The Other Side - J. D. Robb [51]
“But we have the coin now. We can deal with it later. If our lives are to go on in this bizarre manner, then we had best go to dinner as is expected. We cannot behave in any way that will attract undue attention.” How many times would she have to explain that to him?
“Why not? Missing a dinner is hardly a symptom of some depraved disease.”
“No, but it will be one more proof that something is amiss with us, and the ton will watch us with more interest than either of us wants. I don’t know about you, but I do not want Nick Bright asking too many questions, or, God forbid, Lord Osterman.”
“Hmmm,” he said again, seeming to mull over the options. “What do we do with this coin? It seems to be able to appear and disappear at will.”
“That is worrisome. I agree with you on that.” She waited to see what he would suggest.
“Let’s put it with the jewels,” Harry suggested. “At least it will be locked tight, and if it disappears we will know that no one has taken it.”
Bettina nodded her head in agreement as that was what she would have suggested. Before Harry could begin a debate, Bettina rushed upstairs with the diamonds and the coin, putting them in the countess’s jewel case. Freeba watched the earl come and go without comment.
It was a challenge to stop thinking about the coin, but when Harry reminded her that she was hardly an expert on politics, Bettina pushed worries about the coin to the back of her mind and faced the more immediate challenge of a dinner with men she knew only socially.
Harry gave her a detailed lecture on the issues before Parliament and who was on what side. “I feel strongly, as does Nick Bright, that Wellesley is the man for the task in Portugal. But he cannot succeed without support. Starting with funding, which is woefully inadequate. This is one of the rare times when I think Lord Osterman has the right of it. It’s why I am willing to join him in promoting the legislation.”
Harry went on and on, and Bettina listened, truly she did, and prayed that the words would come to her as needed.
They were greeted with effusive welcome at the Daltons’ house, and even though they were the last to arrive, their hosts waited another good while before they were led in to dinner.
As the ranking gentleman present, the Earl of Fellsborough sat to the right of the hostess, and the countess would be next to Mr. Dalton.
Those seated around Bettina seemed affable, and one of the older gentlemen winked. “I never could resist the wife when she was dressed for a party. I can guess why you were late.” The men and women around them laughed, and Bettina joined in, wishing for so simple an explanation of their predicament.
Would she and Harry ever make love again? The body her brain rested in assured her it would happen, but she could not imagine it. Though I am curious. How does sex feel from Harry’s point of view?
“So what do you say, my lord?”
“Not much,” the old man spoke for the earl. “He is still not thinking with his brain, are you?”
Bettina shrugged. Her husband wasn’t the only one who had ways to avoid uncomfortable questions. Bettina looked down the table toward Harry and saw him raise a glass of wine and drain it in one gulp. The sommelier poured more immediately.
“No oysters for me,” Bettina said when the footman paused at her side with a platter filled with the disgusting crustaceans.
“Harry, that’s not like you,” Nick Bright said as he slapped down his empty wineglass, which was instantly refilled. “Dalton’s chef is a genius with oysters, and you love them.”
Oh dear, Bettina thought, Nick is right. Harry loved oysters as much as she hated them. “But as Baron Helder has made clear, I don’t need any oysters tonight,” Bettina answered, and everyone laughed.
Nicely done, she thought to herself and looked toward the other end of the table where the sommelier was refilling Harry’s wineglass yet again.
Slow down, she thought. The countess never drinks that much or that fast.
Bettina sipped the wine to see if it really was