Southampton Row - Anne Perry [102]
The singer was so very excellent she commanded the mind and the senses, her voice so lovely it would have been vandalism of the ear to speak through her performance. But as soon as it was over Emily stood up and went to Rose. There was a small group already gathered around, and before anyone stood a little to one side to allow her to join, she heard the conversation. She knew instantly with a cold sinking in her stomach exactly what they were referring to, even though no names had been mentioned.
“He is far cleverer than I thought, I admit,” a woman in gold was saying ruefully. “I fear we have underestimated him.”
“I think you overestimate his morality,” Rose said sharply. “Perhaps that was our error.”
Emily opened her mouth to intervene, but someone else spoke first.
“Of course he must have done something remarkable to have been knighted by the Queen. I suppose we should have taken that into better account. I’m so sorry, my dear.”
Perhaps it was the condescension in the voice, but it was to Rose a goad she could not ignore. “I’m sure he did something very special indeed!” she retorted. “Probably to the tune of several thousand pounds—and contrived to do it while there was still a Tory Prime Minister to recommend him.”
Emily froze. Her throat was tight and the room glittered and swam around her, the lights in the chandeliers multiplying in her vision as if she were going to faint. Everyone knew that wealthy men had donated massively to both political parties and been given knighthoods or even peerages for it. It was one of the ugliest scandals, and yet it was the way both parties funded themselves. But to say specifically that anyone had been rewarded in such a way was inexcusable, and wildly dangerous, unless one was both able and willing to prove it. Emily knew Rose was lashing out in every direction she could because she was afraid Aubrey was not going to win after all. She wished it for all the good she knew he could do, and believed in passionately, but also for him because she loved him and it was what he had set his heart on.
Perhaps also she was afraid of the guilt that would consume her for her own part in the loss, if it should happen. Whether the newspapers ever heard of her connection with Maude Lamont or not, or whether they used it, she would always know that she had cared more for her own necessity than for Aubrey’s career.
But the urgency now was to stop her before she made it any worse.
“Really, my dear, that is a very extreme thing to say!” the woman in gold warned with a frown.
Rose’s fair eyebrows shot up. “If the battle to win a place in the government of our country is not extreme, then what prize is it we are waiting for before we really say what we mean?”
Emily’s mind raced for something, anything to rescue the situation. Nothing came to her. “Rose! What a marvelous gown!” It sounded inane, forced, even to her own ears. How idiotic it must sound to the others.
“Good evening, Emily,” Rose replied coolly.
Emily had not forgotten a word of their previous clash. All the warmth of friendship was gone. And perhaps she was already realizing that Jack was not going to defend Aubrey if it looked like doing so would jeopardize his own seat. And even if it did not cost that price, it might well mean any offer of position that Gladstone was considering making him would be reconsidered in the light of his unwise friendship. Aubrey would be marked as an unreliable man, like a cannon loose on the deck of a pitching ship. If she could not save his seat for this election, at least she could save his honor and reputation for the next, which by all accounts would not be too far away.
Emily forced a smile to her face which she feared might look as ghastly as it felt. “How discreet of you not to say what it was he did!” She heard her voice high and a trifle shrill, but certainly drawing the complete attention of the others in the circle. “But I fear that in so doing you have created the misimpression that it was a donation of money, rather than a service