Lord Sidley's Last Season (8 page)

“Why, Vaughn?” Sidley asked, struggling to sit up.
“Did you not wish to quit the place?”

Benny laughed, but Vaughn looked like thunder. “You
must drop the game with me, Lee. I would have left
Knox on my own terms, without your interference.”

“That is no doubt the case, my friend. But as I stand
your second, I deem it my duty to make certain that your
`terms,’ as you call them, are not aired. I shall make every
effort to prevent a confrontation.”

“I would not have challenged Knox.”

“Perhaps not. But I fear he comes too close to challenging you. And I have a marginal preference for keeping you whole. In any event,” he added, attempting to
right his cravat by touch, “the Formsbys’ insipid do grew
tiresome. It was time to leave.”

Benny beamed. “Shall we go on to Boodle’s, then,
Sidley? You said if we stopped in at Formsby’s-”

“Unfortunately, Benny, that plan was previous to my
collapse before half the ton. Credibility-a precious commodity, my young friend-requires that we retire to Sidley House for the nonce. But by tomorrow I shall have
made a miraculous recovery.”

“A veritable Lazarus,” Vaughn muttered. Even in the
limited glow of the carriage lights, Sidley could see how
grim he still looked.

“I will call ‘round at the Formsbys’ tomorrow and
make my apologies, Vaughn.”

“You should be making your farewells.”

Sidley shrugged. “Certainly I can no longer entertain
the notion of offering for Lady Katherine. I cannot wed
a woman who shrieks so.”

“Perhaps she mustn’t suffer a husband who swoons
so”

As Benny laughed again, Vaughn continued to hold
Sidley’s amused gaze. “It is not Lady Katherine you
must bid adieu, as you well know, Lee. You’re too much
the gentleman to sport with Miss Ware. You are far
from insensible. You heard her tonight.”

“Yes,” Sidley said. “She’s very kind-”

“‘Kind’? Don’t play with her, Sidley. Let her spend
her sympathies on her lieutenant. No doubt they make a
charming couple. Be wise enough to take your own advice, else I shall ignore it as well”

“Fair enough, Vaughn.” Sidley sighed. “But the girl is
invited to Aldersham. What would you have me do about
that?”

Vaughn shot him a dark look and shook his head.
“Do not go to Aldersham,” he suggested.

“We could run on down to Brighton instead!” Benny
urged. “Tip Newell and Percy Rutherford went down
last week, along with-”

“We are promised to my aunt,” Sidley reminded them.
“Aldersham it is. I believe I can be dismissive enough to
Miss Ware in my own home, with a dozen others about”

“Or private enough,” Vaughn suggested.

“I promise you, Vaughn, after tomorrow’s call, Miss
Ware shall have such an aversion to me, she shan’t wish
to remain within thirty paces.”

The next day they were so dutifully early to pay a
call upon the Formsby household that the ladies were
not yet available to receive them. Sidley had taken
special care with his toilette, being most particular to
discard some of his habitual powder, thus improving
his outward appearance of health. Intending to abide by
his promise to Vaughn, he had also taken care to dress
elaborately enough to raise Miss Ware’s disapproving
eyebrows-though, as he remembered, she had rather
nice eyebrows, and he saw no reason to mimic the impudent coxcombs he found so trying.

They were shown into a small front parlor, one obviously rarely used for company, as the ladies’ sewing baskets were neatly arrayed to one side of a cold hearth. The
gentlemen could hear the preparations for visitors in the
drawing room across the hall; undoubtedly the clearing
up from the previous night’s ball required that callers
be diverted temporarily from any lingering evidence of
revelry.

“They might at least have lit the fire,” Benny grumbled.

“We are rather early, Benny,” Sidley told him affably, ..and it is not cold” His gaze had settled on a pair of
painted landscapes above the room’s fine spinet. He
walked over to take a closer look. The neat signature
M. Ware did not surprise him.

“They are good,” Vaughn commented at his side.
“She paints like a man.”

“She paints better than a man, Vaughn. She paints with
the best” Again he concentrated on the perfect watercolors. “These are exquisite.”

He heard Vaughn’s sigh and turned to him with a
quizzical brow. “What is the problem?”

“You, Sidley. You are the problem. Tell me that you
have not just abandoned your good intentions.” When
Sidley stayed silent, Vaughn charged, “You are supposed
to be dying. You might act it.”

“Vaughn!” He watched Vaughn walk to a corner across
the room, where another painting commanded attention.
Sidley wished for better light in which to judge the oil,
but the beauty of the piece would have been discernible
even in the worst surroundings. Depicting the city from
across the river, in a scene reminiscent of the prints Sidley had extolled in the Microcosm, this rendition was
even more beautiful.

“Miss Ware is much too modest,” Sidley said.

“She did this?” Benny exclaimed. “How?”

“With a paintbrush and considerable talent. And a
perseverance that would be foreign to you, my friend.”
Sidley turned to face Benny. “Your education has been
lacking in certain areas, my lord Benny. We must take a close tour of my collection at home. Or, better yet, visit
the summer exhibition at Somerset House.”

As Benny protested that he had no time for such frivolities, the butler addressed them from the doorway,
with an announcement that the ladies were receiving.
They crossed the hall, to be met immediately upon entering the drawing room by a bounding and happily smiling
Lady Katherine.

“My lords.” She curtsied to them all, then fixed a
sparkling gaze on Sidley. “Lord Sidley, I am so pleased
to see you recovered”

He waved a hand. “‘Twas merely a bit hot in your
rooms last night,” he claimed, “and I had been exercisin’” His glance slid past a silently attentive Marian
Ware, to settle on Lady Formsby. He bowed to the older
woman, as did Benny and Vaughn. “Lady Formsby, we
must thank you for an excessively fine evening. I apologize for the excitement. I repeat, ‘twas nothing.”

“Nothing!” Lady Katherine exclaimed. “Why-”

“We are most grateful for your call here today, my
lord Sidley,” her mother interrupted, with a sharp glance
at her boisterous daughter. “‘Tis most reassuring. We
feared for your health.”

“A most misplaced concern, my lady,” Sidley told
her, but he noticed that the disclaimer did not erase the
concern from her face or Miss Ware’s. At least Lady
Katherine’s wide green gaze was untroubled; but then,
nothing much ever appeared to trouble the girl.

“I was so glad that you-all of you-could attend last night,” she said. “Mama had given up on you,” she added,
at which Lady Formsby looked her disapproval. “But
I told her you were sure to come, as you’d promised! I
do hope you sampled some of our chef’s supper. Oh, but
you could not have had time! The music was delightful,
nonetheless, was it not? I believe Lord Benjamin still
owes me that dance,” she said, and she paused to grin roguishly at Benny, who went red to his ears.

As additional callers were announced and welcomed,
Sidley walked over to Marian Ware, who had retreated
to a window alcove. She examined his face with a thoroughness that very nearly undid him.

“You are quite well, then, my lord?” she asked.

“Quite. Or at least-as well as the usual.”

“Yes. Yes, I see” She bit her lower lip, which action
had the unfortunate effect of drawing his attention.

“Miss Ware,” he said abruptly, “we must do something about your painting.”

“Do something, my lord?” She smiled. “Do you urge
me to improve?”

“You must not languish in parlors.”

“You refer to-?”

“Your work, which should be exhibited.”

“Those paintings were gifts to my cousins.”

“If you have others, they should not be tucked into
dark corners.”

“I am most flattered, Lord Sidley. But you do me too
much honor.”

“Nonsense!” He struck his cane forcibly upon the floor. Immediately he regretted it. He kept his gaze on
the rest of the startled company as he spoke tensely, and
very low, to Miss Ware. “There are few women who are
painters. You are one of them. You must permit me to
aid you.”

“Aid me?” And for a second she looked all of the uncomprehending twenty that she was. “Why, my lord?
Because of-because of Lady Katherine?”

Marian watched the impatience creep into Sidley’s
gaze.

“Lady Katherine! What has she to do with anything?”

Fortunately, this rather rude response was not audible enough to be overheard.

“Really, my lord, I thought that you and she-that
if you harbored plans..

“I harbor no plans, Miss Ware. You must put that from
your mind. Your painting has naught to do with any of it.”

“I would certainly agree, my lord. Though I might ask
what, then, other than an interest in my cousin, prompts
you to honor the Formsbys with your company.”

“I am not accustomed to having my motives or actions so questioned,” he said testily.

“I do not mean to do so, my lord. Nevertheless, you
must know that my cousin’s expectations have been …
excited.”

“If they have been so `excited,’ I am sorry for it,” he
bit out. “Must we quarrel?”

“I was not aware we quarreled,” she countered softly.

Immediately his shoulders eased. He gave her a smile.
“Certainly not,” he agreed. Again he surveyed the drawing room, where additional callers were filling out the
company. “Still, I must be permitted to further your interests. Perhaps-well, I might ease an introduction. If
you could paint anyone of your acquaintance here in
town, Miss Ware, whom would you choose?”

Marian looked up at his profile, only to meet his penetrating gaze as he turned to her once more. “You expect me to say I would paint you, Lord Sidley.”

“On the contrary. You will paint me. I have decided
that there is no choice involved in it. My query was intended to understand your eye, to elicit your preferences in subject”

Marian had to look away from him, lest he perceive
that she might easily choose to paint him, which, of
course, she had no intention of doing. “You have no notion of my ability with a likeness.”

“On the contrary,” he claimed. “I have more than a
notion. I have come to a belief.”

She swallowed. No one, not even her father, had ever
expressed so much faith in her.

“Then I might-I think perhaps I might wish to paint
Mrs. Knox,” she admitted.

“Ah!” Sidley’s smile was resigned rather than pleased.
His gaze sought Viscount Vaughn. “In that you are not
unusual. Mrs. Knox is a rare beauty. But you shall have
some difficulty portraying her as she ought to be portrayed” He paused. “There were several portraits made of Jenny Lanning even before she became Mrs. Knox.
And her husband has subsequently employed every
painter of fashion-which is his style.”

There was a bite to his tone. Marian wished she understood the reason for the previous night’s altercation.
Her aunt had not known, and now Lord Sidley seemed
disinclined to enlighten her. She could not believe he
nursed a tendre for the woman, acknowledged diamond
though she was. But something was very wrong.

Abruptly he asked, “You will be at Aldersham next
week?”

“As you know, my lord, I have only a brief time in
which to study. I regret that I must decline the invitation.”

“You might paint at Aldersham almost as well as you
do in town. Perhaps better.” He smiled. “The light is infinitely clearer.”

“Even if that’s the case, I fear I must explain to your
aunt that I cannot attend”

“My aunt does not listen to explanations, Miss Ware,”
which attribute Marian thought might equally apply
to Lady Adeline’s nephew. But he smiled as Katie approached them. “Lady Katherine,” he said with a nod.

“You must not keep Lord Sidley from the rest of the
company, Marian!” Katie admonished. Her brief glance
at Marian was annoyed. “You had his time yesterday
evening.”

“So I did, Katie. My lord.” And Marian excused herself. She sought refuge at the other end of the room, but her attention inevitably returned to Katie and Lord Sidley by the window. She noted Katie’s irrepressible efforts and Sidley’s forced smile. Marian knew that Katie
would see only the smile, not the impatience behind it,
and silently counseled her cousin to let the man be. But
Katie would believe Sidley just another enchanted admirer.

He has grown tired of this, Marian thought in sudden
sympathy, only to have his gaze flash to her own. She
fought her blush and concentrated on the conversation at
hand. Yes, she agreed, the summer promised to be unusually warm. Yes, the celebrations of Bonaparte’s abdication were very grand. Yes, Lady Katherine’s ball had
been the best attended of the season. Indeed, Katie was
destined to make a brilliant match. But what did Miss
Ware think-did not Lady Katherine look well paired
with Lord Sidley?

Marian could only smile. An attachment was Katie’s
stated goal, one that Lord Sidley seemed sadly reluctant to share.

Viscount Vaughn spoke with her briefly about
Northampton, asking after any news she had had from
the Navy. Marian wondered if Vaughn deliberately introduced the topic, as a means of reminding her of William.
But Lord Vaughn was all politeness; there was no reason to suspect he believed she required a reminder.
Her own sense of disloyalty should have been reminder
enough. Lord Benjamin joined them, with an enthusiastic compliment of the lemon comfit cakes and an unanswerable question as to how much “perseverance” one needed
in order to paint.

Lady Formsby’s west drawing room never grew too
crowded, for it had been designed for entertaining and
was suitably large. Nevertheless, courtesy required that
even in the aftermath of so stellar an event as Katherine’s ball, visitors should confine their calls to a scarce
twenty minutes or less. After the requisite period, Marian noticed Lord Sidley moving toward the doors and
his escape, though Katie had been so bold as to attempt
to stay him with a hand on his velvet sleeve. Through
whatever subtle cues the three gentlemen communicated, Lord Benjamin and Lord Vaughn seemed aware
of Sidley’s determination to depart. Within moments they
had made their bows to Lady Formsby, and Katie, though
a dozen more attentive suitors filled the room, was left to
pout.