Page 77 of Lady Dramatic
“I punched him in the face.”
Serenity would not, as a usual thing, approve of violence. But in defense of Nelson, well, she had already proposed to herfather that she ought to have a club to beat off kidnappers. Now she would not need one, as Thorpe would be their protector. It gave her the shivers. “Goodness, you really are of a passionate nature,” Serenity said.
“Yes, I am passionate,” he said, pulling her close again to kiss her.
A carriage rolled by and they heard the distinct sounds of a gasp and a window slamming shut. Some matron returning home from a party or the theater had just been shocked to her shoes.
That was entirely too bad for the matron. Serenity was not at all shocked. She was rather encouraged, actually.
*
Roland had walkedwith his fiancée around the square and thought he might do it again, were it not for her beginning to shiver and her father standing at the door.
He would have kissed her again, had her father not been standing at the door. As he could not do that, he urged her to keep his coat on when she made a move to return it, bid her goodnight, and asked for permission to call in the morning.
That permission was speedily granted and one of the duke’s grooms handed him back his horse.
As he made his way back to his house, he mused over how everything had unfolded. Just hours ago, he’d set off for The Albany to discover if Nelson was there. Now he was an engaged man.
He thought Lady Serenity, or Serenity as he would now call her, had imagined he would be shocked over her crypt of bees. He’d not been particularly. Of course, it was unusual, there could be no denying it. However, he did not see anything wrong with unusual. The important thing was, he’d been honest. She’d beenhonest. There were no secrets between them and they were likely more suited to one another than they’d known.
It suddenly felt as if the ammunition that Charles had always fired against him had gone up in a puff of smoke. His brother could no longer threaten him with exposing his sentimental leanings. His future wife knew all about them and who else mattered?
One of his grooms took his horse and he bounded into the house. Not surprisingly, Quinn was waiting for him.
“I assume you’ve done it, else the duke will see you on a green in the morning.”
“I have, and I assume you say so from looking out the windows,” Roland said, laughing.
“Hanging out the windows, more like,” Quinn said. “We saw you return with the dog, and then go inside and then…well, that walking round the square was rather daring from what I could see.”
Roland nodded. “I told her of my real nature.”
“I presume she took it well, then.”
“Oh yes, she’s even worse than I am. She has a box of dead bees. A bee stung her and died when she was young and she’s felt bad about it ever since. Now she looks for dead bees, dries them in ash, and keeps them in a box. Apparently, she weeps over just about everything.”
Roland could see very well that Quinn’s mind was traveling ahead in time, imagining a future with a Marquess and Marchioness with over-sensitive natures.
Rather than allow him to go on with it and frighten himself, Roland said, “I will write two letters before I retire. One to my father that his dreams of a wedding are finally coming true. The other to my brother, telling him to leave Town or else I will punch him again.”
“You and Charles had a physical altercation?”
“Not much of one. I punched him, he landed on the floor. I took the dog and left.”
“Well, it was a long time coming, I suppose,” Quinn said thoughtfully. “Do you think he’ll go?”
“I do. If he does not, he will be exposed as having kidnapped the Duke of Pelham’s dog. Thetonhas strong feelings about that, considering it goes on rampant and the 1770 Act has not done much to curb it. One whisper of it and everybody in society will be thinking of their own dog or a friend’s dog, and Charles would be roundly condemned. Add in that it was a poor three-legged dog that the duke was kind enough to take in, and I think he’ll perceive how bad things could go for him.”
Thorpe sat down and wrote out the letters. A short one to his father and a far longer one to his brother. He found himself entirely done with Charles’ nonsense, pettiness, and discontent. He would not tolerate it longer, and Charles could test that idea at his peril.
After he’d finished the letters, he put some thought into Lady Valor’s situation. After consulting with Quinn, and then with the duke the following day, he set a plan in motion.
