Eldon’s thick white brows drew down. “Stanhope. Don’t think just because we haven’t met socially that I don’t know who you are.”
Peter considered his options for response.Why whatever can you mean, Lord Chancellor? Is it simply that I stole thousands of pounds of your illegally obtained cognac? Or do you also recognize me from every gossip rag currently printed in this city?
He settled for, “Nonetheless, it’s a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.”
“Hmph. For a duke, you’re not very good at lying.”
Nicholas choked slightly into his glass of wine. Lady Judith looked like she wanted to laugh but absolutely did not dare.
Before long, footmen signaled them into the dining room for dinner. Peter escorted Lady Judith to her seat, and as he led her in, she said in an undertone, “For goodness’ sake, Stanhope, don’t let Eldon make you sweat. You belong here just as much as he does. Act the part.”
He wasn’t sure if he felt cheered or rather chastened by her advice. Possibly both.
He found his own seat, in between Lady Eldon on his left and—hell—Selina on his right. Lord Eldon sat across the tablefrom all of them, and he peeled off his gloves like a man preparing for a fencing match, rather than an elegant dinner.
“Your Grace,” said Lady Eldon from his side, and Peter turned to her. She was several inches shorter than Lord Eldon, and her once-dark hair was now liberally streaked with gray. She had a deeply engraved dimple on each cheek, and her eyes sparkled like champagne.
“Lady Eldon.”
“I’m so pleased we’ve been seated near each other,” she said confidentially. “I’d like to hear everything you have to tell me about New Orleans. I keep telling John”—she angled a mischievous glance toward her husband—“that he needs to take me on a pleasure cruise before I die. Andhekeeps tellingme—”
“That I’m busy trying to keep the bottom from falling out of our legal system?” Eldon broke in. “And that you’re nowhere near your deathbed, Bess?”
Lady Eldon heaved a sigh. “Do you see what I live with? My children are grown. I mean to enjoy the years I have left to me. Now—tell me all about New Orleans. And make it good so John feels tempted.”
Based on the expression on the chancellor’s face, Peter thought that Lady Eldon might be wildly overestimating Peter’s powers of persuasion.
Still, he did his best. He told her about New Orleans—the colorful houses and wrought-iron balconies, the shimmering Carnival masquerades and the drowsy heat of the Vieux Carré. He described his mother’s home, the hot lushness of the bayou, and the dozens of children who played there all year round.
Peter tried not to look at Selina while he was talking, but he couldn’t stop his gaze from drifting toward her. She wasn’tlooking back at him, but her head was tilted in his direction, her expressive face soft with pleasure.
He dragged his eyes away.
“How lovely that sounds,” said Lady Eldon. “You must have had many playmates as a child. Had you any siblings?”
Beneath the table, Selina’s foot gave his a little nudge. He wanted to catch her eye and grin—Don’t worry, I won’t miss that wide-open opportunity—but he didn’t.
“My mother’s family employed a great number of locals, so yes, there were many children,” he told Lady Eldon. “And of course, I grew up with a brother. Morgan. He died in childhood.”
From his side, he heard Selina draw in a short, sharp breath.
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” said Lady Eldon. He could see the soft smile lines around her eyes as she spoke. “I, too, lost a brother in my youth. I still miss him, even fifty years on.”
There was a strange sort of comfort in that. That even when the image of Morgan’s small square hands and hazel eyes grew blurred with time, Peter would never forget how much he’d loved his brother.
“I learned in recent years that I have two more half siblings,” Peter said. “It’s been quite an experience to come to England and get to know them.”
Lady Eldon’s eyes lit. “You had two siblings you didn’t know about? What an extraordinary surprise. Are they of an age with you?”
Peter hoped like hell that the lord chancellor was listening. He took a cautious sip of his wine, and then he told Lady Eldon all about Freddie and Lu. He told her about Lu’s protectiveness and Freddie’s gentle reserve. He told her about the kitten. He told her about the guardianship petition.
At one point during his story, Nicholas Ravenscroft tried to say something to Lord Eldon. Judging by Nicholas’s abruptly cut-off speech and the offended look he shot Selina, Peter had a feeling that her foot had also encountered her brother’s. Evidently with rather more force than what she’d directed toward Peter.
Lady Eldon asked all sorts of eager questions about Freddie and Lu—enough questions that he began to wonder if she had been let in on this whole scheme by Lady Judith and Thomasin.
If so, he blessed the machinations of intelligent women.
He’d just started on a description of how he meant to buy the children a puppy and send Freddie to Eton when Eldon broke in. His eyebrows looked skeptical. “Tell me, Stanhope—how do you mean to raise these children in between all the responsibilities of your new position? Or do you plan to dodge the Lords and rid yourself of your estates like the rest of the young bucks of your generation?”
