Shall We Dance? (7 page)

“I believe fussing will bring no improvement, Rosetta, thank you. Please return to the queen, who may need you, and I'll finish dressing myself,” Amelia said as she got to her feet. After all, it wasn't as if she had anything more pressing to do, isolated as they were here at Hammersmith.

 

“C
LIVE
,
FAR BE IT
from me to spoil your fun, as nobody admires a spoilsport, I'm told. But I do believe you're courting trouble there. In other words, it might be best if you stopped flapping your arms like some flightless bird and sat down. This miserable boat rocks enough as it is, without your enthusiastic assistance.”

“Love the sea, I do, M'Lord,” Clive Rambert said, chancing a look over his shoulder at the Earl of Brentwood, the man he considered to be his real new employer. “Went by ship ta the Peninsula, and back again. Always on the lookout for one of those mermaids.
My mate, Sergeant Raymond, he see'd one the onc't. Masses of purty blond hair, and nary a stitch on her, neither.”

“And you believe this,” Perry Shepherd said, yawning into his hand. “How very droll. However, I had thought better of you than that, my friend.”

Clive sat down abruptly in the front end of the small boat Perry had rented for the trip across the Thames. “He lied ta me, sir?”

“I'm only hazarding a guess, Clive, but yes, I think Sergeant Raymond might have been tugging on your ankle with that one.”

“Well, blast me for a Johnny Raw. Spent weeks peekin' over the side of the ship, looking for one of them mermaids.” Then he brightened slightly. “Are you sure, M'Lord? Maybe they all left the ocean, and swum themselves up here more? Lovely place, the Thames. Could be dozens of them out there, not just the one I was hopin' for. I'd swim here, iffen I could swim.”

Perry stuck a cheroot between his teeth and put a light to it. “Then I doubly implore you to remain seated. Because, if you harbor any niggling thought that I might leap into the water after you to effect a rescue, you'd be quite disappointed as you sank to the bottom. Now, straighten your jacket, man. We'll be there soon enough, once we're through this press of boats.”

Clive looked down at his new jacket. He was proud of it, he really was, but he wasn't certain if the earl thought it looked well on him, or was simply amusing himself at Clive's expense.

The jacket was blue, very dark blue, and with two rows of brass buttons lining the front. There were pretty golden braids on the shoulders, some of the fringe actually hanging over the ends of those shoulders, to drip down his arms.

And the hat. The hat was something very special, that was for sure. One of those high-domed contraptions with wings on each side, and more gold braid. Almost exactly what the captain wore on the ship that had brought him back from the Peninsula.

“Are yer sure, M'Lord, that I can be wearin' this? I look like a bloody admiral.”

“Please, Clive, let's not insult officers of the Royal Navy with such comparisons. It's as I told you—the newest thing, all the crack. Why, I saw three very important hostesses in the Park yesterday, in much the same outfit. Long skirts, mind you, and not Wellington trousers, but still, much of the same style.”

Clive's beady eyes all but bugged out of his ferret face. “Wimmen? I looks like wimmen? Here, now, that's not nice. Sir Willard warned me about yer, that yer're always on the look-see for a lark, but that's just not nice, to be usin' me for a giggle, M'Lord.”

“You've never wished to captain a ship, Sergeant? I most distinctly remember, back in that most amusing shop we found, you telling me that perhaps you'd made a mistake, not going to sea, as you greatly admired the uniforms.”

“Yeah…that's right enough. But wimmen? I'll not be wearin' this again, M'Lord.”

“Dear me, man, of course you won't. One should never repeat oneself, once one has made one's first impression.”

“Who's one? You talkin' about me again, M'Lord?”

“Never mind, Clive,” Perry said, taking another puff on his cheroot. “Go back to playing captain of the seas, if it pleases you. We'll be docking shortly, and I'll be damned glad to be off this leaky tub.”

As the leaky tub was actually a wide, flat-bottomed contraption boasting not only four heavily muscled oarsmen but a white silk canopy (fringed) that provided shade for His Lordship, who had been sipping wine from a real crystal goblet and munching on grapes from a large basket of assorted fruit, Clive only rolled his eyes and muttered, “Officers. Bloody soft, all of them. Took umbrellas into battle with them, they did. Twits.”

“What was that, Clive?” Perry asked, barely able to stifle a chuckle.

“Nothing, M'Lord. Just thinkin' about this lady what yer're goin' ta see. Goin' ta impress her all hollow with this here boat.”

“Yes, the boat. Heaven knows she won't be in the least taken with me. How you cheer me, Clive.”

The runner hid a grin. “About time,” he told himself, and snuck another look over the side, because Sergeant Raymond still could have been speaking the truth.

 

“I
F WE'RE STILL SPEAKING
with the gloves off…Nate…I think I should—”

“That's it, Georgie.
Nate.
Use it until my name spills
right off your tongue. We wouldn't wish to stumble at the first gate, now would we?”

“If you'd stop interrupting? I was making a confession here,” Georgiana said, pushing her spectacles back up onto the bridge of her nose.

“Good grief. I'm courting a sharp-tongued miss, aren't I?”

Georgiana bit on the inside of her cheek for a moment as she stared at him, then asked, “Finished?”

“Done for, I think would be the proper term,” Nathaniel said, bowing to her.

“Good. Now, what I told the footman? That I'd sent round a note and Amelia knows I'm coming here today? That, um, that wasn't quite truthful. I said it first to my mother, and it seemed like a good thing to say to a mother to placate her, but when Amelia sees me you'll know I was, um, as I said, stretching the truth a little.”

“Stretching the truth? I think that would be more in the way of a lie. And a whacking great one, at that. Tell me, is she going to toss us both out on our ears?”

“No, no, of course not. We're the best of good friends, even if we haven't seen each other in years.”

Nate tipped his head and looked at her with blatantly teasing scrutiny. “Anything else, Georgie?”

“Yes. Don't call me Georgie. I hate it.”

“Well, that puts me in my place. So sorry, Georgiana.”

“That's much better, thank you.” Georgiana struggled for something else to say, wondering what was keeping
Amelia. They'd been waiting a good quarter hour now, and no one had so much as brought in a tea tray.

“And you'll allow me to send your carriage home while you accompany me to meet my aunt Rowena?”

“I said I would, didn't I?” Georgiana snapped, then immediately apologized. “I'm…I'm not very good at all of this, you know. They only just opened my cage and set me free from the country a month ago.”

“Keep you locked up, do they? Somehow that doesn't boggle my mind as much as it probably ought.”

“Oh, shut up,” Georgiana said, very much at home with this strange man, which probably only proved that she was not fit for Polite Society. The man had a title, for goodness sake! “No, don't do that. Tell me again how very respected your family is, and how my stepfather will be throwing himself at your shoetops in gratitude that you've deigned to look my way.”

“Pleases you, that part, doesn't it? I'd noticed that. In fact, if it weren't for knowing that this whole sham was my idea, I'd think it was yours.”

Georgiana smiled. “Could we just call it serendipity?”

“Among other things, yes,” Nate said, abandoning his position at the fireplace, to sit beside her on the couch. “Georgie—Georgiana,” he said, taking her hand in both of his, “I think we're going to be very good friends.”

Georgiana pulled her hand free, and sniffed at him—yes, sniffed—for she was above all things a practical young woman. “Careful, Nate, or else Mr. Bateman will be posting the banns. You have a mission, remember? To save the queen?”

“Wrong. To save my own skin. The queen's in no real danger. Even our king isn't that harebrained. You'll understand more when we leave here and travel to my family home.”

“I thought you said we were going to visit your aunt Rowena.”

“Yes, I did. She lives with her sister—my mother—and my poor, beleaguered father. He's the one who is going to be kissing your shoetops when he learns that you are to be my entry to this establishment. Anything to placate my aunt and, most important, silence her.”

“Then we'll return to Mr. Bateman's house, and you'll meet my mother and Mr. Bateman? You did promise, remember?”

“Lies upon lies. I remember. I'm not precisely sure why I'm feeling so jolly about all these lies, but I am. Do you need those spectacles, Georgiana?”

The question surprised her. “No, of course not. I only wear them when I want to look bookish, and a horrid bluestocking into the bargain. And when I want to see what I'm looking at,” she told him, leaning back slightly against the cushions on the suddenly small sofa. “Why? Mama says I'm lucky to get a third or fourth son, because of the spectacles. And the very slight dowry my late father arranged for me. Are they that awful?”

“Not as terrible as leaving them on your dressing table for vanity's sake, then finding yourself talking up a potted palm at some party, no,” Nate said. “But I do believe we could seek out something not half so horri
ble. That is, more becoming to your face. Spectacles that at least fit.”

“They're just heavy.” Georgiana slammed the offending spectacles back up on her nose. “Don't all spectacles slip like this?”

“No. They don't. I'm surprised you don't knock yourself senseless at least a dozen times a day, poking at them like that. And the lenses aren't all as big around as moons. I am no expert, but I believe you're wearing gentlemen's spectacles.”

“They were my father's, yes, and my mother said they were more than good enough,” Georgiana admitted. “But different lenses were fitted for them.”

“And in fifty years, you might just grow into them. In the meantime, we can search out better ones tomorrow, before I take you driving in the Park at five for the Promenade, all right?”

Georgiana chewed on this for a moment, mentally cataloging her woefully inadequate wardrobe. “The Park? In public? I thought this was only for Amelia. And Aunt Rowena. And my mother and Mr. Bateman, so they'll let me out of the house and you can play at saving the queen. But I thought that was all.”

“Really. The question that immediately springs to mind, Georgiana, is who are you ashamed of? Yourself. Or, more reasonably, of me? My mama, for one, would understand that.”

She stood up so quickly she banged a knee against the table and had to bite back a rather unladylike word. Country life and little supervision had done consider
able damage to what were supposed to be her fragile female ways. “Now you're making fun of me, and I must warn you, sir, that I am more than capable of giving back as good as I get.”

He also got to his feet. “Yes, I'd already noticed that. Dare I say you fair fascinate me?”

Georgiana looked at him, at his slightly unruly black hair, his laughing blue eyes, his altogether handsome face and figure. “Of course I do. I daresay I fascinate men every day,” she said dryly, believing not a single word that came out of his mouth, then looked toward the doorway. “What on earth could be keeping Amelia? Do you think anyone told her I'm here? I vow, this is the strangest household.”

 

B
ERNARD
N
ESTOR
made his way to the servants' entrance of the establishment in Hammersmith and knocked loudly on the door.

He'd been up and about very early, and had been hidden behind some shrubbery since seven, in ample time to watch the departure of what he was convinced were the butler, two footmen, and one hatchet-faced woman, all of them carrying their belongings in various portmanteaus and tied-up sheets. The woman most definitely had at least one tall candlestick shoved up under her apron.

The one he'd decided had to be an upper servant, if not the butler, secured himself a hack within a half mile. So he'd followed the others on foot, all the way to the nearest pub, and sat himself down behind them to listen to their conversation.

Good, thoroughly stupid English citizens, the trio of them, all of them appalled by the charges brought against their queen. And all of them finding her guilty because it suited their judgmental spleens, with no need to hear a single fact when supposition was so juicy, and unwilling to spend another night beneath the roof of such a disgraceful woman.

And he'd been right. The fourth person had been the butler, who had already promised to assist them in gaining new employment in a more Christian, God-fearing household.

So the queen needed a new butler, did she? Well, it had been about time Bernard Nestor's luck had changed for the better! And it wasn't as if he wouldn't know how to go on. He had lived in his father's house, hadn't he? He'd survived in that small office behind Brougham's butler's suite of rooms—
rooms
for a butler, with only a single, near-hole-in-the-wall for his most devoted assistant. Yes, he knew how to go on, and that knowledge, plus that niggling problem with the workings of his brain box, gave him untold courage, if not a chin.

Now he knocked again when no one answered, imperiously this time, and when the door finally opened, he stepped inside, declaring, “This is unpardonable. Never before have I been kept waiting! Who are you, woman? A name! Give me a name! Mrs. Fitzhugh? Housekeeper, I'll assume, for your sins. I tell you, now that I am butler here anyone who doesn't know how to behave will be shown the door, do you understand me?
Even you, Mrs. Fitzhugh. Already the queen has been left unattended too long, which is highly upsetting to Miss Fredericks, you know. Well? Cat got your tongue? Show me to my quarters, search out the attics for suitable clothing I'm sure is kept there for upper staff, as my baggage has been stolen by a pair of ruffians on the dock. Oh, and you may call me Mr. Nestor.”