Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 04]
Page 34
“If the wind truly sits in that quarter, her Uncle Leopold will have won a few more points over Cumberland. Albert is part of his family, after all.”
“I don’t much care who she marries, myself.” He was looking at her, his eyes narrowed, as if he would peer into her mind.
She said, “It is rude to stare like that, sir. I had a governess once who told me my eyes would fall out if I did that sort of thing.”
“I was wondering why you changed the subject a moment ago.”
“I don’t recall,” she said mendaciously, “but thinking of Victoria brings to mind the meeting I had with Papa’s solicitor when I first got to London in April. When I declared my intention to look after the Upper Brook Street house myself, he said it was unheard of for a young woman to take interest in matters of finance or property, and he believed Victoria needed a strong man to guide her. I wonder what he thinks of her now.”
“He certainly didn’t think much of your retaining the rights to your property when we drew up the marriage contracts,” Justin said with a reminiscent chuckle.
“I daresay he thought you as mad as he thinks Papa. He said he would not be surprised to learn, years from now, that I had left all my property to my daughters and ignored the claims of my poor sons. I daresay I shall, too, you know.”
“You may do as you please with what’s yours, my love. I will struggle to take care of our sons by myself.” A new, more gentle note had entered his voice.
Letty grimaced ruefully. “You’ve guessed, Justin! That’s not fair. I wanted to surprise you.”
“Then you should have told me straightaway.”
“Justin, I—”
She broke off when the door opened, and Jenifry entered.
The maid stopped short when she saw Justin. “Oh, dear, I beg your pardon, my lord. I thought you were in your—That is to say, sir, I didn’t stop to think anything, because that dratted monkey’s got into the kitchen again. Cook says monkeys in kitchens is something she won’t abide, and the little beast has got into the racks over her ovens and won’t come down to me, so I came to tell the mis—”
“Go away, Jenifry,” Justin said.
“Just a moment, Jen,” Letty said. “Perhaps if you ask Cook to find Jeremiah some nuts or fruit, the pair of you can coax him down.”
“I tried that, but—”
“You go and try again,” Justin recommended, “and don’t come back until her ladyship rings for you.”
With a glance at Letty and another at Justin, Jenifry said, “I’ll get Leyton to help us. We’ll get him.”
Justin said dryly, “I trust, my love, that she will not encourage Leyton to become as dictatorial as Morden’s chap was.”
“As if Jenifry encouraged that man, or that Leyton would ever—” Noting the deepening twinkle in her husband’s eyes, Letty broke off. “You! I don’t know what you deserve for teasing me so.”
“I deserve that you should finish what you began, sweetheart, but first I want to hear your news.”
“You know it. You already guessed.”
“I want to hear it from your own sweet lips, however. Are you quite sure?”
“Yes, quite. Dr. Morrisey came out yesterday from Cambridge, and he confirmed what Jenifry and I had already guessed. I wanted to be certain before I told you that we are going to have a daughter.”
“Good lord,” Justin exclaimed. “Can Morrisey tell as much as that? I had no … You wretch,” he added in quite a different tone, giving her a shake. “You dare to talk of what I deserve and then serve me such a trick!”
“Would it distress you so to have a daughter, my lord?”
“It would not, and you know it would not, so you need not poker up like that, little wife, or call me ‘my lord’ in such a haughty tone.”
She chuckled, snuggling down beside him. “Still, sir, you ought to have seen the look on your face.”
In response, he took her chin firmly in one hand and turned her face so that he could kiss her. As his warm lips touched hers, her body ignited, and soon they had both forgotten everything but each other. When or exactly how her nightdress ended up on the floor in an untidy heap, Letty could not have said, for her thoughts were all on Justin.
Letter from the Author
Dear Reader:
For those of you who wondered, Queen Victoria came to the throne in June of 1837 but was not crowned until June 29, 1838.
The Bedchamber Crisis, as the business over Victoria’s ladies came to be known, happened pretty much the way it is related in Dangerous Lady, and resulted in Lord Melbourne’s serving two more years as prime minister before the Tories took over. Because his majority was practically nonexistent, his authority was small, and little of note occurred in Parliament during those years. Victoria did eventually appoint a balanced number of Tory ladies, but only after the intervention of Prince Albert. She later blamed her behavior in the incident on her youth and inexperience, and agreed that a ruler should make every effort to appear nonpartisan.
Both Victoria and the Duchess of Kent made honest intentions to reconcile their differences. Progress was slow, however, and it was many years before they did so. In October 1839 Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha arrived in England. Victoria fell in love with him, and four months later she married him. It was he who did the most to bring the duchess back into favor.
Lady Flora Hastings died in July 1839 of the illness that had overtaken her.
For those of you wondering why Letty is a maid of honor rather than a lady-in-waiting, it is because the latter term is late nineteenth century (1862). A maid of honor was an unmarried lady, usually of noble birth, whose duty was to attend the queen. That term dates from 1586. The term lord-in-waiting the author took from the London Times of April 1839.
The rumor about Wellington’s assassination occurred on April 29, 1839, as described.
The Duke of Grosvenor still owns most of the land in Mayfair. The land is leased to the householders, and freehold properties are much more valuable than those that are not. It will not surprise anyone to learn that a very large part of the Grosvenor fortune derives from these leases.
The heroic achievements of Admiral Robert Rame are, in fact, those of Admiral Henry John Rous, of the Royal Navy. The author has drawn the admiral’s comments on handicapping from Law and Practice of Horse Racing (1850) by the Honorable Captain Rous, R.N., as cited in Newmarket: Its Sport and Personalities by Frank Siltzer (Charles Scribner, 1923). Admiral Rous was for many years the much respected senior steward of the Jockey Club. All other actions and comments of Admiral Rame derive solely from the author’s fertile imagination.
For those of you who are interested in learning more about the early Victorian period, the author recommends The Letters of Queen Victoria, A Selection from Her Majesty’s Correspondence Between the Years 1837 and 1861; Melbourne by Lord David Cecil; and The Young Victoria by Alison Plowden. More information on ladies-in-waiting (and maids of honor) can be found in Ladies in Waiting by Dulcie Ashdown, and Ladies in Waiting, From the Tudors to the Present Day by Anne Somerset.
If you enjoyed Dangerous Lady, I hope you will read Highland Spirits.
Sincerely,
About the Author
A fourth-generation Californian of Scottish descent, Amanda Scott is the author of more than fifty romantic novels, many of which appeared on the USA Today bestseller list. Her Scottish heritage and love of history (she received undergraduate and graduate degrees in history at Mills College and California State University, San Jose, respectively) inspired her to write historical fiction. Credited by Library Journal with starting the Scottish romance subgenre, Scott has also won acclaim for her sparkling Regency romances. She is the recipient of the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award (for Lord Abberley’s Nemesis, 1986) and the RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award. She lives in central California with her husband.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1999 by Lynne Scott-Drennan
cover design by Mimi Bark
978-1-4804-0645-2
This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media
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