Chapter Forty-Four
WHEN BROOKE RETURNED TO the town house that afternoon, she soon heard about the extra horse his lordship had come home with. But it didn’t occur to her until she was resting in her room that Dominic’s coming home with a new horse could mean only one thing. He either already had a mistress, or he’d found one that quickly today, or maybe even last night after dinner. Either way, she guessed the horse was for her to seal their bargain. She ought to go have a look at it. If she could stop crying, maybe she would.
“It’s that bad, is it?”
“Freda!” Brooke leaped off the bed with a laugh. “You’re early.”
“I made sure of that. Gabriel didn’t like taking turns driving that big coach, but I was persuasive.”
“With a clobbering or . . . ?”
“ ‘Or’ worked.” The maid grinned.
They had a lot to catch up on . . . well, Brooke did. Alfreda’s trip to London was apparently quite uneventful and summed up in just a few words about the unpleasantness of trying to sleep in a moving coach. Brooke’s trip was too eventful, but she glossed over most of it and couldn’t manage to mention the early wedding night she’d had before arriving in London. She would, just maybe after the wedding, when it wouldn’t be so embarrassing and earn her a scolding.
But she did mention her run-in with Robert and Dominic’s exasperating behavior, ending with “He spent last night with some other woman.”
“Did he? But he’s not married yet and you haven’t made him love you yet.”
“Are you really trying to tell me what happens before the wedding doesn’t count?”
“When the wedding wasn’t his idea, when he never proposed? Yes, I am indeed. Now if it happens after the wedding, there’s an herb I’ve never stocked that is reputed to render a man incapable of performing in bed. I’ll see if I can find some here in London. I’ve always wanted to test it on someone to see if it’s true. I’ve just never met a man I dislike enough to try it on.”
“Permanently incapable?”
“No, of course not.” Alfreda winked. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
It took a moment for Brooke to realize that Alfreda was just trying to lighten her mood with nonsense. That statement that Dominic’s unfaithfulness shouldn’t count before the wedding was reasonable, though, particularly since the bargain was her idea.
She helped Alfreda to unpack the trunks when they were brought in. But another soft knock came at her door almost as soon as the footmen filed out. She certainly wasn’t expecting to see Dominic standing in the corridor. He was dressed to go out, or maybe he was just returning? She immediately thought of the woman her suspicions imagined he’d been with last night—and again today? Maybe she should have asked for a horse per copulation, she thought with a mental growl.
He handed her a folded card. “I’ve accepted one of my mother’s invitations that included me. Most of her friends expect me to be in town at this time of year. Be ready by eight tonight. Oh, and dress accordingly. It’s a ball we’ll be attending.”
Brooke immediately stopped thinking about him and other women. “A party when your mother is so sick?”
“She’s improving. Go see for yourself. And it was her suggestion.”
“Do you even dance?”
“With four legs I might be a bit clumsy, but”—he glanced down at his legs—“ah, just two today.”
She grinned at his teasing. “I didn’t mean to imply that.”
“Just that I’m a Yorkshire clod who was never taught?”
She rolled her eyes and teased back, “Yes, that.”
“Well, in any case, we have a purpose in going, to show the Prince how famously we’re getting along.”
“He’s going to be there?”
“He might. He’s been known to favor Lady Hewitt’s parties with an appearance. They are old friends. So no fighting tonight, Babble.”
He walked away. She barely even noticed, the excitement of her first ball already starting to fill her. She turned to tell Alfreda, “Unpack—”
“I heard. I thought you said his mother was ill enough to warrant your rushing to London with him.”
“She was, but your recipes appear to be helping. I haven’t been back to see for myself. My presence quite upset her, so I’ve stayed away. She didn’t like me a’tall.”
“I hated the woman who might have been my mother-in-law. My mother hated hers. You don’t need to follow suit. She’ll be the grandmother of your children. Make an effort to like her for their sake.”
Brooke hadn’t considered that. Harriet would be their grandmother, too, whom they would hopefully rarely see. So it would be nice if they had at least one grandmother to love and dote on them. She nodded and went straight to Anna’s room.
The lady wasn’t sleeping this time. As Brooke approached the bed, she saw that Anna was no longer quite as pale, and even her lips were smooth again. Her eyes were fully open and alert now, too. Maybe the doctor had misdiagnosed her. The woman definitely didn’t look as if she was dying now.
“I was wondering if you would visit your patient again.”
Was that a slight smile? “I didn’t think you wanted me to, madam.”
“I admit I don’t make a good patient. I do apologize for that.” That was a nice way to put those horrid circumstances. But Anna wasn’t going to just ignore it, either. “I hadn’t realized how preposterous the threat was, hanging over our heads, yours included. That the Regent would take everything we own, the title, the houses, the coal mines, Dom’s ships. He would leave us paupers, giving us no choice in the matter.”
“I believe he saw this as an opportunity for himself. For that to backfire on him, he would need to think he’s done us a favor instead.”
Anna grinned. “I like the way you think, girl. The same thing occurred to me. Indeed, that would stick in his craw, wouldn’t it?”
Brooke blushed only slightly when she admitted, “I can’t take credit for it. It’s your son’s idea for us to put on a good performance tonight at the ball he’s taking me to, if the Prince is there, to give the impression we are pleased with the match.”
Anna cleared her throat. “I’m not going to pussyfoot around the subject, m’dear. I’m sure you know that Dom did hope you would refuse him. He can unfortunately be excessively blunt. But you haven’t run home. So be it. I accept that neither of you really has a choice in this. So we must make the best of it, all of us.”
A kernel of doubt was in Brooke’s mind that those words were sincere, until Anna added, “And—and thank you for healing his leg and me. I realize you didn’t have to do either, but you’ve helped us anyway. You have a good heart, Brooke Whitworth. Amazing, considering the stock you come from.”
Brooke laughed, couldn’t help it. A compliment and a backhanded slur. But considering her own feelings weren’t far off the same mark, she said, “We don’t get to choose our stock, more’s the pity.”
“I just want my boy to be happy. D’you think you can do that?”
“If he’ll stop blaming me for the sins of others, yes, I do think that’s possible.”
“Then as Dominic said, the burden is on him.”