Edith Layton Read Online Free PDF Page B

until tonight. But now he judged it was time for them to pass some more, while Charles obviously still feel uneasy.
    “You didn’t say anything wrong, but now you can tell me more,” Damon said mildly. “I’d heard about the Viscount Sinclair in my lady’s letters, of course. Tell me what you know about him.”
    “Oh,” Charles said, vastly relieved. “Well, that’s simple enough. The man is much discussed, or was. Before he met his lady he was wild to a fault—or so all said. He lost his first wife and the shock of it sent him to the Continent, where he became a rake. When he came back he met his Lady Bridget and turned meek as a lamb—staid as a parson, in fact. He’s got eyes for no lady but his own now, and God help other men who look at her the way he still does.” Charles shuddered. “He was a dangerous fellow, too, famous for his skill with his fists, pistols, and sabers. He uses his tongue and his wit to slay his foes these days. They’re just as lethal. I tell you, few dare his wrath.
    “Some say he was working for the Crown as some sort of spy when he was abroad.” Charles leaned close to whisper, “Who knows? Napoleon’s gone, he’s home, and it’s all done. But he’s a powerful fellow in society, with connections in the government, too. You’ve aligned yourself well, Damon, and that’s a fact!”
    “But I thought you said his ward was ineligible,”Damon drawled. “You were warning me away from her, weren’t you?”
    “No, no,” Charles said nervously. “Of course not! I only meant she had no fortune. A nice competence, to be sure, I don’t doubt. No one thinks Sinclair will be a skint when it comes to her dowry. But no estate. Well, you know what frippery fellows we London bachelors are! Why else would we be here at such tame pleasures as this ball? Looking for wives to settle our futures, of course. Most fortunes are made and estates settled by wedlock, just like in olden days, for most of us. You made your own fortune and can look wherever you choose for a wife. Even marry for love! Few of us have such freedom.”
    “Only that?”
    “No ‘only’ about it,” Charles said indignantly. “Many’s the fellow wed to a dragon only because she’s sitting on a pile of gold. You think there’d be half as many married men playing fast and loose if they’d been able to wed where they would? Just look into the ballroom. There’s Jessup, dancing with that Turner woman, and he with five children at home with his wife. There’s Johnston trying to pretend Lady Johnston don’t know why he’s avoiding Lady August’s eye. Ho! All know that affair’s exploded even if she don’t. There’s Lord Wycoff on the prowl again, as is his wife. Don’t you see how she’s watching you? As if you’d have any truck with her, when you’ve the pick of the crop. That’s only what I can see from here!
    “Half the married men have their little cher amis from the ranks of the impure, ladybirds who amuse them under the sheets but who can never appear at arespectable ball like this. Love don’t come into it either way. Getting children’s one thing. Finding pleasure with a female is another. Love is something else altogether, I suppose. No ‘only’ about it, my friend!” Charles said, so worked up he forgot to worry about Damon’s temper. “You went out and made your fortune. But the rest of us? There’s those who sneer at the word trade and act like you’ve dirtied your hands. But we have to dirty far more. Marriage is the best chance most of us have of making or keeping our fortunes.”
    “So that’s the only reason you said she was ineligible?” Damon persisted.
    Charles showed the first trace of color in his cheeks Damon had seen since they were boys at school, coming in from a rough game of ball. “Well, but there’s no family there either,” Charles mumbled, “and there’s them that sets store by old names and such, y’see.”
    “I see,” Damon said, content. No scandal