April Kihlstrom Read Free

He had a sort of vague sense that if he ever brought his bride to London he would wish for his aunt’s help in launching her. But it was more than that. She had stood as some sort of mother to him after his own had died. For all her starch and intimidating manner, there was a strong affection between them and he felt an almost filial duty to tell her his plans before he carried them out.
    So pleased was Rothwood with these thoughts that he went straight from his club to Almack’s, where he found his aunt intimidating yet again the latest crop of girls making their curtsey to the
ton
.
    * * *
    Lady Kenrick had just finished lecturing one poor girl’s mother on the folly of allowing her daughter to dress in a color that so clearly ill-suited her, when she spotted her nephew coming toward her and crowed with delight.
    “Rothwood! Are you here to finally dance with me?”
    Since this was a long-standing jest between them, Rothwood merely kissed his aunt’s hand, swore eternal devotion to her and then said, in a voice that carried far better than he realized, “No, Aunt Violet, I came to tell you I am off to the countryside as soon as I can pack.”
    Lady Kenrick felt her heart sink. What scandal had her nephew fallen into now? Before she could think what to say, the lady closest to her tittered and said, “In the middle of the night? My heavens! What can be so urgent that you cannot wait until morning?”
    Lady Kenrick was acutely conscious of all the faces leaning forward to hear her nephew’s answer. Trying to make light of things she said, “I hope you will have a good trip, then.”
    “Don’t you want to know where I am going and why?” he countered.
    Curse the boy! Didn’t he understand how foolish it was to air his predicament, whatever it was, in public this way?
    She made herself shrug. “If you wish to tell me.”
    “I, my dear Aunt Violet, am about to earn your deepest approval,” he crowed. “I am off to offer for your goddaughter, Miss Trowley, to be my wife.”
    And then, before a stunned Lady Kenrick had time to collect her thoughts or respond, Rothwood turned on his heel and strode out of Almack’s, head held high, entirely oblivious to the fact that his announcement had caused a deep silence to fall over the room. A silence that was broken the moment he was gone by loud and merry speculation over what he had just said.
    For her part, Lady Kenrick pasted a smile on her face and made light of Rothwood’s words. “Oh, my nephew takes these notions and by the next morning usually has forgotten them. Or changed his mind. I pray you will pay no attention for I certainly do not. Either that or he is playing a prank on me, wishing to get up my hopes only to laugh at me tomorrow for being a credulous fool!”
    Since no one would ever dare call Lady Kenrick a credulous fool, that effectively ended any direct conversation with her over the matter, but it did not stop the speculation that continued to swirl among members of the
ton
who were present that night. And it would not, Lady Kenrick very much feared, prevent it among everyone who would hear the news in the morning.
    Mind you, had circumstances been otherwise, Lady Kenrick would have been delighted had Rothwood come to her and said he wished to marry her Goddaughter Beatrix. But not when he was clearly so deep in his cups and not when he had not even seen the girl in close to ten years. What on earth, she wondered, had put it in his mind to marry her and why on earth had he felt the need to announce his decision in the midst of such a public place?
    Mind you, the girl’s background was quite creditable. Her mother was the granddaughter of an earl and her father the youngest son of a viscount and Beatrix herself surely could not be blamed because both families had lost patience with her father’s gambling debts and refused to pay them any more. Had it been otherwise they might well have lived in London and Beatrix made her curtsey to the
ton
as any