“Oh, but she is,” Irene assured, giving Marjorie no end of satisfaction. “Henry and I were introduced to her in Paris while on honeymoon, and Henry insisted to me that she couldn’t possibly be a real baroness—”
“That’s what I said!” Jonathan turned to Torquil. “I’m glad someone shares my view.”
“Except that I was wrong, it seems,” the duke informed him as he poured sherry for the men. “I looked her up in theAlmanachde Gotha, and there she was.”
“Ha!” Marjorie put in, giving Jonathan a triumphant look. “And you thought she was aposeur.”
“I can hardly be blamed for that opinion,” he countered at once. “To my mind, the woman is far too theatrical. The title may be in theAlmanachde Gotha, but how do we know she’s the genuine article?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Marjorie muttered, rolling her eyes. “You see?” she added, appealing to his sisters. “You see what I’ve had to put up with?”
They nodded in commiseration, and, outnumbered, Jonathan held up his hands, palms toward her in a gesture of surrender. “All right, all right, I may have been wrong about that woman,” he conceded, “but I was right about the Count de la Rosa, wasn’t I?”
“De la Rosa?” David made a sound of disgust as he accepted a filled glass from his brother. “That blackguard? Was he on the voyage, too?”
“He was,” Jonathan said. “And if he’s in theAlmanachde Gotha, I’ll eat my hat.”
“He’s not,” David assured him. “Our hall boy has more aristocratic lineage in his ancestry than that blackguard.”
“But he is handsome,” Lady David said with a wistful little sigh. “And so charming. Not quite top drawer, of course, but he gives fabulous parties. We went to one at his villa near Cannes seven or eight years ago, remember, David?”
“I doubt he gives parties like that nowadays,” her husband responded. “He’s got enormous debts, I heard.”
“That’s not surprising,” Rex put in and took a sip of sherry. “And there’s no arguing his character. He’s rotten all through, even if the ladies never seem to see it.”
Marjorie’s mind went back to the episode in her cabin doorway with the count, seeing it with the benefit of hindsight. She thought of his hand, holding hers so tightly, of the way he’d leaned so close—signs of desperation, she appreciated now. Deceived by his charming manner, she hadn’t sensed it at the time, or the danger it might present to her. Jonathan might very well have saved her from social disaster, or something worse.
She looked at him, startled to find him watching her, but she could read nothing in his face. “On the contrary, Rex,” he said, his voice light. “Some ladies aren’t the least bit charmed by him. Lady Stansbury certainly wasn’t.”
“Ah,” Irene said, smiling, “now we see why you asked her to be poor Marjorie’s chaperone aboard ship.”
“Just so,” he said. “Tease me for it all you like, but—”
“And we shall!” Clara declared and turned to Marjorie. “My brother was very cruel to leave you in the care of that odious woman. I suppose she made you knit something?”
Marjorie shook her head. “Embroidery,” she said solemnly, earning herself commiseration from all the women, even Lady David.
“I knew it had to be something like that,” Clara continued. “She’s forever after all of us to make things for the church Bring and Buy Sales when we’re down at Ravenwood. She’s Irene and Torquil’s neighbor, you know.”
“Much to her dismay,” Irene said with cheer. “Oh, she adores Torquil, but she quite disapproves of me, as I’m sure Marjorie was made aware.”
“I did gather you weren’t one of her favorites,” Marjorie admitted. “It seems Lady Stansbury does not approve of women having political opinions.”
“Oh, it’s worse than that.” Irene’s hazel eyes danced with mischief above the rim of her sherry glass as she took a sip. “She feels that women oughtn’t to have opinions at all, at least not until we marry, at which point we need our husbands to tell us what our opinions should be. I earned her disapproval by having dared to form my own opinions long before I met my husband, and I saw no need to alter them after the wedding.”
“Much to my chagrin,” the duke put in. “My wife, Miss McGann, is happy to contradict my opinions whenever the opportunity presents. Sometimes, I think she does it merely for sport.”
“Someone has to stand up to you,” the duchess replied at once. “You’d be impossibly tyrannical otherwise. Your sisters would agree with me, if they were here.”
“I’m rather glad they’re not,” David put in. “It’s much less of a madhouse around here during the season now that Sarah and Angela have their own establishments, and Jamie’s boys are back at Harrow for summer term.”
“We’ll call on Sarah and Angela tomorrow, shall we?” Clara suggested. “They’d love to meet Marjorie. And I know they’re dying to meet Jonathan,” she added and looked at her brother over her shoulder. “You should come with us, brother. We’ll be paying calls all afternoon.”
“Can’t, thanks,” he answered at once. “I’ll be far too busy to gad about London paying calls.”
“Busy with what?” Clara asked curiously.
“I’ll think of something,” he muttered.
