The Shadow of Albion (24 page)

he had not just been called a coward by the Prince of Wales.

„Indeed it is, Your Highness,“ Wessex said genially, stepping forward, „but as

the Eleventh is the Prince’s Own Regiment, if the uniform offends Your Highness,

you have only to change it, you know.“

The idea seemed to amuse Jamie; he laughed, and clapped Wessex upon the

shoulder. „For a chap who spends all his time hanging about m’father, you’re not

such a dull dog after all. Kate, say hello to His Grace.“

Lady Truelove smiled at Wessex in the fashion of one who knows she will not be

chastised whatever her actions; the expression made Sarah long to slap the woman –

she was not certain why she’d ever found Lady Truelove an amusing companion,

but vowed to cross her off the list of Lady Roxbury’s acquaintance at once.

„I’m honored that you should choose to attend my ball, Your Highness,“ Sarah

said, taking command of the situation. Though Geoffrey Highclere had stuck close

by the Prince’s side, his other companions had wandered off to sample the delights

of the ball. „Perhaps Your Highness would care for some refreshment?“

„Splendid notion!“ Jamie beamed.

At least some of the sets were returning to the dance floor. Perhaps the Prince’s

inebriated and totally unexpected entrance could be smoothed over, Sarah thought

hopefully.

But her plan to divert the Prince – and whisk his disreputable companions from

public view – was doomed to failure. As Sarah conducted the Prince through the

ground-floor rooms that had been opened for the ball, Jamie began, inevitably, to

attract just such an audience as Sarah had hoped to avoid.

„Is it true we are to expect an Interesting Announcement this evening, Lady

Roxbury?“ Lady Truelove asked with a giggle. „I vow, there is nothing I like better

in all the world than the chance to wish someone very happy.“

Sarah hoped her expression did not too patently display her disbelief; Lady

Truelove looked rather more like the sort of person who would revel in her

acquaintance’s misfortune. And was she hinting that she, as well as half the world,

expected Sarah to announce her engagement – or rather, the date of her marriage –

this evening?

„Well, you shan’t be felicitating me, Your Ladyship,“ Jamie said abruptly, reeling

to a stop. One of the hangers-on had brought a glass of champagne. Jamie gulped

the liquid as if it were water and beckoned for more. He glanced about himself and

then sprawled upon the nearest sopha, and Lady Truelove promptly disposed herself

beside him. There was nothing for Sarah and Wessex to do but stop as well.

„But I had understood you were to marry, Prince Jamie,“ Geoffrey Highclere

drawled from his position at the Prince’s elbow. „Some deadly dull Danish

cart-horse, wasn’t it?“

Jamie’s color deepened to a maroon that even the amount of drink he had

imbibed could not entirely account for.

„The devil I shall!“ he exclaimed loudly, his fiery Stuart temper slipping from his

control. He struggled to his feet again, his angry glittering gaze sweeping the

assembled guests – and not all of them were the Prince’s cronies. „Princess

Stephanie may sail for England, or Hell, or wherever she likes, but I shall not marry

her! No Stuart Prince shall be-“

„Sold for an advantage England could as easily gain upon the battlefield?“ Mr.

Highclere said helpfully.

„Precisely, Geoffrey!“ Jamie said, pleased with his crony’s cleverness. „So let the

Danes look to their best interests, lest the British Lion – “

„More wine, Your Highness?“ Wessex asked with ruthless politeness.

There had to be some way to break this up, Sarah thought with growing

desperation. Suddenly, inspiration struck.

„Mr. Highclere,“ she said abruptly, „do favor me with this next dance –, won’t

you?“

Sarah locked eyes with Ripon’s younger brother. Geoffrey’s pale eyes burned

into hers, but the forms of the Polite World had been invoked, and Highclere could

no more ignore Lady Roxbury’s request than he could sprout wings and fly. He

bowed slightly, favoring her with an. avaricious lupine glance.

„As you command, Lady Roxbury.“

Exerting every wile that imagination could devise, Sarah kept Geoffrey Highclere

by her side for the next quarter of an hour, though the man’s presence made her feel

oddly endangered. It was with intense relief that Sarah spied Wessex returning to the

ballroom, and could finally allow her impatient companion to conduct her to a chair.

The moment she was safely disposed, Highclere strode from the room with almost

indécent haste, and Wessex watched him leave with a rather chilly smile.

Sarah started to her feet, alarmed.

„Oh, do let him go, Lady Roxbury,“ Wessex drawled. „I am devastated to tell

you that His Highness has already moved on to his next engagement, and the hopeful

Mr. Highclere will seek his quarry in vain.“

„Thank heavens,“ Sarah said in relief.

She discovered her fan, looped about her wrist on a tinsel string, and plied it

vigorously to conceal the force of her feelings, then glanced around for Lord Ripon.

She did not see Geoffrey’s older brother anywhere, which was an additional mercy.

„So all has been tidied away, for the moment,“ Wessex said. „Unfortunately, the

Prince’s intemperate remarks will be all over London by dawn, which brings me

to… Lady Roxbury, may I have the favor of a private word with you?“

Sarah rose slowly to her feet, wondering how on earth she could avoid this

interview. Only a fool would be unable to guess what subject Wessex wished to

raise; and it would lead to a discussion that Sarah very much wished to avoid.

Reluctantly, she raised her glance to his face, and against her expectations, he

smiled.

„Yes, I know; you do not wish to grant me such a favor, and in fact you wish me

entirely at the devil. But we do not either of us have the luxury of behaving as private

persons, so if Your Ladyship will do me the honor…“

His hand was beneath her elbow; moved as much by the force of his personality

as by his grip upon her arm, Sarah let Wessex lead her from the dance floor. Though

so far as she knew he had never been here before, Wessex seemed to know her

house better man she did herself, for in a few moments they were on the narrow

servants’ stair ascending to Sarah’s small private parlor on the second floor. He

conducted her into the room with a little more force than courtesy and closed the

door behind them.

„You wished to speak to me, my – Your Grace?“ One of the frightening blank

spots in her memory had suddenly appeared, carrying with it forgetfulness of proper

forms of address that Lady Roxbury must have known from her cradle. But the

bobble was only momentary and Sarah doubted Wessex noticed. She crossed the

room and seated herself in the large comfortable chair in front of the fire. By her

standing orders, there was a fire of sea-coals burning, taking the edge off the chill of

the May night, but Sarah was not comforted.

Away from the. watchful eyes of the other revelers, Wessex’s face was set in

harsh lines, as if there were a painful duty before him, and Sarah could guess what it

was.

„Your Grace – “ she began.

„Be quiet,“ Wessex said sharply. „There are some things which – I believe! – you

do not know. And you will learn them tonight, Lady Roxbury.“

„Prince Jamie has for some time been surrounded – in spite of King Henry’s

efforts – by a faction composed primarily of those who still regret the loss of

Charles II’s Catholic younger brother James as England’s king. You have danced

with one of its leading architects this evening; the Earl of Ripon is one of those who

believe that England should stand with the Catholic kingdoms of Europe, and

abandon its policy of tolerance and emancipation.“ Wessex stared broodingly into

the fire’s heart for a moment before continuing.

„The Prince’s marriage into the house of

Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderberg-Glücksborg would be a great blow to their plans; as

you have seen, Ripon’s supporters do all that they can. to keep Jamie dissatisfied

with the match his father has made for him. What few people know is that Ripon has

his own candidate for Princess of Wales: his young niece, a girl who has been

carefully schooled for her role in his machinations. It is said that Ripon plots to

entangle Prince Jamie with this girl past his ability to free himself; to cause a scandal

great enough that the Danish Prince Regent will withdraw both his sister and the

treaty of alliance.“

„I see.“ Sarah’s hand went involuntarily to touch the small hard lump that was her

father’s ring, tied securely into the bodice of her balldress.

„I doubt you see all of it, Lady Roxbury. Should the Danish marriage fail,

England would lose an important ally. And should Prince Jamie go on to marry

Ripon’s niece, Ripon would gain such power at Court as to be able to further his

ultimate ambition – to withdraw England from the Triple Alliance and force her to

make a separate peace with Bonaparte.“

„But – But – “ But this is impossible. „But Ripon’s niece must be a Catholic – “

„And you will be wondering how such a marriage could be made in the face of

the Act of Succession,“ Wessex finished. „Depend upon it, madame, if Ripon’s

plans go as he wishes them to, the King must allow the match, or see the Throne

rocked by such scandal as it cannot easily weather.“

„And so the Earl wins either way,“ Sarah said, slowly puzzling out the political

tangle Wessex had presented her, „because he wants to put an end to the Alliance,

doesn’t he, and if there is such a – a turmoil here in England…“

„Our beloved allies will bolt like frightened coach horses,“ Wessex agreed. For a

moment he gazed once more into the hot flames, his face expressionless, and when

he spoke again it was nearly as if he spoke to himself alone. „That must not happen.

If Prince Jamie can be brought to a sense of his responsibility; if he can be kept from

entanglement with Ripon’s brat… but most of all, if Princess Stephanie can make

herself agreeable to the mobile, to the English people, then public pressure on her

behalf will force the Prince to behave appropriately.“

Wessex took a deep breath before adding, „In the face of Prince Jamie’s

displeasure, the Princess will need advocates and partisans – and you, Lady

Roxbury, cannot sponsor her in society as an unmarried woman, nor can I associate

with her without my attentions seeming far too particular for the delicate measure we

must tread.“

Then Wessex fell silent, and much against her will, Sarah thought about what he

had said. She did not much care for Ripon, and somehow felt about Prince Jamie as

an elder sister about a younger brother whom she saw heading into disaster. Princess

Stephanie she did not know at all, but the thought of a young woman traveling to a

strange land and an unknown fate struck a deep chord somewhere within her, so that

Sarah felt she needed to do whatever she could to help the Danish Princess find

happiness in England and her marriage.

Marriage. It all came back to that, in the end. Marriage, and the Duke of Wessex.

Sarah did not doubt that Wessex was telling her the simple, truth – that without this

marriage, she could not do anything to aid either the Prince or the Princess. Was this

what the Old One had meant that night in the garden at Mooncoign when he had told

her that she must make herself a part of this world – or die?

„So you wish me to marry you?“ Sarah asked. Wessex’s tone had implied that it

was almost a formality – something to be done for the look of the thing, nothing

more. And King Henry wished her to marry him, even if Wessex seemed less than

enthusiastic about the matter himself.

„Yes,“ Wessex said baldly.

He had hardly been able to bring himself to say the words that made their

marriage inevitable – he must remember upon some future occasion to thank the Earl

of Ripon for providing him with such a textbook illustration of how vitally necessary

it was. In some sense, Wessex would be taking a far more public role in the fight

against England’s foes than ever before, if he and his Duchess were to lead the

faction in Society that opposed Ripon’s isolationist schemes. At least he was not

being asked to perform a task beyond his strength. It would be one more

masquerade, that was all. Another part to play, and the Duchess of Roxbury only

another partner in the Game of Shadows. So now I corrupt her, too –

„All right,“ the Marchioness said. She shrugged, as if the matter were not of very