Page 17 of The Undaunted
“Easton,” Lady Easton said, “I have made various arrangements and you will find everything in order now. You will hardly notice we are not at home—it is Thursday and so we will have chicken as always. Bramley has seen to it.”
As Lady Easton apprised her lord of her arrangements, Edgar slinked to Caroline’s feet and looked up longingly until she scratched his ears. She was rather startled by Lord Easton’s response to his lady.
“There will be no need for chicken tonight!” the lord said with an enthusiasm that did not seem warranted. It sounded rather like chicken was an unnecessary burden that had been happily shaken off.
Caroline was certain he’d been somewhere drinking something—he had that air about him that she recognized in her father’s friends when they were not yet worse for it, just a bit more cheerful than was their usual habit.
“What can you mean, my lord,” Lady Easton said, her brows coming together as if they had long searched for one another. “It is Thursday.”
“Bah,” Lord Easton said, “we are at Brighton, we cannot cling to the regular schedules here.”
“Can we not?” Lady Easton asked, appearing entirely mystified.
Bramley had just entered the room with an extra tray of cakes. He appeared shocked to his shoes over hearing of schedules being thrown over.
Caroline looked back and forth between the parties with interest. Was the chicken really to go out the window? Or would Lady Easton restore order? It was very like watching a play unfold.
“Certainly, Uncle,” Lord Bertridge said, “you cannot mind a chicken.”
Lord Easton looked at his nephew quizzically. “I don’tminda chicken, we just have no need of one. The Regent is throwing a rout, and he positively insists we attend. I just saw him on the Steyne and he positively insists.”
Both Lady Easton and Lord Bertridge shook their heads at this news. “A rout, Uncle?” Lord Bertridge said. “Surely, all of Brighton will squeeze in and nobody would ever notice we did not attend.”
“Prinny will notice,” Lord Easton said. “He wishes to be introduced to Miss Upton. He takes a particular interest in her future.”
Though Caroline was aware that the Regent had gone in with Lord Easton on her launch due to the money owed her father, she had not thought he’d actually do anything.
“Why, though?” Lady Easton asked. “Why does the Prince Regent concern himself with Caroline’s future?”
Lord Easton waved his hands as if wishing that question away. “Gentlemen’s talking and all that,” he mumbled. “In any case,” he said more loudly, “we go at nine. Have something to eat beforehand as you never can tell what will be on offer. Have the chicken if you like. Yes, there, you see? You can have the chicken after all.”
With that, Lord Easton strolled out of the room.
“This is all most irregular,” Lady Easton said.
Bramley cleared his throat and said, “My lady, if I may? Perhaps we could move the chicken from eight o’clock to seven o’clock.”
Lady Easton slowly nodded. “I suppose so, though it will not be the same.”
Bramley shook his head in sad agreement, while Caroline wondered if that meant she ought to reappear in the drawing room at six forty-five sharp.
“What has got into Uncle?” Lord Bertridge asked. “A rout? At the Pavilion? It will be an unpleasant crush of people, and so many of those people the Regent’s friends.”
Caroline could not guess why the Regent’s friends were deemed unpleasant. Perhaps they were not stickiest of sticks enough for Bertie. If that were the case, she supposed she might like them.
“And why does the Regent involve himself in Caroline’s launch?” Lady Easton mused. “Caroline, do you know anything about it? Did your father happen to say anything about the Prince?”
Caroline had easily surmised that Lord Easton had kept his lady very much in the dark about his bets, and the Regent’s bets, and the fact that Mrs. Fitzherbert required improvements to her house and some expensive jewelry. She would be the last person to expose either of them.
She said, “I do not know any particulars, my lady.”
Lady Easton appeared satisfied with the answer, as if it were the answer she had fully expected. “For that matter,” she said, “I do not know Brighton at all, what does a launch here even entail? I wish to do my best in the effort, but I feel very much at sixes and sevens.”
Caroline felt some amount of sympathy for the lady. She was one who had so far lived her life on a strict timetable she could rely on and now she hardly knew what to do next.
“Perhaps, my lady,” Caroline said, “things will become more clear at the rout. Perhaps the Regent will communicate some sort of reason for his involvement and some plan he might have?”
“A plan?” Lord Bertridge said derisively. “From the Prince?”
