Regency Surrender: Passion And Rebellion. Louise Allen

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made with this pair, thinking it would be bad form to abandon them in order to spend time with her new lover, when they could think of nothing but each other.

      As soon as she got home she had sent word that she was ready to accompany Nathan to the party he’d mentioned, to be thrown by some minor politician of whom she’d never heard. If Fenella was going to be wrapped up in Gaston for the duration of their stay in Paris, then she might as well spend every moment she could with her own lover.

      ‘I can see why Fenella believes him to be in earnest,’ she admitted. ‘But what still worries me is the fact that Fenella really has fallen for him. She was almost weeping when she told me she never thought she’d find love at her time of life, but that Gaston had made her feel like a young bride again.’

      And because she’d just spent the earlier part of the day feeling exactly the same, in relation to Nathan, she hadn’t been able to utter one single word of rebuke.

      ‘He got to his feet at that point, put his arm round her and claimed that the only reason he did not wish Fenella to tell me of their so-called plans until we returned safely to England was because he was afraid I would turn—’ She bit back what she had been about to say, unwilling to let Nathan know that Fenella was also in her employ, rather than just travelling with her as a friend, which was what she’d led him to believe.

      ‘Turn against her, for having loose morals,’ she finished lamely.

      Monsieur le Prune—and she might as well call him that now, since Le Brun wasn’t his real name either—had pointed out that since she’d employed Fenella to give her an air of respectability, now that her own morality was in question, poor Fenella was terrified she would lose her job.

      And then had come the only bright spot in her otherwise disastrous day. Fenella had looked up at him with reproach and declared that Amethyst would never abandon her in a foreign country, let alone Sophie. Even when he’d muttered that perhaps she did not know her employer as well as she thought, Fenella had been unshakeable. Fenella had stayed true to their friendship.

      No matter what happened next, whether the romance blossomed into marriage, or whether Monsieur Le Brun turned out to be some kind of ageing Lothario, Amethyst was not going to lose her friend.

      ‘I think he had been trying to turn her against me for some time. He’s worked on the guilt she felt for actually doing what all the ladies of Stanton Bassett accused her of doing—’

      ‘Hold on. Now you have lost me. What, exactly, have the ladies of Stanley Basset accused her of doing?’

      ‘Stanton. It’s Stanton Basset. Well, when she arrived with a baby, but no husband in evidence, rumours started to fly. You can imagine the sort of thing that provincial, narrow-minded women with too much time on their hands can invent. They’re always ready to believe the worst of people, without a shred of evidence to support it. Particularly if that person has nobody to vouch for her,’ she said indignantly. ‘And it was all the more unfair because Fenella is really a very moral person. Well, until she started misbehaving with Monsieur le Prune, I would have said she had never put a foot wrong in her life. Apart from marrying a plausible rogue the first time round. Honestly,’ she huffed, as they moved up yet another place in the receiving line, ‘you would have thought she’d have learned her lesson where men are concerned.’

      Although had she learned anything from her experience with Nathan? Here she was, seeking him out and confiding everything to him as though he was her closest, most trustworthy friend. Just as she’d done before.

      What right had she to question Fenella’s judgement when it came to men? At least Fenella had gone for a man she swore was completely different from the feckless charmer she’d eloped with as a girl. Gaston was clever, she declared, and hard working and capable, and he never, ever lost his temper.

      After that description of his merits, she saw that he was exactly the kind of man Fenella would fall for. She’d confessed she wanted a man to lean on. Someone dependable and patient. His looks were irrelevant.

      She might find the thought of getting amorous with him totally repellent, but he’d managed to put a bloom on Fenella’s cheeks. He was making her feel like a desirable, vibrant woman. Just as Nathan—

      Nathan, she suddenly realised, had gone awfully quiet. When she darted a glance up at him he was staring fixedly at the back of the stout man in front of them in the receiving line, a forced tightness about his lips.

      He was probably getting bored with her stupid prattle. Desperately, she strove to find some other topic of conversation.

      ‘You never did tell me,’ she said with determined brightness. ‘What is your connection to these people and why they have invited you tonight?’

      He turned to her then, his face twisting into a mask of harsh cynicism.

      ‘I know Wilson from my days as a Member of Parliament. We both, at that time, had very ambitious wives. They got on well together.’

      He didn’t look as though that fact pleased him. And when she frowned her confusion at him, he continued, ‘You seem to think that if she is so ambitious for her husband to succeed, they would have done better to stay in England, don’t you? Open your eyes, Amy, and look at the people they have attracted to their home.’

      As they were almost at the head of the stairs, by peering round the stout man in front of them, and his partner’s flounces, she could easily have caught glimpses of the glittering crowd thronging a large salon beyond.

      ‘Not that I am likely to recognise any of them,’ she retorted, stung by his patronising attitude.

      ‘Much better you don’t,’ he said harshly, tucking her arm firmly into his as they reached the landing. ‘But I will tell you the kind of people she is gathering about her in Paris. Influential people. She is using this trip to cement friendships she could never have forged in London. When Wilson returns to England, she will continue to use the connections she has made here to push him up the greasy pole.’

      ‘That’s not strictly true, though, is it? She invited you, even though...’ She trailed off.

      ‘Even though she was my wife’s friend, rather than mine, and my career is currently at such a low ebb it would be nothing short of miraculous for me to resurrect it?’ He raised one eyebrow, his tone challenging.

      ‘I was going to say,’ she replied, ‘that you cannot be of use to her any more, since you are no longer involved in politics.’

      He looked at her steadily for a few moments, then appeared to relent towards her.

      ‘It isn’t easy to understand this world until you’ve been a part of it. I certainly didn’t look beneath the glittering surface to the lethal undercurrents before I plunged in. I was even foolish enough, when I first got elected, to think I needed to go to the House upon occasion and listen to debates.’ His mouth twisted into a harsh sneer. ‘And that was even though I knew that Lucasta’s father had bought the votes of the potwallopers in my borough. But I soon learned that isn’t how a man succeeds in politics. He needs to ingratiate himself with the right people. Do deals in secret. Be prepared to perjure his soul in return for promotion.’

      ‘But...’

      ‘You cannot see how I can be of use to these people, is that what you were going to say? Oh, Amy...’ he laughed, bitterly ‘...have you forgotten? My father is, and always will be, the Earl of Finchingfield, and he

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