Page 10 of A Duke to Undo her (The Husband Hunt #1)

Chapter Seven

“Anightcap, Mother?” the Duke of Ashbourne asked Duchess Nerissa courteously. “Benedict?”

It was only half past ten, and the three of them were back again at Ashbourne House, their London mansion. Cassius was glad that Philip Kemp’s dinners never went on late and everyone could go home at a civilized hour. He had certainly not wished to linger overlong in tonight’s company.

“Why, yes,” said Nerissa, her face crinkling into a pleasant smile. “Let us all take a glass of negus in the library. It will help us sleep.”

Benedict hesitated at the bottom of the staircase but then shrugged agreeably, apparently not keen to sit up tonight but willing to comply with their mother’s wishes. Cassius guessed that it was his own company that made Benedict ambivalent but that couldn’t be helped.

The duke rang for a maid and ordered their drinks before leading the small party into the library.

“You really could have made more of an effort with Margaret Peckford,” his mother reproached Cassius mildly as she settled herself into a comfortable chair. “I did so want you to know her. She is such a nice girl and so well-mannered. Didn’t you find her so?”

“One young lady is much the same as another to me,” the duke shrugged. “I have already forgotten Margaret Peckford, Mother. I did not intend to be rude.”

“You never do, but you often are,” Benedict pointed out, taking his own seat beside their mother and offering her a throw for her lap.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Cassius demanded crossly but then calmed as Nerissa gave both of them a warning glance.

“It is too late at night for arguments, my boys. Save your differences for tomorrow when you can look at matters more equably.”

“Sadly, I fear that Cassius’ temper will be no better tomorrow,” Benedict observed, clearly holding some sort of grudge.

“Benedict!” their mother now reprimanded her younger son sharply and he fell silent. “Now, Cassius, returning to Miss Peckford?”

“Must you return to Miss Peckford?” Cassius groaned, regretting that he had even suggested this drink.

“Yes, I must, unless there is another young lady occupying your thoughts, Cassius,” stated Nerissa firmly.

The goading image of Lady Josephine Thomson crossed the duke’s mind, her autumnal hair tumbling around her face and her light dress half off one-shoulder, although he had never actually seen her in quite such disarray as that.

Shouldn’t you have been attending more to the worthy and virtuous ladies in the party rather than watching me..?

“Christ!” he muttered, sitting up abruptly as his blood quickened with the memory of that young baggage’s voice.

“There is no need for bad language, Cassius,” his mother reproved him. “It is perfectly natural that I should wish you to find a good wife so that I may live to see my grandchildren grow. You need not react so violently to the idea.”

The duke took a deep breath. He could hardly explain to his mother and Benedict that it was Lady Josephine who drew such violent reaction from him, not his mother’s well-intended, if unwelcome, suggestion.

He distinctly regretted having approached that young lady in the hallway tonight.

It felt as though he had deepened a small wound or foolishly inhaled some intoxicating and addictive compound.

Thank God he’d had the presence of mind to walk away. The woman was a menace, body, heart and soul, even if Benedict refused to see it. Cassius had never before met a young woman who challenged his self-control quite as Lady Josephine Thomson did, merely through her very existence.

“We have spoken of this before, Mother, several times,” Cassius stated implacably. “I do not intend to marry. Benedict will be my heir and it is to him you must look for your grandchildren. Why do you not matchmake Miss Peckford with my brother?”

At this, Benedict balked, evidently no more taken with the pale and over-slender charms of Miss Peckford than the duke.

“Don’t bring me into this business, Cassius,” the blond man objected. "I’m sure Miss Peckford is virtuous and respectable enough to be any gentleman’s wife, Mother, but I will choose my own.”

“Of course, dear,” the dowager duchess nodded sympathetically.

“I had hoped that Cassius might outgrow this odd idea of making you his heir in time. What man does not want a good wife at this side? A happy marriage is such a comfort and support to both parties. I should hate to see either of you sacrifice the chance to enjoy what your father and I had.”

“Do you think Father would ever have married if he knew he would die so young and so suddenly?” Cassius pointed out, ruing his words almost instantly when he saw the color drain from his mother’s face.

“I am sorry to speak so plainly, Mother. I believe he loved you too much to ever wish to inflict such pain upon you.”

Fortunately, the passage of years and the careful years of nursing from her sister had restored Nerissa’s mental and emotional resilience. She only smiled sadly at her son as she considered her response.

“Your father and I would have married one another only to have a single day together. You do not understand love, Cassius. I hope you will one day.”

The three of them sat in silence for a minute to two as the drinks were served and the maid withdrew once more. It was Benedict who picked up the conversation and turned it in a slightly different direction.

“I shall be calling at Elmridge House again tomorrow, just so that you know,” he said, a firm and recognizable challenge to Cassius in his voice although the tone was light.

The duke acknowledged this in kind, with his own light and firm comment on his brother’s words.

“Just so that you know, Mother, Benedict is telling us that he intends to call again on Lady Josephine Thomson tomorrow, against my express wishes. When he tells you that he wishes to choose his own wife, have a care for what he is really thinking and do not be deceived.”

“Why must you interfere like this, Cassius?” Benedict responded with a frown.

“I like Lady Josephine. She is more fun to be with than any young lady I have ever met. You’re the one who keeps talking about marriage, not me.

I only want to spend time with someone who has a sense of humor and doesn’t try to control me… ”

“Lady Josephine was the young lady you spent most of this evening with, wasn’t she?” Nerissa queried, stepping into the conversation before it could become a row. “The one in the cream silk evening gown with such lovely hair and eyes?”

Benedict nodded, appealing for his mother’s support.

“Yes, isn’t she delightful? You should see how well Lady Josephine dances too.”

“Like a wild creature from ancient myth or an inmate of Bedlam,” noted the duke sardonically, to Benedict’s displeasure.

Now it was the duke’s turn to receive a warning work from his mother.

“Cassius,” she pleaded with him.

He held up his hands in truce as the Dowager Duchess Nerissa shook her head at him.

“Lady Josephine did strike me as a lively and amiable young woman, as well as having a very attractive face and figure,” the duchess now said slowly.

“However, she is also a little flighty and unpredictable, haven’t you heard?

She does not have the quiet manners and steady comportment of someone like Miss Margaret Peckford. ”

“Flighty and unpredictable? No, Lady Josephine is of unconventional mind and never dull,” Benedict declared. “I will not be prevented from furthering our acquaintance on that account.”

“Benedict, I am head of this family,” Cassius reminded him but received only a withering response.

“As if you ever let me forget these days. I do not challenge your authority, brother, but you must see that I am not a boy any more.”

“If you’re a grown man, then why don’t you…”

“This is all very silly,” the dowager duchess said, stepping in again swiftly before the disagreement could escalate. “There is no need for the two of you to clash over Lady Josephine.”

“You can’t really intend to take Benedict’s side in this, Mother,” Cassius said. "If your ideal wife for your sons is Miss Peckford, you can hardly entertain the possibility of one of them marrying Lady Josephine.”

“I’m not talking about marrying anyone!” Benedict remarked crossly. “Although sometimes, I think it would serve you right, if I walked out into a London street, and married the first woman I encountered…”

Nerissa shook her head at both of them again but maintained her equanimity.

“No, I share your misgivings, Cassius. Unconventional minds can be a great liability, especially in women. Still, Benedict is young and some things are better learned through experience. Lady Josephine would not be a good wife for him but I am sure he will see this himself. In the meantime, there is no harm in friendship.”

“So, I have your blessing at least to continue calling on her?” Benedict asked his mother cautiously. “You at least must see that I need friends of my own temperament."

Duchess Nerissa shrugged.

“You are a grown man of two-and-twenty, Benedict, as you have reminded us. You do not need my blessing for anything. I have made it clear that I see any marriage between you and Lady Josephine as ill-judged. I ask only that you do nothing precipitate and get to know her well before you entertain any more serious notions.”

“That seems fair,” Benedict answered his parent with equal consideration and a still-irked glance at Cassius.

“We have only met a handful of times, if that reassures you, Mother. It is only Cassius who makes me out to be somehow advanced in any sort of courtship. I have no desire to marry in haste, whether Lady Josephine or anyone else.”

“Good, I am very glad to hear that,” she responded with a smile. “Your father and I knew one another for two years before he proposed and we were betrothed almost another year before we married. Those three years meant that we could both be very sure of one another’s character and intentions.”

Cassius sipped his drink and reflected on his mother’s wise thinking and his brother’s more measured response to her reasonable request compared to his own peremptory edicts.

“Perhaps you are right, Mother,” the duke partly conceded. “There is much merit in what you say about allowing Benedict to learn his own lessons with regard to Lady Josephine.”

“In that case, I should like to include Lady Josephine and her sister in the Ashbourne Castle house party next month,” Benedict stated glibly, making Cassius’ jaw drop.

“Good God!” the duke exclaimed, almost dropping his glass at the thought of that willful and shapely young woman roaming the corridors, lawns and woods of his country estate in various states of dishevelment. “You can’t be serious about that, Benedict.”

Duchess Nerissa raised her eyebrow at his oath and pursed her lips as she formed her response.

“Isn’t it better that Benedict should get to know Lady Josephine under our direct supervision, Cassius? It will allow him to see her more clearly, while you will be able to set the agenda for each day of the party and will have more control over events than you do in London.”

“But I will have to see Lady Josephine every day,” the Duke of Ashbourne protested, running a hand through his already disordered hair and feeling his heart beating faster and more heavily at the very thought of this. “Every day for most of a week, every meal, every outing…”

“Oh, I am sure she is not such a trial as that, Cassius,” Nerissa laughed, this objection not sounding at all serious to her. “I shall speak to her sister Lady Elmridge and make sure Lady Josephine does not vex you, if that would help.”

“No,” Cassius said quickly, horrified at the idea of Lady Josephine learning the impact of her very presence and the advantage she might then possess in aggravating him all the more on purpose. “Say nothing of me to them, I beg you.”

“Do I have your agreement to include Lady Josephine in the house party, brother?” Benedict asked coolly. “It’s rather hard to tell.”

“Yes,” answered the duke reluctantly. “You may invite Lady Josephine, if you must. I only hope our mother is right that so much time together will bring you to your senses.”

It would either bring Benedict to his senses or drive Cassius himself out of his mind, the duke reflected silently to himself.