Page 3 of The Meddler
Georgiana, well-used to her mother’s particular brand of disordered thinking, waited patiently to be told more so that she might make heads or tails of it.
“Then, I discover it was not the only letter! There has been a back and forth for weeks!”
Georgiana patted Mischief’s neck to keep him steady, as the horse did not have as much patience for the lady’s roundabout stories.
“Here. Read the last of them for yourself!” Lady Manley said, pulling a letter from one of her robe’s pockets.
Georgiana bent down and took the letter. She thought she ought not to read her father’s personal correspondence. She also thought she did not have much choice—once her mother was fixed on an idea…she was fixed.
She suppressed a sigh and unfolded it, certain it would be some risky investment with whatever funds her father had left. His desperation to rescue the family fortunes and his seemingly bad luck with stewards often drove him to wild ideas.
My dear Lord Manley,
I cannot tell you how delighted I am that we are in agreement on the arrangements. Let me assure you, Georgiana will have every advantage and I will personally step in and act as her mama. She will be well-dressed, well-protected, taken to all the right places, and introduced to all the right gentlemen. She will have her proper place in society!
I will send a carriage and my maid, along with two grooms and an armed coachman, to retrieve the dear girl on the fifteenth.
Louisa Stapleton
Though Georgiana was still attempting to parse the meaning from the letter, her mother barreled on.
“Of course, you notice, there is no mention ofmegetting into that carriage!” she shrieked.
“But I do not understand,” Georgiana said. “Why should any of us get into the carriage? Who is Louisa Stapleton?”
Lady Manley sniffed, as she did when she meant to say she was not impressed. “She is the Countess of Mendleton and some kind of distant relation of your father’s. She thinks she will whisk you off to London for a season. Oh yes, I discovered the whole scheme when I confronted your father with that letter. She saysshewill act as your mama! And what am I, I wonder? She does not even mention me, it is as if I am dead!”
The whole of what was being proposed slowly dawned on Georgiana. The Countess of Mendleton, for reasons only known to herself, had decided to sponsor her for a season. The question was not whether her mother would allow her to go. The question was would her father allow her, and according to this letter, he would.
She would go to London. How extraordinary. The idea had been ever so far out of reach that it had been relegated to dreams and fantasies. Without warning, it had become a reality. The illusive soldier she’d had a mind to marry could jump off a bridge—Georgiana Wilcox was going to Town.
Georgiana leapt off Mischief and called for Matthew. As the stable hand took the reins, she said, “There is so much to do!” She picked up her skirts and ran toward the house.
Lady Manley, left behind on the lane, only shouted, “I am against it! Or else I should go! I put my foot down—it is one or the other!”
*
Jasper Stapleton, ViscountLangley and eldest son of Lady Mendleton, straightened his already perfectly straight cuffs and pretended he did not notice his mother’s pacing. They were in the drawing room at the house in Mayfair and he once again thought he’d made a mistake in agreeing to live in it. The country was one thing—he’d done up a hunting lodge remarkably comfortable and suitably removed from the main house. The low season in Town was equally acceptable and he happily ensconced himself, alone but for his valet and a few day maids, in its rambling rooms.
He had been in the Mayfair house alone for the past few months in service to the queen, it being close enough to Richmond to come and go. Though his destination was so often Kew Palace, the queen preferred to use its older name—The Dutch House.
Now that the regency had finally been made official, things should have settled and quieted. Rumors and speculation should have died out. Yet, they had not. There was a viper in the queen’s midst, spreading lurid news of the king’s infirmity, and Jasper had been tasked with discovering the culprit. So far, he could not determine whether this person was part of the staff, a courtier, or even one of the endless array of doctors called in. There were plans to move the king to Windsor, as Jasper had become suspicious of some of the staff at Kew and the grounds were not so easily secured.
He might have rented a house closer to Windsor if he’d been sure where the queen intended to settle. She at once thought she ought to stay by the king’s side, but that she did no good in her attendance. She preferred Buckingham Palace and she also thought that showing herself in society would calm the people’s nervousness at having her wastrel of a son named regent.
When Jasper’s mother wrote that she was on her way to London, he ought to have moved mountains to rent his own house, despite not knowing where the queen would place herself in the longer term. He’d even told his mother that he would. But then, she was an affectionate sort and wheedled and cajoled that she might at least have his company when he did not go out. He’d not seen the real harm in it until just recently.
For the past three days, the countess had been nervous as a cat. There was something she wanted to say to him, of that he was certain. He was equally certain that she’d developed a plan. He very much feared it would be on the subject of marriage, and that she would revisit the idea that she had her heart set on a particular lady.
His mother was impetuous, and a bit of a meddler. She had taken one look at a certain female and become infatuated with her father’s title and the girl’s insipid blond locks.
Jasper sighed as he glanced at Lady Mendleton. She was on her way to wearing a hole in the carpet.
“Mother,” he said, “you’d best just come out with it.”
Lady Mendleton stopped in her tracks. “Come out with what?” she asked, her tone a bit higher than usual.
“Whatever it is you want to say,” Jasper said. “Though, if it is about some lady you wish me to marry, I must point out I do not have the time to think of such things at the moment. I am far too taken up with the queen’s business.”
