Chapter One
How everything started
This incident took place at about two o’clock the morning of September 3, 1809. The location was the back parlor of a town house owned by the Duke of Buckingham but lived in by the Earl of Crosshaven on a ninety-nine-year lease, presently in its twenty-third year. It should be remarked that Lord Edward Marrack, the younger brother of the Marquess of Foye, was in attendance that night. Lord Edward had been something of a rake until his engagement to the daughter of a longtime family friend. The Earl of Crosshaven currently was a rake.
Lord Edward Marrack refused more wine when the bottle came around in his direction. Instead, he leaned against his chair while his friend the Earl of Crosshaven raised a hand—Cross was inevitably the center of attention—and said, with significant stress, the two words, “Sabine Godard.”
The other men in the room looked impressed. No one, including Lord Edward, doubted for a moment that Cross had indeed secured the person of Miss Sabine Godard.
Up to now, the young lady’s reputation had been unassailable. She was an orphan who had been raised by her uncle since she was quite young. They made their home in Oxford, the city of spires, Henry Godard having been a don there and a noted philosopher until his recent retirement from those hallowed walls. She and her uncle had come to London so that Godard could receive a knighthood in recognition of his intellectual contributions to king and empire.
They had not been long in London, the Godards, but Lord Edward recalled hearing Miss Godard was reckoned a pretty girl. Very pretty and quite unavailable. She was, if he had his facts in order, her uncle’s permanent caretaker, as was often the fate of children not raised by their parents. Her uncle was now Sir Henry Godard. By several large steps, quite a come up in the world for them both.
The unavailable Miss Godard had been pursued by Crosshaven. That, too, Lord Edward had heard. The Earl of Crosshaven was angelically, devilishly, beautiful. His manners were exquisite and his intellect absolutely first-rate. Lord Edward would not bother with a friendship if that were not the case. But Crosshaven, in Lord Edward’s opinion, was not as familiar with discretion as he might be. Something he was proving tonight.
Though Lord Edward liked Cross exceedingly, this boast of his was infamous. Ungentlemanly, in fact. That Cross had refilled his glass far too often in the course of the evening was no excuse for his revealing to anyone that he had seduced a young woman of decent family. And, one presumed, abandoned her to whatever fate her uncle might decide was fit for a girl who strayed from what was proper.
“How was she?” asked one of the other young bucks.
Cross kissed the tips of his fingers and arced his thus blessed hand toward the ceiling. That engendered several ribald comments, some having to do with Cross’s prowess in the bedroom and others having to do with Sabine Godard and what Crosshaven may or may not have taught her about sexual congress and how to fornicate with élan.
In Lord Edward’s opinion, Cross, though just short of thirty, and for all his lofty titles, had now proved he had a great deal to learn about honor and decency. This evening, which had begun as a pleasant interlude with men he liked, no longer seemed very pleasant.
“A seduction,” Lord Edward said to no one in particular, “when properly carried out, pleases both parties for the duration, while a break humiliates no one.”
“Who says I’ve broken with her?” Crosshaven asked.
“I do,” he replied. “And any fool with half a brain.”
Crosshaven shook his head sadly. “Is this what happens to a man when he falls in love? If I didn’t know better, I’d accuse you of not wanting to go to bed with a pretty young woman.” He winked. “Without benefit of marriage, I mean.” He gave Lord Edward a sloppy smile, then looked around the room with his glass held high in a mock toast. “To Sabine Godard.”
“Hear, hear,” said a few of the others. Most just took the opportunity to sample their wine.
Crosshaven took another drink of his hock, but he kept his eyes on Lord Edward as he did. He’d noticed Lord Edward hadn’t joined in the toast. “Don’t be such a bloody bore, Ned,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “You’re not married yet, old man.”
“True.” But in three months time he would be. God, he was weary of this, of nights like this spent drinking or whoring and living as if there weren’t something more to be had from life. He wasn’t married yet, but wished Rosaline was already his wife.
Lord Edward put down his glass and stood. He felt a giant. With reason. He towered over everyone in the room, standing or not. “Good evening, gentlemen, my lords.”
“What?” said Cross. He was a bit unsteady on his feet. “Are you leaving already, Ned? It’s early yet.”
Lord Edward could not bring himself to smile to soften his disapproval of his friend’s behavior. Nor could he remain silent. “I do not care to hear any lady’s character shredded for the sake of a man’s reputation.”
Cross focused on Lord Edward, registered the slight to his honor, and said, “She’s no better than she ought to be.”
“True,” Lord Edward said. “But the consequences of indiscretion always fall hardest on the woman. Tonight, you are lauded for your seduction of the girl, deemed ever more manly. Your reputation as a cocksman is firmly established.”
Crosshaven bowed amid a few catcalls. He straightened, grinning. Lord Edward was probably the only one in the room who wasn’t grinning back.
“What reason had you to prove that fact at the cost of her reputation? No one disputes your appeal to the fairer sex.” Lord Edward sighed. There was no point in lecturing Cross. No point at all “Tomorrow,” he said with regret soft in his voice, “Miss Godard will not find the world so pleasant a. place. That is a fate you ought to have avoided for the girl.”
“She’s still no better than she ought to be, Ned.” He pretended to sober up, but as a drunk would do. Sloppily. “I mean no disrespect, Lord Edward. But it’s true about the girl. No better than she ought to be.”
He acknowledged Cross with a nod, without smiling because he was disappointed in his friend. “Nor are you.”
As he walked out, Lord Edward thought it was a very great pity that Miss Godard was so thoroughly ruined. Beyond repair. Crosshaven’s boast of her would be everywhere by noon tomorrow. He did not know the girl person-ally but did not like to think of the disgrace that was soon to fall on her and her uncle. They would both be touched by Crosshaven’s indiscretion.
He thought it likely the newly knighted Sir Henry Godard would put her onto the street.