"Your Grace, shall I send down for tea, or coffee?" Bailey asked, holding the bowl of shaving soap.
"No. I"m-"
Stanton scratched at the door and pushed it open. "Your Grace?"
"Have Merlin saddled. I"m going out for a short time."
"Your guests will be arriving shortly."
"I won"t be long."
The butler bowed, pulling the door closed as he left the room. "I"ll see to it immediately."
As soon as he finished shaving he headed downstairs. His stomach rumbled, but he ignored it. At the moment, hunger was the least of his worries. In the foyer Stanton handed over his riding gloves and hat and offered a greatcoat, which he declined.
"I"ll be back within the hour," he decided. That would give him enough time to confront her, and not enough time for her to spin his anger into l.u.s.t and arousal, which, d.a.m.n it all, he was already thinking about.
"Your Grace, you should have Green accompany you," Stanton said as he strode down the front step.
"I don"t need a wet-nurse," Sebastian shot back, swinging into the saddle.
"Of course not. But...a great many people rely on you, and you"re obviously angry, and you haven"t said where you"re going."
Sebastian pulled Merlin to a stop. He couldn"t recall Stanton ever expressing his opinion so directly. And the butler had a point. Having a witness to a meeting with Josefina, though, even a discreet one, seemed at the moment both foolhardy and potentially dangerous. "I"ll be at Colonel Branbury"s house," he said curtly. "Have Shay host if the guests arrive before I return."
"Very good, Your Grace."
Twenty minutes later he dismounted, handing Merlin off to a groom. "Leave him standing," he said brusquely. "I won"t be long."
As he reached the front door the butler pulled it open. "Good evening, Your Grace," he intoned.
"I require a word with Princess Josefina," Sebastian said crisply, stripping off his gloves.
"Her Highness isn"t in. If you would leave your card, I will inform her of your visit when she returns."
d.a.m.nation. "The rey and Queen Maria, have they returned from Scotland?"
"They arrived this morning, Your Grace, but they"ve all gone for an early dinner with His Grace, Lord Harek."
"And where might they be?"
"I wasn"t informed, Your Grace."
"And after? Where will they be going after dinner?"
"I am not at liberty to discuss the royal family"s schedule, Your Grace."
Sebastian eyed the butler. He could break the man and get the information he wanted within a minute, but the ramifications would be more harmful than the information helpful. It was one of the few times that being no one of consequence would have been useful.
"Very well," he said curtly. "Please inform Her Highness that I called. I will wait to speak to her at Vauxhall tomorrow night." He turned on his heel.
Not many people dared rebuff him, and he had to give a point or two to Branbury"s man for his loyalty. He didn"t appreciate being thwarted under any circ.u.mstances, and he badly wanted to track Josefina down. But the questions he had for her and her parents needed to be kept private until he had proof.
Proof. Proof of what? He returned to Merlin and headed back to Griffin House. Proof that a supposedly fertile country was nothing but swampland? Proof that Costa Habichuela in its entirely probably wasn"t worth the hundred thousand pounds they"d been loaned?
Was that all of it? Embry had taken possession of a plot of mud and borrowed money against it. In itself the action seemed minor, until one took into account all of the Englishmen buying bonds to cover the loan. Their sure investment-the one he"d helped to arrange-was likely to lose them every penny they"d put into it. Banks had been forced to close over less.
As for him personally-well, he"d never trusted Josefina, and his suspicions had proven to be precisely on the mark. That fact did not make him feel any better, however. In fact, the only positive factor in all of this was that she probably had no intention of actually settling in Costa Habichuela.
He pulled Merlin to a stop. She could remain in England. He could...
"Stop it," he muttered, and Merlin flicked his ears backward.
He could what? Continue to see her? At best she and her parents had fraudulently applied for a loan. At worst, they were stealing outright from the Bank of England and the citizens of London. In no way could he or would he a.s.sociate the Griffin name with that kind of debacle. The loan disaster itself could do the family more harm than he cared to contemplate.
As he reached Griffin House again, light streamed from every window. A herd of carriages and horses cluttered the drive and the stable yard, his grooms shouting at one another as they attempted to manage the chaos.
Sebastian sighed as he dismounted and tossed the reins to Green. What he truly wanted tonight was some quiet and a snifter of brandy so he could puzzle the mess out-though what he hoped to discover at the bottom of a bottle, he had no idea.
He desperately needed someone else who could corroborate John Rice-Able"s claims. At the moment it was the Embrys" word against the professor"s. And people wanted to believe that the charming princess they celebrated was exactly what she claimed to be. h.e.l.l, he wanted that, and he knew better.
"Your Grace," one of the house"s footmen said, pulling open the front door for him, "your guests have all arrived, and have gathered in the drawing room."
He could hear the noise they were making from outside. "Thank you, Tom. See to your post."
The footman bowed. "Your Grace." He raced off in the direction of the pantry-hopefully not to hide, though that seemed a fair idea.
"There you are," Valentine said, looking down at him from the balcony. "d.a.m.n."
"Why are you cursing?" Sebastian queried, squaring his shoulders and climbing the stairs toward his brother-in-law. "Are you that unhappy to see me?"
"In a word, yes. Because if you"re here, I can"t escape to go looking for you. Remind me again why I"m a part of this lunacy?"
"Because you married my sister, which makes you part of the family, and Caroline married my brother, which makes her part of the family, which means we both have to spend the evening with Caroline"s other family."
"And again, d.a.m.n." Valentine put an arm across his shoulders, steering them toward the drawing room. "They"re all here, you know."
"I know."
"I mean all of the Witfelds. Even the married ones. And their husbands."
"d.a.m.n," Sebastian muttered.
"My thoughts exactly."
Caroline had six younger sisters. At last count three of them were married, and one more engaged. Including Caroline, he probably had a baker"s dozen worth of Witfeld clan members in the drawing room-and that didn"t count their offspring. But since he couldn"t avoid them all, at least he could use them to distract himself, to keep himself from wondering where Josefina might be tonight. She and Harek were no doubt chatting and laughing while she plotted how next to bring more trouble to the Griffin doorstep.
With a slight grin Valentine pushed open the drawing room doors and stepped back to allow him un.o.bstructed entry. Every face in the room turned in his direction. Good Lord, Valentine hadn"t been joking. Every Witfeld he"d ever met-and he was certain a few he hadn"t-stood in his drawing room.
"Good evening," he intoned, pasting on a mild expression. Tonight he would play the amiable host, even if it killed him. He was accustomed to the role, after all, though it felt more difficult than usual this evening-all because at the moment he would much rather be chasing through London after a chit he simultaneously wanted to strangle and to kiss senseless.
The Witfeld herd bowed in an undulating wave. "Your Grace," everyone breathed, as though he"d just descended from the heavens to share a meal with the mortals.
Taking a breath, he moved in to find the head of the Witfeld household. "Edmund," he said, shaking the patriarch"s hand. "I hope you had a pleasant trip down to London."
"It was noisy, but no other complaints." Witfeld moved closer. "I apologize for the size of the horde. With the cattle breeding doing so well, Sally decided all of our girls should get to see London. That meant we had to bring along three husbands and a fiance, plus Susan"s two boys and Grace"s daughter."
"The more the merrier," Sebastian returned. "If you have need of anything while you"re here, please let me know."
"I"m just hoping I don"t misplace any of them."
"I"ve debated having bells sewn into Peep"s gowns. You might consider that."
Edmund chuckled. "Don"t tempt me."
For the next twenty minutes he waded through Witfelds and their in-laws. They"d wintered together the year before last at Melbourne Park, but he hadn"t seen any of them but Edmund since then. The main area of interest tonight centered around the youngsters, with Peep appointing herself her young cousin Rose"s guardian.
"Are you avoiding me, Your Grace?" a sweet feminine voice cooed from behind him.
He turned around. "Miss Anne," he said with a smile, nodding at the pet.i.te young lady with honey-blonde hair and gray-green eyes. As far as he was concerned, the nearly nineteen-year-old was the only Witfeld chit aside from Caroline with anything resembling brains in her head. "I know your sister invited you to London a month ago. Why the delay?"
"Joanna threatened to follow me, as she"s also unattached. I didn"t think it would be wise to unleash her on the Town for the entire Season."
Considering that Joanna two years ago had attempted to compromise herself in Zach"s presence and thereby trap him into marriage, Sebastian wasn"t about to argue the point. "Thank you," he said.
"You know," Anne continued, looping her arm around his, "there are those who think you and I would be a good match."
He lifted an eyebrow. "Who are these people?"
Anne lowered her head, looking up at him through her long eyelashes. "My mama."
"Ah. Well, my dear, if you weren"t sixteen years my junior, and if you didn"t terrify me no end, then perhaps."
She laughed. "I told her that you"re no match for me. But watch yourself with Joanna. She refuses to be the last of us to marry."
Sebastian glanced in Joanna"s direction, to find the silly girl looking in his direction. b.l.o.o.d.y wonderful. "Thank you for the warning."
She patted his arm. "I like having you in my debt."
Sebastian chuckled. "Did I mention that you terrify me?"
"Yes."
On the surface, Anne Witfeld and Josefina Embry were very much alike-confident, intelligent, and outspoken. Deeper inside, however, they couldn"t have been more different. Anne was what she presented to the world. Josefina, though, was a tumult of contradictory stories, emotions, feelings, and moods. All in all, in fact, Anne would probably have been a more manageable companion. But he looked upon Anne as a much younger sister with some disturbing tendencies toward being too clever for her own good. No, Josefina was the woman he wanted.
Sebastian blinked. He wanted her in his bed, that was. She was far too dangerous to his equilibrium and his peace of mind for anything more than that. And that didn"t even take into account the fact that she was very likely involved with breaking the law.
"Your Grace?"
Stanton stood at his elbow, but Sebastian had no idea whether it was the first or the fifth time he"d spoken. "Yes, Stanton?"
"Shall I call for dinner?"
"By all means."
The butler moved to the front of the room. "Dinner is served," he announced, and pulled open the double doors of the formal dining room. As he stepped aside, the members of the Griffin and Witfeld families began a loud and laughing stampede to the doorway.
"Sebastian," Nell"s low voice came, as she took his arm.
He leaned sideways, kissing her hair. "Thank you for coming tonight and helping to level the numbers."
Surprise crossed her sensitive face. "You"re welcome."
"Just please keep Joanna away from me," he continued.
"I shall do my utmost." His sister cleared her throat. "I came to see you yesterday afternoon. Stanton said you had urgent business at Eton."
"I did."
"You took Shay with you."
Sebastian lowered his brow. "I frequently have Shay join me for business expeditions. What"s amiss, Nell?"
"Nothing, if all you went to see to was business."
"Then nothing is amiss," he lied smoothly. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, that would be true, and no one would discover otherwise until and unless he decided that he had proof, and that it was time for them to know. "Are you doubting my leadership of this family?"
She freed her arm. "You know, I thought something might be troubling you, and that you could use a friendly ear. But keep your mask on, Melbourne. Eventually when you wish to take it off you"ll find that there"s nothing beneath it."
Sebastian inclined his head. "Thank you, my dear. It"s always nice to know where one stands."
He supposed he could argue that the family didn"t want a patriarch who bent and broke with every breeze, that though they might complain about his rigidity they actually relied on it. Any such conversation, though, would be a waste of breath. He knew what his family required to remain safe and secure, and he provided that regardless of the cost to himself.
And that was why the only thoughts he should be having about Josefina Embry were how best to distance the Griffins from any possible scandal. Under no circ.u.mstances should he be thinking about her smooth skin and her soft mouth and the fascination he found in never knowing what she might say or do next.
"-for luncheon tomorrow," Eleanor was saying. "I think she might enjoy it, since she"s always talking about becoming a pirate and traveling the world."
Penelope. That had to be whom Nell was discussing. "That"s fine," he improvised. "I"ll be in Parliament most of the day."
His sister looked at him for the s.p.a.ce of several seconds. "I know you"re human," she finally said. "I"ve seen it."
"Well, by all means continue your observation. I have a dinner to host." He handed her to her seat and made his way to the head of the table. Yes, he was human. And where Princess Josefina was concerned, he needed to become less so. Immediately.
Chapter 13.