the Duke of Wrentham. She hoped Elizabeth
would pose that question next.

“Is Lord Edgecombe to be your chosen one?”
Rose smiled over her friend's brief hesitation before saying the
word
one
. She wondered briefly if Elizabeth had been about
to say
victim
but had then thought better of it.

“I thought so. He is so very handsome and so
kind. I think he would be a most comfortable spouse. And it would
be a pleasure to share coffee with him each morning. But my father
has convinced me that the Duke of Wrentham is a far better catch,
and I cannot say I disagree. Who would not wish to be a duchess
after all?” Anne said this with a matter-of-fact air but Rose
sensed sadness beneath. It would seem Lady Anne did not have a deep
yearning to be a duchess. Rose thought to test her theory.

“I am not certain that I would wish to be a
duchess. My father is merely a baron, so while we have been
comfortable my entire life, we have never lived spectacularly. I
think it might be a trifle awkward to go from being a baron's
daughter to being a duchess. I have so little experience with
running a large house, let alone multiple of them, as I am sure
Wrentham must have. And there would constantly be people wishing to
curry favor with you for all sorts of various reasons.”