by Jenni James
Even though there was a slight hollowness in her chest at refusing him, she did not have any regrets. They could not become on too easy of terms, or this could grow confusing for them both. No, it was best that they keep a moderate distance. And with the puppies being here, it would seem they would be close enough as it was.
By the time the canines were bathed and cuddled into their new warm bed by the kitchen fire, it was way too late for Lacey to pick up the furniture she had been eagerly awaiting that morning. Which was probably for the best, since it was looking to be a long night nursing the adorable multi-colored babies and their cinnamon-and white-colored mother back to health.
At half past midnight, she began to make her way up to bed, first stopping into the library to check on the day’s mail. Lacey was shocked to find several of the ton’s invitations out into society upon the small silver plate on the table. “Pantersby,” she called before she realized he was most likely preparing the house for the night.
“What is it, my lady?” he asked a bit breathlessly.
“Good heavens. Forgive me—I did not mean to make you run all the way here in this state to hear me whine about a few invitations.”
“What is amiss?” he asked, not willing to admit to being disturbed.
She held up the plate. “I am at a loss as to explain why this server is so full.”
“It would seem the elite desire to see you and Lord Compton make lovesick fools of each other.” He grinned and cleared his throat. “In my opinion, I feel it is about time you are included in their inanity.”
“But you know I despise these things.” She pulled out four or five of the thick vellum requests. “It is preposterous to expect me to come.”
“Then do not go, my lady. Simply cry off from them all and send your regrets.”
“It is excessively tempting to do just that. You have no idea.”
“I fear I do.” He walked into the room and gathered a few of the ones she had not touched. “Though, perhaps you can pick and choose which hostess you are willing to give the pleasure of your company. There are at least three here I would be loath to reject on your behalf.”
“And why is that?”
“Because these are the wives of the lords who sit in Parliament, and Lord Stanthorpe is the Speaker of the House, my lady.”
“Oh!” Her eyes went wide. “And will their husbands be there as well?”
“Depending on what the request is for, but at any dinner or ball, you can be certain to see them.”
Lacey took the offered invitations and swiftly opened them.
“I am not certain I have the wardrobe for this type of existence,” she fretted.
“Then perhaps it is time to update it.”
Lacey groaned. “Why is this world so demanding? Why can I not simply walk anywhere just as I am?”
One of Pantersby’s large gray eyebrows rose with a look of disdain upon his features.
She laughed and tossed an invite toward his head.
He easily caught it and then placed it on the table. “Think about it. Do not answer back quite yet. And you might as well wait and see what tomorrow brings before you decide.”
“Do you think there will be additional invites?” She could not fathom more. As it was, she had received more in one day than she would have in three years.
“Of course there will be others. You, my lady, have become the ton’s most sought-after guest.”
“I will become the ton’s most sought-after fool. Thunderation! And I presume I will have to behave like a lady as well,” she moaned. “How is one supposed to recollect so many rules of etiquette?”
* * *
Lord Compton’s nightly routine did not fare as stimulating as Lady Lamb’s. In point, after his valet, Johnson, had tut-tutted over the disgraceful state of his clothing, Compton slipped into a dressing gown and endeavored to be a bit more cordial to his butler when Terrell came to see that all was well for nightfall.
“Terrell, stop for a bit and speak with me.” Compton gestured toward the matching chairs in his bedroom and sat down on one himself.
“My Lord?” Terrell asked. “Have I done something to offend you?”
“No, no. Come and sit. I merely meant to ask for some advice.”
“Advice, my lord?”
“Yes. Take up a chair and converse with me.”
“I would much prefer to stand. I cannot fathom sitting next to you, my lord.”
“Come now. I insist! Am I as daunting as all that?”
“Not precisely, though I am uncertain as to why you are insisting. Are you confident I have done not a thing to trouble you?”
“No. It is about Lady Ice.” He gave up attempting to have the butler sit. Apparently, some rules are hard to break between the gentry and the serving class. “I have offered to take her to Hyde Park the exact way she said she would love to go, and yet, she refused me.”
Terrell fidgeted, but was obviously curious. “What do you mean, ‘exact way’?”
“It would seem Lady Lamb does not prefer to be seen riding about in a curricle so that all of London may gossip about her.” Compton stared at his butler, waiting for the man to say something.
He started and then cleared his throat. “Well, that seems like a right smart lady to me.”
“To me as well. I even told her so. She then said she would much rather go traipsing through the park and not merely riding. How going off the beaten path would be much more diverting than scads of people offering pleasantries to each other.”
Terrell looked at him expectantly, almost waiting to see if he could speak. Compton grinned. “Out with it, then.”
“So you requested her to go explore the park with you as an alternative, and she still said no?”
“Precisely. Why do you think that was? She said she was not prepared to be seen with me yet, but I cannot gather if that is really the case.”
“My lord, if you had been mocked and wagered against and then had your quiet life completely upheaved by the very person who was attempting to harm your reputation most, would you then wish to be near his company so much? Or even so intimately as to do something you found utterly enjoyable? Would you not rather spend pleasurable moments with those you truly respected and esteemed than with the enemy?”
Compton sat for a full minute and did merely blink as he took in the man’s words.
Clearly fearing he had overstepped his bounds, Terrell bowed and said, “Forgive me. I will attend to my duties now, my lord, and I assure you to never speak about such things again.”
Compton shook his head and glanced up. “No. I thank you for your honesty. Something may be hard to hear, but that does not mean it is not meant to be heard. Again, I thank you. You are a good man, Terrell. Nay, you are a respected friend, for you have expressed to me the truth.”
CHAPTER EIGHT:
Pantersby proved to be correct. Lacey received several more invitations the following day, and then by time the week was over, the vellum missives nearly tripled. “For heaven’s sake, do you think they will continue to plague me? How is one to attend so many events?” she asked Pantersby as she combed through them whilst perched on the large chair in the library.
“One does not,” he answered haughtily as he approached with the afternoon tea.
Lacey smiled in relief. “Do I have to answer each one? Oh, then I can easily toss them all and be on my way.”
“If you wish.” He poured the tea and set it down with a saucer on the fine table near her elbow. “Though, perhaps it would not be the best notion to completely shun all of the hostesses. And do not overlook the fact that there are a few you will wish to attend.”
“Oh, yes. I had forgotten about the political families. Please, will you place two sandwiches on my plate this time? I find I am quite famished after repositioning the furniture about in my new study, though I am not certain when I will be able to enjoy it. The wallpaper smells rather dreadful.”
Pantersby placed the sandwiches o
n a pretty plate on the table and added a bowl of fruit and another with Cook’s perfected sweet biscuits. “Do you need help deciding which invitations you should accept?”
“Is it wrong that I know the names of all the men, yet have never thought to learn their wives or their houses to identify an event they are hosting?” She flipped another missive upon the table.
“Well, it does prove to be a bit of a hindrance.” Pantersby grinned beneath his frown.
“I see that smile you are attempting to hide. I know what you are thinking there.”
“Oh, do you? And I was not attempting to hide anything. Merely feeling a bit pleased that this moment has come back around again.”
“What do you mean?” she asked and then pointed to the chair. “No one is around. Sit down and chat with me for a little while.”
He shook his head. “I have many duties to attend to still.”
Apprehensively, she glanced up at him. “Are you overworked? Do you need respite? You are welcome to add more to the staff if you require.”
“Separately from the three we have already employed the last two days? You and your requirement to hire every imp and urchin we come across.”
She could not help herself. “Pantersby, you know very well I could not leave those two young lads to starve out on the street. They were penniless beggars. Their own father had deposited them in the center of London and told them to get on with life and to find work.” Her stomach churned at the thought of the mere eight- and ten-year-old boys struggling to make sense of what had happened to them without a thing to their name except the garments on their backs.
Lacey set her teacup on the tabletop and slumped into the chair. “This is an additional cause for why I cannot abide London. One can hide in the country well enough and enjoy the simplicity of life and go about caring for your neighbors and the parish without ever truly knowing the cruelties that await here.”
She shuddered and brought her arms in close. “How many children have been treated to the same? It cost me fiddlesticks to bring those boys into the home and set them to working in the stables.”
“Aye.” Pantersby nodded. “They now have beds, uniforms, prestige, and pocket money.”
“They have food and a place that will always be a refuge for them.” Lacey took a deep breath. “England must change her ways. There must be hope for the very deprived, or more and more children will be discarded in the heart of her and left for whoever wants them most.” Panic started to swell in her chest. “I cannot take the thought, Pantersby. I cannot even fathom such a horror.” The image of the boys’ frightened looks as they shared their story with her flooded her memory. For two days, they assumed their father would return. By the third day, they had begun to wander. When she had seen their huddled forms against the stone fence and required her driver to stop, the boys were quite lost from wandering and terribly cold from the rain and damp earth they had been sleeping on.
Her heart could not comprehend such cruelties. “I knew I was loved,” she blurted out passionately as her voice trembled. “It makes me want to go out on the street corners and guard them all.”
“You are a good lady. A grand one with an enormous heart, and you will always be thought of amongst the servants as the most generous of all the nobility.”
She shook her head. “It is not enough. It is not.”
Pantersby finally sat down in the chair near hers and reached over and touched her arm. “Do you recall the lessons I taught you all those years ago?”
“Yes.” She sniffled and blinked away her impulsive emotions. “You were the best of tutors. You did not stop like the others had. You continued to teach me more and more and more.”
He chuckled and nodded slowly. “You were unlike any pupil I had ever had. Such an earnest need for knowledge. Do you ever marvel why I was so eager to answer your advertisement in the papers?”
“Because you had become mad?” She grinned to take the sting out of her reply. “Pantersby, I worry. I did not want to hire you as my butler, but—”
“I was insistent. I had retired and found little purpose in my life and was bored to tears until I read the papers and found you were looking for help. It was the solution—the natural transformation I was searching for.”
“And now? Do you regret being my servant? You know my qualms and quibbles and all those irksome notions I have. Do you ever wish you could toss it all and leave and never glance back?”
“Every single day I have known you, similar thoughts have crossed my mind.” He threw his head back and laughed. “No, Lady Lamb, I am teasing you. There have been only a few days when I have been frustrated, and those seem to be the days when I am reminded once again how kind your heart is and what a remarkable lady you have turned out to be, and all at once, I find I am your champion.”
She picked at her plain brown muslin gown. “Occasionally, when I was young, I would envision you to be the father I was never acquainted with.”
“Your father loved you. He did not understand you, and was often away, but he loved you still.”
She sighed. “My father was more involved with politics than nurturing a family. ’Tis why I could never have children of my own.”
“I would not say never.” One eyebrow of his quirked. “Lord Compton displayed a very fine worth when he brought the puppies back with him.”
“And whatever in the world do you mean by that?”
“I suppose we will have to see.”
“Pantersby…”
“Yes?”
“You will not tell me, will you?”
“Tell you what?” His eyes twinkled as they were wont to do when she was little.
She would never win this squabble in a thousand years. “Oh, I give up. How are the puppies adjusting? I have not been down to see them since this morning. Is Mama still doing well?”
“Like a champ, she is. Got up on all fours earlier this afternoon. The cook’s girls were squealing with excitement and nearly shouted the place down with their shrieks.”
“Good. I am glad. They need affection, the poor dogs. And those girls are completely perfect for the task.”
“Aye, the poor pups have been through sufficient trials as it is.”
Lacey smiled and then replied, “The girls as well. So happy those two have flourished as they have, and that Cook has positively come alive since joining us. Having the responsibility of animals in the home must undoubtedly create memories every family should have.”
Turning in his seat, the aging man beamed. “I think you are correct.”
“How are their studies going? Will you forgive me for adding the boys to your load now?”
She took a bite of one of the sandwiches and passed the other sandwich over. Hang convention—she could never quite resign herself to eating in front of those around her. Pantersby did not dispute the sandwich, surprisingly. He knew it would do no good. “You know it is something I enjoy immensely. The children are doing very well. I will see how we get on with the boys this weekend. I teach my first class with them on Saturday.”
“Thank you.” She ate another bite and then pointed at him. “Even though we are still at odds over you not accepting more compensation for your little school, I thank you anyway.”
He cleared his throat and expertly brought forth another subject. “Let us discuss Lord Compton again.”
“Whatever for? I feel I cannot trust Lord Compton at all. His motives are still singular to his own prize money, and I have never truly felt comfortable amongst the beau monde. You know this. You know how hard it is to be amid such people and feel so very alone. Why would I wish to form a union, or even friendship, with a man who only knows such prestige? We are absolutely opposites from one another, he and I. And I believe it is best to keep it that way.”
CHAPTER NINE:
That particular lord was at that precise moment debating whether to see the lovely Lady Lamb again, or go to with Terrell to replace his soiled coat. He was currently wearing his green
superfine, which was a mite bit better than the gray or navy coats he owned, but still too fine to be worn about town, unless one wanted to be seen. And when did he become so preoccupied with coats, anyhow? Johnson passed over the cravat, and Compton expertly knotted it into a flawless waterfall and then considered himself in the looking glass.
Much too fine for the likes of Lady Lamb’s residence. I will most likely find myself in another dirtied muddle with those puppies.
At that moment, Terrell rapped upon the door, and Johnson let the man in. “I have another round of invites, my lord. Where do you wish me to put them?” He looked to have at least twenty or thirty.
He turned from the mirror in horror. “Has the ton gone mad? What is the meaning of this? Do they honestly believe either I or Lady Lamb will attend a fraction of these? I take it the table is overflowing so you thought to bring them up to me?”
Terrell nodded. “Yes, my lord. It is a very small table, and there are simply too many of them to fit upon it.”
“Well then, stuff the whole lot into a pouch of some sort and I will take them to Green Street and solve this with Lady Lamb.”
“My lord?”
“Yes? Ought she not to be the one to decide what to do with these copious amounts of invites?” He grinned, suddenly eager to see her again. “I am convinced she finds herself in a similar predicament. This is absurd. Why should I be the only one to be plagued with this nonsense when we are evidently both responsible?”
Terrell cleared his throat as if condescendingly. “Very good, my lord. I will collect them all for you.” He bowed and then left with the letters.
“Johnson, does Terrell think I am out of my wits?”
His valet went to collect his Hessians and helped place them on each foot. “Why would you say such a thing?”
Compton took a deep breath. “I cannot quite understand it myself, only that since being in the presence of Lady Ice, I now have become much more conscious of the relationship I have with my staff. I am beginning to care what they think, and it feels … different.”
