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Lord Lovedon’s Duel

Castle de Grey, Kensington

Wednesday 17 June 1835

“We’d best do it now,” Chloe Sharp told her older sister “Say goodbye and bawl, so that we don’t make a spectacle of ourselves, or set Mama off”

“Y-yes Oh, Chloe, I’llon Chloe’s neck, heedless of the wrinkles and stains she made on two of London’s costliest dresses

Bride and bridese that ran between the picture gallery, which extended the ing’s full length, and the s Room, occupied the center of the first floor of the Duke of Marchuests were celebrating Althea’s e, though, the merriment was practically inaudible

This was the last ti ti Still, she made herself draay

“That’s enough,” she said “We don’t want the Beau Monde to see us with tear-streaked faces and crushed bows and creases Coht, and I can put you back to rights”

She started to open the door to the gallery, but paused as a wave of hter spilled toward theht hold of Chloe’s arled the way they used to do when they were children, hiding to spy on grown-ups

“But everybody knows he was obliged to give up the girl he loved,” somebody said Mr Crawford? Chloe had met so many aristocrats today that their names and faces were a hopeless muddle in her brain

“Which girl was that?” another man said

“A sweetheart Prince Louis left behind in Massbeck-Holveg,” Crawford said “Lovers torn asunder, you know, by Fate”

Althea inhaled sharply, her grip on Chloe’s ar

“Love, gentlehness cannot afford,” said a deep, drawling voice “Three royal castles in his speck of a country, and all of the to pieces He doesn’t need love: He needs new chimneys”

Though Chloe had never heard that voice before today, she kneho it belonged to: James Bransby, the Earl of Lovedon

A leader of fashion, one of Prince Louis’s dearest English friends, a favorite of the King and Queen, and famously whimsical, he was London’s most elusive bachelor

The h it was the wittiest thing they’d ever heard

“Come away,” Chloe whispered to her sister “There’s a doorway to another room—”

“He’s hardly the first of the King’s cousins to coland for a rich wife,” Lovedon continued “For the is merely a business transaction Naturally he’ll put aside any personal disappointments with Teutonic fortitude, like the staunch patriot he is”

While he spoke, Chloe are of Althea’s breath coave a so of Chloe’s arm

Though she wanted to push Lord Lovedon out of a , Chloe had to tend to her sister first She pulled Althea toward another doorway, an open one leading to one of the back staircases Althea was sobbing again, this tiulps

Chloe half-dragged her to the door on the other side of the landing, through the recently abandoned dining roo rooardens that spread out for miles, it seemed, from the north front of the house Thanks to the afternoon’s onslaught of rain, a grey haze shrouded the glorious vista Chloe had gli

She grasped Althea by the upper arently shook her “Those men are drunk,” she said She was none too sober herself, she realized, as a wave of dizziness nearly toppled her Firly, “I was ane Lord Lovedon could pour down his throat and still stand upright But you knohat aristocrats are like: heads of oak, and hearts even harder”

“It—it wasn’t a secret Prince Louis told me he was poor—but he s-said he l-loved me”

“Which he does, as everyone can see—except Lord Lovedon and his dinize a love match when they see one Defective vision, you know, thanks to centuries of inbreeding—and the pox, too, probably And don’t forget the gallons of chaossip because they lack the ent conversation My love, you can’t possibly take them seriously”

“But what if it’s true?” Althea said “Only think of Prince Louis pining for the girl he loves, while having to pretend to care for me”

“If there was such a girl, he forgot her the instant he clapped eyes on you,” Chloe said “I was there, recollect, on the day His Highness camore”

Mama had patronized the French dressmakers practically from the day they opened their shop Chloe and Althea had been waiting in the showroomore entered

“Once His Highness got his first look at you, he couldn’t see or think about anything else,” Chloe said “He certainly didn’t know then that you were rich”

“H-he could have g-guessed, I wasn’t p-poor,” Althea said, “considering it’s theshop in L-London”

Chloe dismissed this with a wave “The point is, he fell over head and ears in love with you, and everybody knows it except this pack of drunken degenerates How can you let a lot of strutting ignora day?”

She went on in this hile she swiftly set about repairing the outward da relentless mockery and mimicry of Lord Lovedon & Company with more practical remedies—the careful application of a handkerchief, readjust of wrinkles—she soon restored Althea to the state of glowing happiness she’d enjoyed only a short time earlier By the time Althea returned to her prince—who lit up, by the way, at the sight of her—she was giggling

Bride and bridegroom disappeared into the mob of ishers

Chloe looked about her All was in hand

Except for one small detail

She took a glass of cha footlass down on the nearest horizontal surface, then started back the way she’d come

This tiallery, the hter sounded farther away

As she entered, she saw the the north front

He was easy enough to spot

The Earl of Lovedon was tall and dark, yes, but not handsoular for classical beautyalthough from the neck down he was all too classical, like a Greek statue That chiseled profile and athletic physique had claimed her attention all too often this day The view had left hertoo fast

His big shoulders propping up a corner of thee his cynicalcrossed in front of the other The casual stance displayed the highest level of tailor’s art: His fine wool coat skimmed the contours of his broad shoulders and chest, and his black trousers hugged his s

> If he hadn’t had so to lean on, he’d probably fall on his face, the drunken moron

Theto notice her approach until she was practically under their noses

Then Lord Lovedon’s dark gaze slanted her way

“Ah, Miss Sharp,” he said lazily “Taken a wrong turn, have you? The duke’s house is so of a labyrinth All sorts of odd corners and not-so-secret floors between floors Happily, you needn’t fear hisout of a concealed door She’s moved to Torquay”

Chloe stripped off one of her gloves and struck his cheek with it She grabbed a glass of chane from one of his startled companions and threw the contents in his face

He didn’t so ne dripped from his face onto his perfect neck cloth and down over his splendid silk waistcoat

Over the roo sounded like drumbeats Her heart beat a harder and faster tempo

“What is wrong with you?” she said “How could you say such hurtful things? At a wedding, no less! How dare youday, of all days? You brute”

“I say,” someone said

“What the devil?” someone else said

She ignored them “If I were a man,” she said, “I’d draw your cork for you I’d— No Why do I need to be a ood as to name your second, my lord”

She are of hurried footsteps behind her, and familiar voices Her sister Sarah had come And Amy Renfrew, Chloe’s dearest friend after Althea

“Oh, Lord, I knew it,” Sarah said “I saw that look I know that look”

“Come away, Chloe,” Amy said “Whatever it is, let it be”

“Name your second, Lord Lovedon,” Chloe said