Lydia huffed a laugh. “Of course he’s not. Your brother is too terrifyingly honorable to curry favor with Tories he doesn’t care for.”
Selina nodded. That was certainly Nicholas.
“To be sure, the lord chancellor despises Stanhope, because he’s American and a radical,” Lydia continued. “And there’s some precedent for denying guardianship to an elder brother because of inheritance concerns, not that I suspect Stanhope’s father’s by-blows have money or property. But it would be justification for Lord Eldon to deny Stanhope if he chooses to do so. A real tangle, Selina.”
“I was thinking,” Selina said, “about Lord Eldon. About his famous love match and about his reasons for disliking Stanhope. And I was wondering—well. If Stanhope were to marry—quite suddenly, and to a woman of the most upstanding reputation and perfect English background—”
Lydia’s blue eyes were narrowed in thought as she gazed at Selina. One finger tapped the sprigged muslin of her skirt. “You think if Stanhope marries respectably, the lord chancellor will find him less objectionable?”
“I think if Stanhope marries respectably, he willbeless objectionable. And I also think that if he marries out of impassioned ardor, perhaps Lord Eldon will find him more sympathetic. And I do wonder if Stanhope and his new bride might be able to getLord Eldon’s wife on their side as well, if their story is charming enough.”
Lydia’s lips curved up. “Selina. You have the mind of a politician after all. I’m impressed.”
Selina gave a little shake of her head. “Don’t say it. Don’t eventhinkit, or Nicholas’s single Whig friends will suddenly start calling in droves.”
Lydia laughed. “God save you from that fate. All right, so you mean to see Stanhope married?”
“I had intended to suggest that course of action to him, yes,” Selina said. “I thought you might help me draw up a list of suitable ladies for him to court.” She gestured to the dotted foolscap in front of her. “I’m prepared with pen and ink.”
“Of course you are,” said Lydia. “I’ve never seen you other than prepared. Have you any candidates in mind for the future Duchess of Stanhope?”
Selina chewed her lower lip. “It must be someone with an impeccable reputation.”
“That puts the Halifax twins right out then,” said Lydia.
Selina winced. The Halifax twins had made their bows the previous year and had spent the entire 1814 Season popping up on scandal sheets across London, smoking cheroots in libraries and emerging from closed carriages with gentlemen at dawn. Selina loved Margo and Matilda, but—
“Absolutely no Halifaxes,” she agreed.
“An impeccable reputation,” said Lydia, “and if not a daughter of a peer, then at least someone who is English to the bone. Eldon will like that.”
“And someone sensible,” Selina said. “Someone with enough backbone that Stanhope won’t run right over her.”
Lydia considered this. “Stanhope is rather…”
“Forceful?” said Selina.
“I was going to say impulsive,” Lydia said. “Reckless. A bit outrageous.”
Selina thought about Lu and her rapier. About his offer to kidnap his siblings. About those ridiculous curls that simplycould notbe natural, and…
“Yes,” she said. “He is rather all that.”
“He doesn’t need a fortune, so that makes this a bit simpler. What do you think about Lady Georgiana Cleeve?”
Selina blinked. “Georgiana Cleeve? No. No. My goodness, Lyddie, no.”
Lydia looked taken aback. “Why on earth not? She’s the daughter of an earl, for all the Earl of Alverthorpe is rather unbearable. She’s been widely regarded as the Diamond of this Season. She is a bit young, I suppose, but she’s a perfect innocent.”
Selina pictured Georgiana Cleeve’s lamb-like blue eyes. The immaculate moonbeam ringlets of her hair. The clustered knot of lordlings that surrounded her at every ball.
“Lydia,” she said, “Georgiana Cleeve has the brains of an eel.Afterit has been boiled and jellied.”
Lydia pressed her lips together, smothering her amusement. “Surely that’s a bit uncharitable.”
“I once heard Tresidder ask her if she liked Coleridge. Georgiana told him she didn’t know that particular ridge, but that she believed walking in nature to be hazardous for young women of good breeding.”
Lydia’s eyes widened. “I am so sorry I missed that conversation.”
