Page 43 of The Colonist’s Petition (Heirs & Heroes #2)

Thirty-Two

A lex folded another petticoat. “I cannot believe you leave for London in two days. Our time has gone much too fast.”

“You can still come with us,” said Jane.

“No.” Alex rubbed her hip. “I cannot travel again. I believe the waters are helping. This Season is for you and George to enjoy. One was enough for me.”

George wrapped Johnathan’s miniature in his handkerchief. “Will you be terribly lonely?”

“I have several new friends I have made at the baths.”

“And they are all as old as grandfather,” said George.

Alex threw a ribbon at George. “Not all of them. The Countess of Dunningham is not two years my senior. She is to stay here until her confinement, while her husband is in Town for the parliamentary session.”

It was not right, Alex living alone. Well, she would not be completely alone.

Green and her husband moved here to Bath with Alex, and there was a new cook and two maids.

While servants were people, and Green far more personable than most, they still were not those whom Alex could interact with socially.

Alex as a hermitess was not a lovely picture.

“You will promise to go to every music recital you can?”

“I’ve promised ten times over to do exactly that and to attend services.” Alex folded another shift. “Let us finish this and then we can partake of the waters. Father could be here as early as morning to collect you both.”

According to the landlord, the flat was everything that a young gentleman in Town for the Season could want, including quarters for the valet and a cook who set out a breakfast each day.

It was not a home. Only a place to sleep.

Johnathan sat on the bed. At least it was comfortable.

The chair in the small parlor room was not.

Johnathan dreaded the hours he must continue to study almost as much as he dreaded the time he would spend in insipid conversation with each peer, his wife, daughters, and sons.

Fortunately he only needed the patriarch or heir’s support and influence.

March was time to prepare fields for planting.

Watch over cows, sows, and nannies as they progressed to increasing the livestock population.

Time for taking inventory of the winter stores to see how far they could be stretched.

Sitting in a club placing bets on things such as raindrops, discussing politics with men who never saw war—only read about it in the papers—or strategizing crop rotation with men who never planted a seed was becoming increasingly ridiculous.

Each day, more gentlemen arrived with their wives and daughters in tow.

Each day, there were more people to meet and impress.

Johnathan lay back on the bed and stared at the underside of the canopy. The entire venture was exhausting without being physically wearing. How his father would laugh if Johnathan could tell him how much he desired to chop a cord of wood. Even mucking out a stall would be welcome at the moment.

This was a mistake.

He did not belong here.

He should have refused his grandpa’s wish.

Georgiana.

She was the only reason to endure.

Georgiana.

Would she understand if he could not continue?

If only they could talk. She should arrive in Town sometime this week.

But he must wait for an invitation before calling on her at the townhouse he called home these last several months.

Lady Healand promised a small dinner party including him, within the week.

In the meantime he was due at White’s. The earl had secured a private meeting room for them to meet each day at 1:30.

He could do this, if for no other reason than Georgiana.