The Duchess (27 page)

“You must gain more dignity, your ladyship,” Honor scolded her mistress.

“What on earth can Prinny and Brummell be doing here?” Allegra wondered aloud, ignoring Honor's suggestion. “Neither of them paid a great deal of attention to me in London except when I once danced with the prince. Brummell never, I will vow it, spoke a word to me when we passed. He did nod though. What am I to wear?”

“Simple, day-after-the-wedding-like,” Honor said, and drew out a rosebud sprigged white silk gown with a round, scooped neckline, and puffed sleeves. “This should do it.”

“I need to bathe,” Allegra protested.

“A birdbath will do, your ladyship,” Honor said. “I've reheated the basin I left for you by the fire last night.”

“Oh, I forgot all about it,” Allegra said. “What was it for?”

“A lady should always wash her private parts after making love with her husband,” Honor said bluntly “Now, go and give yourself a quick sponge while I get your stockings and slippers.”

There was blood on her thighs!
She stared, horrified, and then she recalled that Sirena had said there would be.
And on the bed linens as well.
She blushed. Such an intimate fact, and it would be known soon enough by the whole household. Well, Allegra thought, at least her virtue would never be in doubt. She carefully washed herself, noting as she did that she was indeed tender. And Quinton had been so considerate.

As she dressed she wondered why on earth the prince and his friend would come to Hunter's Lair the day after their wedding. It was indelicate to say the least, but then princes did what they wanted, and devil take the hindmost. She sat quietly in her petticoat while Honor dressed her hair in its chignon. She selected her wedding necklace and earbobs to wear, and put on her dress. Slipping her feet into her slippers she said, “I am ready, Honor.” Then she left her apartment, going down the stairs and into her dining room where the prince was just finishing his repast. Allegra curtsied. “Welcome to Hunter's Lair, Your Highness,” she said.

“
M
y dear Miss Morgan,” Prinny said as he arose from the table, smiling. Then he kissed her hand. “We have come for the wedding,” he announced.

“The wedding?”
Allegra was somewhat taken aback, but there was no help for it. “The wedding, Your Highness, was yesterday,” she replied truthfully.

“Yesterday?”
The prince looked quite astounded and then aggrieved.

George Brummell's face looked as if he was struggling to hold back his laughter.

“Yesterday,
Your Highness,” Allegra confirmed. “If you had but informed us you were coming …” Her voice trailed off helplessly.

“When word came that you had decided to marry here and not in London,” the prince began, sitting heavily in his chair, “I thought that young Brummell and I would come to surprise you with our presence. I did not think that you would be wed so early in October.” There was a faintly reproachful tone to his voice, as if she had done something wrong.

“I am sure that Her Grace did not mean to disappoint,” George Brummell quickly interjected. He was a slender gentleman with an elegant nose, beautifully coifed dark hair, and blue eyes that were always alert.

“No, no, of course not,” Allegra said quickly. “If you had but sent us notice, Your Highness, we would have waited. What a great honor it would have been for us all to have you at our wedding.”

Prinny, however, looked very disappointed. As if he were a child who had expected some wonderful treat that had failed to materialize.

“But I am so delighted, Your Highness,” Allegra continued, “that you have honored us with a visit. You will remain, of course. My husband has a hunting party each October. The other guests will be arriving in a few days. They will be thrilled to learn Your Highness and his companion, Mr. Brummell, are here.”

“But if you were wed yesterday, won't you be going on a wedding trip, Your Grace?” the prince asked.

“Gracious, no, Your Highness. We plan a trip next spring, perhaps to Italy. Quinton has spoken to me of a city called Venice.” She smiled at the prince. “Can you imagine a city where the streets are water?” she laughed. “I must see it to believe it.”

“Well, it will not be soon, Your Grace,” the prince told her. “That rascal Corsican, name of Napoleon, is on the march in Italy, and believe me, Venice is threatened. The whole damned Venetian empire is.”

“Oh dear,” Allegra said, disappointed.

“You'll have to take an old-fashioned wedding trip to Devon, or to the lakes,” Prinny said with a sympathetic smile.

Brummell saw the look of disappointment on Allegra's face. “Do not be sad, Your Grace,” he told her, “that Froggie rogue will soon be marched to Madame la Guillotine. His own peers can't abide him, and when the Bourbon king is restored, he'll have no friends at all at that court.”

“And then may I see the city of water?” Allegra said.

“Indeed, madame, you surely will,” Brummell agreed.

“Your Highness!”
Quinton Hunter strode into the room. “Welcome to Hunter's Lair. You honor us.” He swept the prince a bow, nodding at George Brummell in greeting.

“We came for the wedding,” the prince repeated, “only to learn from your charming bride that it was celebrated yesterday. Should have been here but for the wretched weather. Roads were so muddy and foul we had to stop our journey. Stayed at a dreadful place called The Royal George, and by Jove, I'll have the name of the place changed, I will! Food wasn't fit for pigs, and the beds were flea-bitten.”

“I have asked the prince to remain for your hunting party,” Allegra told her startled husband. “It seemed the hospitable thing to do, my lord, with our guests arriving in just a few days' time.”

George Brummell saw the surprised look that appeared, and was as quickly gone from the duke's face. Why there is no hunting party planned at all, he thought, amused at the clever temerity of the young Duchess of Sedgwick.
But there would be.
And in very short order, too, he expected. Brummell restrained a chuckle. He hadn't paid a great deal of attention to Allegra Morgan last season, but now he realized his mistake. The young woman was no foolish creature. She was intelligent; she was quick; and he admired her audacity. Their visit was going to prove very amusing.

“Who is included in this hunting party, Your Grace?” he asked wickedly, his blue eyes dancing mischievously.

Allegra easily saw that he was on to her, but certainly the prince wasn't. His Highness was as dense as pudding. “It's a small party, just my husband and his three closest friends. They have hunted together for years at
this time every autumn, Mr. Brummell. Lord Walworth, the Earl of Aston, and Viscount Pickford. It is very intimate, you understand, and now that these four gentlemen are wed, the party shall be even merrier,” Allegra said sweetly. Then she turned to the prince. “I hope that Your Highness will not be bored. Now that you are here, I shall invite the widowed Lady Perry and her sister, Lady Johnstone. That way we shall be even at dinner.” She smiled brightly at them.

“Excellent! Excellent!” the prince agreed.

“Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I will go and have two of our guest chambers readied for you and Mr. Brummell, Your Highness,” Allegra said. She curtsied, and moved serenely from the dining room.

“By Jove, Quinton,” the prince pronounced, “that's a fine girl you've married! Going to make you an excellent duchess, even if she ain't of the first order blood-wise. It don't hurt to improve the stock with something less than a thoroughbred young mare now and again.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” the duke replied, bowing, and feeling just the faintest prick of irritation over the prince's remarks. I am so damned proud of Allegra, he thought. What instincts she had! She had greeted their unexpected royal guest, fed him, and turned his disappointment into pleasure. And he had not a doubt that this hunting party was going to come off without a hitch.

Crofts was awaiting his mistress outside of the dining room doors. “I have had the Lake Suite prepared for His Highness and the Blue Bedroom for Mr. Brummell, your ladyship.”

“Excellent,” Allegra replied. “In one hour, Crofts, I shall want a footman to take my letters to the stables. Send one groom, mounted, for each letter, and they are
to await the reply. We are having a hunting party in two days. As far as the prince and his companion are concerned, this event has been planned for some time.”

“Very good, your ladyship,” Crofts said, hiding a smile. He had served two previous Duchesses of Sedgwick, and this third was more than their equal.

“I will be in my drawing room. Send Honor to me with my writing case,” she further instructed him.

“At once, your ladyship,” he replied, bowing, and hurried away.

As soon as she had her lap desk, Allegra hastily penned notes to Sirena, Eunice, and Caroline explaining that the prince had arrived without warning, and she had invited him to remain for a hunting party. They must come in two days' time. She then wrote a note to Lady Perry apologizing for her last minute invitation, and requesting that the lovely widow and her sister join them. Sealing her missives with red wax and impressing her seal ring in the wax, she rang for the footman.

“Has Crofts given you your instructions?” she asked the footman.

“One groom for each letter, and await the reply,” Perkins said. “Is that correct, your ladyship?”

“Go along then,” Allegra said nodding.

The next two days were spent in preparations, but those arrangements were made with the utmost discretion so as not to arouse the suspicions of their guests. The prince and the duke spent the day out-of-doors riding and hunting waterfowl. Mr. Brummell, however, begged off. They ate great breakfasts and suppers. The evenings were spent playing Whist for no stakes as Prinny well understood the duke's aversion to gambling, although he was unable to refrain from one small complaint.

“Seems to me a man so plump in the pockets shouldn't be so stingy, Sedgwick,” he grumbled. “Especially when he's winning.”

“But if we were playing for real stakes, Your Highness,” Allegra remarked, “you should owe my husband both Devon and Cornwall by now. Quinton is but saving your kingdom for you.”

Brummell burst out laughing. “A clever sally, your ladyship,” he said. “I hope you will come to London this winter.”

“It is unlikely, Mr. Brummell. We are country folk, and happy to be so,” Allegra said to him.

“Nonsense!” Prinny answered her. “I command you to come, Duchess. Can't ever have enough beautiful young women about me, I fear. You will be a triumph, I vow.”

“How flattering you are, Your Highness, but remember I have a duty to fill my husband's nursery even as your wife is now doing. I must attend to that before I come back to London,” Allegra told him.

“Prettily put, Duchess, but unless you are breeding, I will expect to see you dancing at Almack's,” Prinny replied. “God bless me! I believe I have won this hand, gentlemen.”

Quinton had not come to Allegra's bed the second night of their marriage, but she had been far too busy with all her preparations to notice his absence. Now on the third night she lay quietly, unable to sleep, and wondering why he was not by her side, when the door to their rooms opened and the duke entered the bedchamber, climbing into the bed next to her.

“My lord, I had begun to believe you had forgotten you had a wife,” Allegra said frostily. But secretly she was delighted to see him. “Our guests will be arriving tomorrow. We will have no time for each other, I fear.”

He pulled her into his arms, giving her a long, slow kiss that set her pulses racing and her toes tingling.

“I could hardly forget you, Allegra,” he told her when he had thoroughly kissed her, leaving her breathless and slightly dizzy. “And this is not my idea of a perfect first week of marriage. Damn me, my dear, if we shouldn't have taken a wedding trip after all.”

“It would have been fine,” Allegra replied, “if Prinny hadn't got it into his head to come to Hunter's Lair for our wedding, and then arrived after the fact. Why isn't he at home with his wife? She is expecting a baby after all.”

“He despises Princess Caroline. If the truth be known the princess is gauche, rough-spoken, and not given to bathing as frequently as she might. You know how fastidious Prinny is, my dear. I went to the wedding in April. The prince was drunk to the point of collapse. The king had to run after him when he wandered away from the altar during the ceremony.”

“How sad for his wife,” Allegra said softly.

“Why sad?” the duke probed. “Their marriage, like ours, was a sensible and practical matter, Allegra.”

“They might not be in love, Quinton, even as we are not in love, but you are kind to me. I do not believe if I were carrying your child that you would leave me to wander about visiting your friends and acquaintances,” she responded. “You would not desert me.”

“No, my dear, I would not,” he agreed softly. He lay her back against her pillows, smiling. “Dare I hope that you missed me last night here in your bed? I know that I missed being with you.”