At exactly one o’clock, the butler delivered Walter’s card. “Of course he is promptly on time. One would expect nothing less,” Nicolas said.
Walter entered with Felicity at his side. After greetings, Nicholas invited them to make themselves comfortable.
Walter glanced at Chase, then addressed Nicholas. “I was hoping to do this with you alone. The matter is very delicate.”
“Chase is here at my request. If you intend to tell me that the Countess von Kirchen is not the widow she claims, I already know that.”
Walter colored. “I have no interest in your mistresses. This, as I wrote, is a matter of utmost importance.” He leaned in, very sober-faced. “It has to do with Uncle’s death.”
“Then Chase most certainly should be here. Perhaps you will share what you have come to tell me.”
“My wife was in town a few days before Uncle died. She had some shopping to do. She was on Bond Street and—”
“Perhaps you will allow her to tell it, since it is her story,” Chase said.
Walter frowned at him. He turned to Felicity. “Are you up to it?”
“I am sure she is, aren’t you, Felicity?” Nicholas said.
She nodded. “I was in town, shopping. I saw Kevin while I was on Bond Street. Riding down, as plain as could be. Later, when everyone said he was in France, I didn’t know what to do. On that day, at least, he was not.”
Chase glanced at Nicholas just as Nicholas glanced at him. Hell and damnation.
“You are very sure?” Chase asked.
“I would recognize one of my husband’s cousins, wouldn’t I?”
“Not if it were foggy, or you did not see him head-on.”
“I am sure it was Kevin.”
“It is rather late to be remembering this,” Nicholas said.
She colored. Walter looked ready to huff on her behalf. “I remembered at once. I did not say anything, even to Walter, because I did not want to cause trouble for Kevin.”
“And now you do?”
Chase had never seen Felicity show anger, or even much emotion other than wifely adoration. Now her expression sharpened. “I thought, since the matter remains unresolved, that I should tell my husband. He thought you should know.”
“How good of you both,” Nicholas said. He stood. “I will speak with Kevin about this, and if necessary, when necessary, inform the Home Office.”
Walter looked up in dismay, then rose to his feet too. “Come, dear. It appears the duke has a busy day planned and we should not impose on his time.”
Nicholas did not say one word to disagree with that.
“It may be time to tell Kevin to hop that packet,” Nicholas said after they were gone.
Chase had already decided last night to do just that. “You could have been more gracious. You all but threw them out.”
“I can’t abide Walter. He enjoyed telling me this. He is probably doing the calculations to see how much more he might get if Kevin is hanged.”
“He left feeling insulted. By tomorrow he will be a hot air balloon of self-righteousness.”
Nicholas slammed his fist on the back of a divan, cursed again, then calmed. “I will apologize. Now, what was your news of utmost importance?”
It would be better to give Nicholas some time to recover from Walter and his wife. “Call for your horse. Let us ride along the river.”
Nicholas went to the door. “I’m not going to like your news any more than I liked Walter’s, am I?”
* * *
“Walter seemed to believe the Countess von Kirchen is your mistress. Is she?” Chase threw out the question after they slowed their horses and walked them along the riverbank west of town. Nicholas had not accused him of betrayal outright when he revealed the Home Office inquiry, but the wait for his horse had been very silent.
“I suppose she is.”
“You don’t know?”
“‘Mistress’ implies an arrangement. There isn’t one. At least I have not willingly agreed to one.”
“Might you have, in a weak moment, agreed to one unwillingly?”
Nicholas laughed, more to himself than at Chase. “Possibly. There were a few weak moments in the last few days.”
Chase remembered how the countess had shown an aggressive side at Nicholas’s dinner party. When he foisted her off on Nicholas himself, he had not anticipated an entanglement. If he had been thinking about anyone other than Minerva, and how beautiful she looked when Nicholas brought her over, he might have guessed that the countess would make her own arrangement with the new duke, and quickly.
That was the problem with inappropriate women of a certain class. They had expectations, even if those did not include marriage.
“Speaking of mistresses, how is Miss Hepplewhite?” Nicholas asked.
“She is not my mistress.”
“Forgive me. Speaking of lovers, how is she?”
“Doing quite well. Sanders informed her that some of the funds were being released, and she availed herself of a few pounds. Also the valuation of that business came in handsomely high.”
“That complicates matters for you, I expect,” Nicholas said.
It was not a turn in the conversation that Chase had expected. “Somewhat.”
“In the least you do not have a clear field anymore. Word will spread fast. Every lord with more privilege than money will consider her a catch. If not for your interest in her, I would myself.”
“They will be wasting their time. She has no interest in marrying.”
“And here I thought I might be hosting a wedding breakfast soon. She doesn’t seem fitting for the inappropriate woman category either. I assumed she was your lover, but that things were moving to a more formal arrangement.”
“It is complicated, as you said.”
“Perhaps not as much as you think. It isn’t like you are a fortune hunter. She probably knows that your vocation is by choice, not necessity.” Nicholas turned a big smile on him. “Why not propose, and see just how uncomplicated it might be?”
Because she has said, bluntly, that she will never marry again. In light of her first marriage, he understood that. He would like to think she knew she could trust him to never be like Finley, ever, no matter how provoked or how drunk or how angry, but he wondered if she could believe that about any man.
He had not weighed marriage in a specific way because of that, but he did not want to lose her either. He certainly did not want to watch other men pursuing her, even if he did not think she would change her mind about marriage.
“My thinking on finding some semblance of a formal alliance has taken other directions,” he said.
“You had better finish that thinking soon. I give you a fortnight at best before the calls start. She met enough people at my dinner for a few families to have a foot in the door.”
“I was expecting to annoy you today, not have you annoy me.”
“You annoyed me plenty. I’m just getting revenge,” Nicholas said. “I am actually enjoying myself. Say, are you going to tell me why uncle gave her that legacy?”
“No.”
Nicholas shrugged. “I suppose it was another example of his eccentric generosity. I have received letters from some other recipients. They are hoping, I think, that I am just as peculiar as he was and will continue the tradition of passing out gold coins on impulse.”