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“You think I mean to call you out for having the audacity to absent yourself from my tableaux vivant ? No mind, Aurelia has dashed every hope in that quarter already. Have you any sisters? They are, in my opinion, a far greater arse-chafe than even the one I have just endured.”

Anderson gave the unutterably dreary reply that no, he did not have sisters. Then he once again closed his lips and said no more.

Saye was saved from death by tedium when the innkeeper arrived with a platter of bread and cheese.

Truly, it was good to be lord of the manor in one’s home county.

He gestured that Anderson should help himself and then looked on in disgust as the man took a chunk of cheese and nibbled at it.

Like a rat!—but no! Saye would not think of him in such disparaging terms. He had always been exceedingly mindful of how eating appeared repulsive and had spent considerable time in front of his own mirror, learning to eat charmingly.

He had to recall, however, that too many others had never done likewise.

Thus did men nibble like mice and never know how unmanly it appeared while thus engaged.

The display ceased mercifully quickly. Having evidently rallied sufficient courage to speak, Anderson set the cheese aside.

“I rather thought your lordship might have come to insist that I absent myself from a different sort of engagement.”

“I should never presume to tell Georgette whom she ought to wed, though others might.”

Anderson sighed heavily. “It was always a possibility. It is inevitable after that little scene in your library.”

“I confess I have never heard her speak so passionately about anything, and I have known her a good deal longer than you have. ”

“Do not think I blame her—she is an extraordinary woman, and her defence of me was magnificent. I still wish she had not done it. There was no need. I am well used to society’s scorn, and her speaking for me in that way has only jeopardised her reputation.”

“Bah! If you were worried about reputation, you would not be marrying her.” Saye enjoyed Anderson’s shock, but then, he enjoyed most things that proved he was right.

“In any case, Georgette is no fool. She knows precisely what risk an alliance with you poses to her reputation, and she has accepted you nevertheless. Her good name is not why you were in such high dudgeon.”

Anderson regarded him searchingly for a moment or two, then gave in to a wry smile.

“You are quite astute, sir. It has been the study of my life to be unremarkable. Notice brings ruin when you have a reputation like mine. And I have more people than myself, or even Georgette, relying upon me to remain inconspicuous.”

“So, you ran away.”

Anderson inhaled deeply but then nodded.

“How exceedingly gallant of you.”

“I cannot defend myself, except to say that every person in that room was staring at me, and every one of them knew what I was, where I came from, and what I would do to their friend and cousin once I took the selfish step of making her my wife. It was a bloody uncomfortable situation for a man as unused to attention as I. Yes, I confess, I ran away.” He exhaled forcefully and spoke with startling emotion, almost snarling as he added, “You do not need to tell me that I ought to have gone to Georgette. Instead, I left her to fend for herself. It was poorly done.”

“You did not cover yourself in glory, it is true. But that is why I am here. To help you redeem yourself.”

Anderson said nothing, but he looked intrigued.

“Truth be told, I was not entirely blameless in the matter. Had I not teased Georgette about her entanglement with you, we would never have been overheard talking about you, and the whole thing might have been avoided. Now my cousin has been hurt, and I am in the devil of a bind with Miss Goddard over it. We shall put things to rights, I assure you.”

Anderson’s impassive countenance reflected none of the gratitude or excitement Saye had anticipated. He looked disappointed, resigned almost.

“I cannot change who or what I am. Even were I willing, which I am not, the memories of neither my mother nor my brother can be erased. And the stain of my work in Golders Green cannot be removed, as you well know. Society’s memory is long, and its compassion in short supply.”

“It is not compassion you need, but influence, and that I have in abundance. I can fix you, Anderson. You need only to concern yourself with Georgette. ”

“Fix me?” Anderson gave him an odd look. “How do you propose to do that?”

Saye leant back in his chair. “Do you know the best part of being handsome, titled, and outrageously wealthy?”

“Forcing large groups of people to come to your house and submit themselves to your strange perversions?”

Saye laughed heartily. “Well done! Quite funny, in fact. That is amusing, I admit, but even more so, I happen to enjoy taking things that are unpopular and making them popular. You know that absolutely no one wore lace at their wrists until I did? Many thought it quite pinkish, in fact, but now? De rigueur .”

“Is that so?”

“And blue velvet coats. I was first, at the theatre back in ’04.”

“Indeed? Polite society is quite in your debt.”

Saye nodded. “Anyone can fashion themselves after the plates. A certain few can even set a fashion, like Brummell, so proud of his accursed cravats and really, what is it but tying knots in different ways? But it takes someone truly magnificent, a man of exceedingly great influence and power to take the unfashionable and make it fashion.” With a modest nod, he added, “I am that man.”

Anderson looked supremely and irritatingly unimpressed. “You are saying you would make me fashionable?”

Saye eyed Anderson’s coat. “That may be beyond even my powers.” Then he smirked.

“I am saying I can remove your stain. We Matlocks give so much to the penitent prostitutes and beggars—why not help a few wretched children besides? I shall make it my personal philanthropy, perhaps even get my mother to throw in with her friends. A salon or something. She will know just how to do it.”

Anderson cleared his throat. “I comprehend that your intentions are noble, and I am grateful for it?—”

Saye forced himself to keep grinning, despite his incredulity. The ingrate was going to refuse his help!

“—but I am not another of your madcap adventures, and neither are any of the children under my care. My endeavours are not entertaining or even pleasurable much of the time. But these children rely on me to put food in their mouths and a roof above their heads. I cannot afford to be made the current fascination of your set, for when they lose interest—and they will lose interest—I shall be worse off than I was before. Tainted and outmoded. My life is not a game for you to pick up and toy with on a whim. If it is all the same to you, I should prefer to continue as I am.”

“That was quite a speech,” Saye said once he was satisfied Anderson had— finally —finished.

His ire had evaporated, and he made a note to thank Darcy again—that was twice in one day his cousin had saved him by his miserable example.

Eight-and- twenty years triumphing over Darcy’s stupendous pride was more than enough practice to inure him to Anderson’s posturing.

“I should have little claim to greatness if my schemes went out of favour as quickly as you imply. The very best fashions are timeless. Thus, I shall make you enduringly fascinating. But we must walk before we can run.”

He pointed a crust of bread at Anderson. “Just you see if by the end of the Season, you are not the talk of the ton .”

“It must be difficult for a man like you to comprehend that I do not enjoy scrutiny.” A ghost of a smile flitted across Anderson’s face, belying his despondent tone. “Yet, my discomfort notwithstanding, I cannot deny you would make Georgette exceedingly happy if you were to succeed.”

If I were to succeed? Lord, who does this man think I am?

“Consider it done.” Saye gave the table three staccato beats with his hand, as he often did when satisfied.

“So, we know what I shall do to fix you, and you will have the whole of your travels to contemplate what grand gesture you might bestow upon Georgette.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Try to keep apace, Blandy. “You have just acknowledged that my cousin enjoys attention, and that you did her a disservice when you ran away this afternoon. What better way to regain her favour than with a grand gesture? ”

“We have also just established that I do not care for making a spectacle of myself.”

Saye fixed Anderson with a look he did not often employ, but which he knew to be effective.

“I daresay Georgette would not have chosen a life on the periphery of society, but such she was willing to submit to—for you.” He waited until Anderson gave a brief, chastened nod, then returned to grinning amiably.

“Besides, your secrets are all out now. You have nothing to hide, at least from my house guests. Send me an express when you have settled on an idea. I shall undertake to make whatever preparations are necessary in time for your return.”

He rose, popping one last bite of cheese in his mouth and chewing it with proficient elegance as he prepared to leave.

He wondered whether it would be impertinent to ask Anderson for a spare pair of buckskins, for he knew not how much more punishment his tender hindquarters might endure.

But no, it was too much. Almost-cousins they might be, but Saye did not wear small clothes, and the imposition of his own ballocks in another man’s breeches was likely too dear.

With a short bow, he bade Anderson a good journey and went to his horse.

Perhaps, if I propose very nicely, Lilly might be prevailed upon to aid me later in soothing whatever has been made sore, he thought with a grin.