Page 131 of How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days
‘I want you to go,’ Lady Phoebe cried, pointing a finger down the driveway.
‘Go where?’ Waldo’s face twisted into an ugly smile. ‘This is my home, Phoebe. It belongs to me. You belong to me.’
‘I don’t care about any of it,’ she said. ‘Go to Mauritius without me – go anywhere, but leave England. Forever.’
‘Waldo,’ Dacre said, his quiet voice carrying over his brother’s spluttering. ‘I think perhaps it is best if you do leave now. Spend tonight at the White Horse and then we will discuss it all in the morning.’
‘And you turn on me as well?’ Sir Waldo demanded. ‘After all I have done for you? After all I could say about you?’
Dacre paled.
‘I am not scared of you – any of you,’ Waldo looked around at them all with an unpleasant look in his eyes. ‘A collection of gossips and gabsters and degenerates, no more. You all have your own secrets to hide too, don’t forget. The things I could let slip …’
He glared at the assembled company, each hesitating as if weighing their own secrets in the balance.
‘Oh Waldo, tut tut tut.’ Lady Morton broke the silence, stepping forward from where she and Lady Hesse had been standing. She ranged herself alongside Phoebe, taking her arm in her own, and shook back her red mane. ‘You might try to play the conjecture game, but truthfully, some of us have been doing this for years. The things I could say about you – why, it would not be more than a day’s work to ruin you.’
‘If that,’ Lady Hesse said, and she too stepped forward. ‘A few letters in the right hands …’
‘A few whispers in the right ears,’ Lady Morton agreed. ‘You are quite right, Waldo, we are gabsters and gossips – and what’s more, we’re good at it.’
Lady Hesse inclined her head. ‘We can send whispers of your doings all the way to London, and still have time to change our dress for dinner.’
‘With nothing but some powerful adjectives, a few sheets of paper, and coins for postage.’
‘Shan’t need postage!’ Hesse piped up, puffing out his chest. ‘I’ll frank ’em for you!’
‘Very helpful,’ Lady Hesse praised. Her smile slipped from her face as she looked back at Waldo. ‘Women may not hold the houses, or the purse-strings, Waldo, but we do own the secrets. So unless you wish the ton to begin whispering your name, removing your name from invitations, rescinding the memberships of your clubs, not to mention Bow Street bearing down … ’
Pip gave an emphatic nod of support.
‘Do you think you shall be received in Mauritius if they knew of your hideous behaviour?’ She went on, her smile was chillingly pleasant. ‘If I were you, I would do as Lady Phoebe asks.’
‘Phoebe,’ Waldo said, focusing all his attention upon his wife, ‘you are confused … not thinking clearly. Let us all go inside and discuss it – I am happy to reassure you …’
‘No.’ Lady Phoebe’s voice shook. ‘I do not wish you to re-enter the house.’ She looked to Lydia, entreating. ‘I do not wish him to re-enter the house,’ she said again, louder, more panicked.
‘Then he will not,’ Lydia said promptly. ‘Why, there are two inns in Eagleton alone.’
‘Your valet will meet you there,’ Ashford said, nodding.
‘Let us be serious,’ Waldo said. ‘You cannot mean to banish me as if we are in some medieval play! Phoebe …’ He held out a hand toward her, his face soft and entreating. ‘Phoebe, you do not wish to do this.’
She was very pale and trembling like a leaf, something about his softness appearing far more threatening than his anger.
‘I – I do,’ she said. ‘I will.’
‘Phoebe …’ he said again, taking a step forward.
But then Ashford was in front of her, and so too were Pip and Reeves, and Elspeth raised her riding crop once more, and Lydia brandished her pin as a very small sword.
‘Go, Waldo,’ Phoebe instructed, firm now. ‘Go.’
Finally, Dacre took a purposeful step forward. ‘I should prefer not to stoop to such incivility as to strike you,’ he told him. ‘But I will, if I need to, Waldo.’
‘Brother!’ Waldo said, half in entreaty, half in accusation.
‘You have always been a bully.’ And if there was sadness in Dacre’s voice, there was no uncertainty. ‘No more.’
