Deb Marlowe - Regency Rebels - Scandalous Lord, Rebellious Miss / An Improper Aristocrat

Tossing the reins to his groom, he approached the window, already certain what he was about to see.

It was worse than he imagined. Burning rage twisted in his gut, bubbled up and spewed out of him in a particularly inventive string of blasphemies. Stalking inside, he snatched one of the offending things off the glass. The catcalls and ribbing continued as he accosted the first apprentice he found. ‘Where’s your mistress?’ he barked.

‘U-upstairs,’ the boy stammered.

‘Lead on,’ Charles said.

‘Oho!’ The involuntary chuckle escaped Jack when Charles handed the paper to his brother. ‘Oh, my.’

‘Is that all you can say?’ growled Charles. They were in Jack’s cluttered bachelor’s quarters and Charles was trying to pace without toppling one of the many towers of books and papers.

‘No, as a matter of fact. I have to say I’m insulted that you never invited me to any of your orgies.’

Despite himself, Charles laughed. ‘Damned caricaturists. Yes, they’re clever, but it doesn’t sit so well when it’s you they ridicule.’

‘Yes, but Cruikshank, no less! No one is truly notorious today until Cruikshank mocks them!’ Jack bent to examine the piece more closely. ‘Well, old chap, sorry to say it, but he is very clever. Portraying you entertaining the ton in one room while the wild orgy is going on behind partially closed doors! And the detail is brilliant.’

‘Brilliant and devastating.’

‘Look—half the patronesses of Almack’s are on one side, while on the other.’ Jack looked up. ‘Did you truly have an affair with the Annie Ewing?’ he asked, his voice filled with awe.

‘Of course not,’ Charles snapped.

‘Oh, well, I’ve always enjoyed her singing. It’s clear from this how she came by her nickname.’

‘You are missing the important part, Jack.’

‘More important than Amply Endowed Annie’s bared breast?’ his brother asked, grinning.

‘Take a look at what the half-clothed revellers are reading.’

‘Hmm, yes, that lucky fellow is holding a paper, isn’t he? The Radical Review? And look over here, on the floor next to these energetic ladies, a book, The Real Rights of Man. Bad form, my boy, to mix pleasure and politics.’

‘But that’s just it, it’s the same thing as last time. An attack on my morals and my politics in one fell swoop.’

‘So you think that the same person is behind both?’

‘I feel that it must be. But who?’

‘I feel sure that it is not Avery,’ Jack said with a sudden serious turn. ‘I’ve kept an eye on him, as you asked. He truly is miserable, Charles. I don’t believe it is an act, and I don’t believe it is only his honour that is damaged. I think he misses the old girl.’

‘But why should he continue to stir up trouble for me? He certainly does it openly at Whitehall, if not clandestinely with these attacks.’

‘You’re an easy target, and a natural one for him. You’re mixed up in the business that has humiliated him, and there is a true political divide between you. Frankly, I admire the old man for staying in town. Many a lesser man would have fled home in the face of such embarrassment, and never been heard from again.’

Charles stopped pacing and turned to face his brother. ‘Perhaps that is the whole idea. Perhaps either one or both of us were supposed to withdraw, to tuck our heads and hide, but from what?’ He sat in the chair across from Jack and scrubbed his hair to help him think. ‘It must be me, since the latest round was aimed at me as well.’

‘But perhaps the caricature is only the natural result of all the rest, and not a new attack.’

‘Ah, but I haven’t told you all of it.’ Charles told his brother of what he had learned from the Augur’s editor. ‘And, when I found that—’ he gestured toward the cartoon ‘—I had a little talk with Hannah Humphreys.’

‘She gave up Cruikshank?’

‘Told me where I might find him, rather. He was not a bit apologetic, but he did tell me something interesting.’

Jack only raised a questioning brow.

‘He said he would never have had the idea for that thing if he hadn’t met someone new at his regular coffeehouse.’

‘A small, dark, wiry man?’

‘Who got into a political discussion with him one afternoon, and bought him dinner one night, so they could continue their interesting debate.’

‘And you were served up along with the chops, I gather.’

‘Not outright, but very subtly.’ Charles stopped. Something was nagging at the back of his mind. ‘There is something familiar about all of this, but I can’t quite place it.’

‘Familiar?’ Jack laughed. ‘Good Lord, if this sort of thing is familiar, then I don’t envy you.’ He rubbed his eyes and shook his head as if to clear it. ‘It’s still not a lot to go on. Even if we could find the right man, what would we do, charge him with scandalmongering?’

‘I’d find out who he works for, by God, and I’d make his life as miserable as he has made mine.’

‘It wouldn’t fix the damage already done,’ Jack said philosophically, ‘and it might send you fleeing for the continent. No,’ he mused, ‘I know I scoffed at your idea at first, but I’m beginning to think you have had the right idea all along. Ignore the rumours. If you aren’t visibly affected, maybe he’ll grow tired and move on to play games with someone else.’

‘It’s too late for that,’ said Charles.

‘No, it isn’t. Focus on your work, and your search for a wife. If everyone is discussing which lady you are courting now, they will not be talking about who you poked last year. Even if it was Amply Endowed Annie Ewing,’ he finished with a grin.

‘I’m not sure even that will save me now. The highest sticklers were already avoiding me. That—’ he gestured to the caricature ‘—may well be a killing blow.’

Jack stood, an odd gleam in his eye. ‘It has been a hard couple of years, Charles, for all of us. I would not wish to be saddled with some of the burdens you have carried. But you’ve done well.’ He approached, and clasped Charles’s shoulder. ‘It’s the perfect time for you to take a step back. Look around. Decide, once and for all, what it is that you want. What you want. And I’ll do whatever I can to help you get it.’

Jack grinned, lightening the mood. ‘But for now, you had better get home and get ready for Mother’s dinner party. She’ll shoot us both if we’re late.’

‘I forgot.’ Charles dashed back his drink and rose to shake his brother’s hand. He clasped it longer than necessary, trying to convey his gratitude and so much more. ‘Thank you, Jack.’

It started to rain as he set his tired horses for home. Charles shrugged out of his greatcoat and gave it to his ever-patient groom. He hunched his shoulders as his brother’s words echoed in his head. Decide what it is that you want.

Sophie entered Charles’s house poised for battle. If nothing else, at least she would see him, and this interminable wait would be over. She was not good at waiting, and hadn’t been since she was eight years old, and had decided that a year was long enough to wait for an uncle who was never coming. That fateful day she had shed her good-little-girl persona along with her pinafore, climbed the tallest oak in the forest, and found a tousled-haired, kindred soul at the top.

It was poetic justice, she thought as she smoothed her long gloves and twitched her gown into a more graceful fall, that Charles should reap some of the forceful nature he had helped to sow.

Sophie had brought Nell along, and, after a few whispered words of instruction, she sent her off on her covert mission. Before long she was entering the parlour on Lady Dayle’s arm, confident that she looked well, and confident that, whatever the outcome, Charles would no longer be able to ignore her.