Dangerous in Diamonds - Madeline Hunter [75]
“I treated their strange certainty of discovered riches the same way that I have treated yours.” He pointed his horse west, to where paradise waited. “Really, this nonsense is all too tedious.”
Chapter Sixteen
Park Lane appeared unusually busy for a street flanked by a park on its west and noble houses on its east. Castleford rode his horse past three of those great homes before realizing all the activity was in front of the one he sought.
Wagons lined the walk, and servants buzzed about. He handed his horse’s reins to one, went to the open door, and peered in.
A footman hurried over. Not young, green Perthy, but a hearty fellow of more exacting demeanor. Castleford handed over his card, and asked to speak with Mrs. Joyes.
The fellow’s eyebrows did not even register vague surprise. Impeccably proper and deferential in every way, he escorted Castleford up to the drawing room.
It did not take long for the servant’s steps to sound outside the chamber again. Just male footfalls approached, however. None others.
Castleford’s temper spiked. Damnation, the woman was going to refuse to receive him again. Well, if she wanted it that way, so be it. No more patience. No more gentility. He would just go up there again and lock that door and have her right there in that pale chamber. He would be damned before he allowed her to lead him in this dance one day longer. It was damned well past time to—
“Summerhays,” he said with surprise, the angry monologue dropping from his mind.
The door had opened while he fumed, but the footman had not returned. Instead, Sebastian Summerhays stood there. The same Sebastian Summerhays who was supposed to be on the coast with his wife.
“What a surprise to see you, Castleford. Has word spread so fast that we are back?” Summerhays greeted him warmly, with one of the charming smiles that turned women into fools.
“You know how it is in town in summer. Any bit of talk spreads fast, there is so little to discuss,” he replied. It sounded like something Albrighton would say, all dodgy and indirect. “Why have you returned? Did the prime minister call for you?”
Summerhays scowled at the reference. “They are asking no counsel from me, which only makes me fear whose counsel they are getting instead. Yours?”
“We should be so fortunate. If you are not returned for that, then why? It is an odd time to leave the coast, with your wife close to being brought to bed.”
“It appears that will happen here. She insisted on coming with me. It took four days, because I dared not let the horses do more than a moderate pace.” Summerhays sat and gestured for his guest to as well. “We came back because I expect my brother’s return from the Continent. I received the letter a week ago. His ship should arrive any day now, I expect.”
Summerhays’s brother, the Marquess of Wittonbury, had left England a little over a year before, for his health and for other reasons having to do with honor. An acknowledgment of the history of the marquess’s departure passed between him and Summerhays in the look they exchanged.
“So that explains why I am here,” Summerhays said. “And why Audrianna accompanied me. She has a special bond with him. Now all that remains is an explanation of why you are here.” As he said the last part, he reached into a pocket and removed the calling card just sent up with the footman. He made a display of reading the note on the back. “Sober, no less. I am impressed.”
Damnation.
Summerhays looked over with a merry twinkle in his eyes. Castleford acted bored and indifferent.
He doubted Summerhays believed the act. Of all their circle, Summerhays had the best cause to assume the worst. Prior to Summerhays assuming the mantle of respectability in order to stand in for his brother, the two of them had joined together in sprees of wonderfully disgraceful rakish hedonism.
A few memories of those glory days drifted through his mind, and Castleford sighed inwardly. He truly missed the old Sebastian sometimes.
“I have some business with Mrs. Joyes.”
Summerhays laughed. “Is that what you call it now?