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Present company perhaps exempted. But they’re a necessary evil. Once this matter is resolved, I’ll never have to spend time with them again.

Lord Harlston was looking at him as if he had perhaps lost his senses. “I’m not sure what you think to do about it,” he said. “She’s here to stay, Lord Milton. She’s come to live with her aunt. I don’t see that there’s any changing that.”

“Lord Harlston,” John said. “Hear me. I know that you are more sensible than the gentlemen with whom you spend your time.”

Lord Harlston raised his eyebrows but said nothing in response.

“You must see the way having that young lady around has already begun to make a difference in the social structures around us,” John said. “Why, just look at what happened at your dinner party.”

“Do you mean the argument you started?”

“I mean the violent altercation that broke out when I raised somevery sensible concerns,” John said. “Already, I am beginning to feel completely unwelcome to voice the fears I have about Lady Valeria! Why, any time I mention them, I am thrown from a building!”

“That only happened to you once,” Lord Harlston said. “And I think we’ve all heard your concerns by now. We know what it is you worry about.”

“You say you know,” John said. “But have you actually given it any thought?”

“It is not for me to decide on the guilt or innocence of a young lady,” Lord Harlston said. “I’m sure the constables have thoroughly examined the matter. And besides, the crime her brother was accused of was trading in stolen goods. She could hardly have been party to it without someone knowing what was going on, could she? She stands out and would have been noticed. A witness—likely several—would have remembered that she had been there.”

“Be that as it may,” John persisted, “there are things that cannot be denied about the lady.”

“What kinds of things?”

“She causes commotion. Whether she is guilty or innocent—just look at the behavior of your friend, Lord Woodsford. Can you honestly tell me that he would have comported himself in such a fashion while he was a guest at another gentleman’s home before Lady Valeria came to town? I know he is only a Baron, but—”

“I don’t think his title has anything to do with the point you’re trying to make,” Lord Harlston said, and there was a definite chill in his voice now. “What difference does it make that he’s a Baron?”

“Don’t get upset! I was only saying that you and I would have known better than to become violent at a dinner party. Well, wedidknow better, didn’t we?” John smiled, doing his best to persuade Lord Harlston. “Come, now. I know you weren’t happy with me that night, butyoudidn’t pick me up and throw me from your home.”

“No,” Lord Harlston allowed.

“Because it would have been undignified to do so,” John said. “It would have been beneath you. That’s really all I’m saying. Lord Woodsford—he’s just not as well bred. It’s not something he canhelp. I don’t hold it against him. I’m just saying that it’s clear your friend Lady Valeria has already begun to influence lower orders of gentlemen.”

Lord Harlston was shifting uneasily in his seat, and John could tell that he was upset by hearing his friend referred to as a lower order of gentleman. John hurried by that point of conversation before he could get dragged into a debate about it. It was certainlytrue, but he couldn’t force Lord Harlston to see it, and anyway, that wasn’t the problem at hand right now.

“We could probably arrange for her to leave town,” he said.

“I don’t see how we could do that,” Lord Harlston said. “And frankly, the notion seems ridiculous to me. I may not agree with you about Lord Woodsford, but he is responsible for hisownbehavior. You cannot lay the blame for his actions at Lady Valeria’s feet, any more than you can blame her for her brother’s crimes!”

“Women,” said the man to John’s left, rather sagely. “They are such temptresses that a gentleman can hardly be expected to control himself in their presence.”

“Be quiet, Fred,” John snapped.

The man named Fred fell silent, though he had a mutinous look in his eye.

“That one fancies himself a poet,” John explained to Lord Woodsford. “And it’s worse when he’s been drinking. But never mind that.”

Lord Harlston looked at Fred searchingly for a moment. Then he turned back to John.

“What is it you hope to do here?” he asked. “Lady Valeria has nowhere else to go. Her aunt is her only living relative, as I understand matters.”

“Her cousin told you this?”

“You know we’re friends.”

“Of course I know. That’s part of the reason I chose you to speak to! You may be able to persuade him todosomething.”

“Do you know what I think?” Lord Harlston said. “I think you were humiliated at my dinner party, and now you’re desperate for action to be taken against Lady Valeria, because you want someone to pay for what happened to you. And because you want to feel vindicated in the things you were saying. You want the ladies and gentlemen of the ton to think,yes, he was right, she was a bad seed all along, and that’s why she was sent away!”