“Have a cup of tea, Ryder,” Jack said and pressed a cup into his hand. “It will be all right. We will come up with a strategy.”
“Where did you get the tea?”
“Quincy came in,” Gray said. “You were so engrossed in your tirade that you didn’t heed him. Come sit down, Ryder. We understand the problem now. Let’s solve it.”
“I want to smash the blighter.”
“The borough isn’t controlled by a local family?” Gray asked.
Ryder shook his head. “No, not now. It was a rotten borough until the Locksley family died out some twenty years ago. Now it’s free and clear, the elections, for the most part, aboveboard.”
Jack said, “What’s a rotten borough?”
“It’s a borough that’s controlled by a local aristocratic family. Some boroughs have fewer than fifty people living in them. It’s disgraceful.”
“Hmmmm,” Jack said, “what a wonderfully easy solution.”
Both men stared hard at her.
Jack gave them a beatific smile. “All right, Ryder. You’ll simply make it rotten again. You’re a Sherbrooke—control it. Your family must be more illustrious and have more influence than these Locksleys ever had.”
“I hadn’t thought about being as underhanded as Redfield,” Ryder said slowly, looking at Jack with some respect. “What is involved, I wonder, in re-rottening a borough?”
“It can’t be too difficult if those idiots in the House of Lords have managed to rotten them for the past hundreds of years,” Gray said. “Come to think of it,” he continued, smacking his palm on his thigh, “I’m one of those idiots.”
“Let me consider this,” Ryder said, gulping down his tea. “First, though, I must speak to Douglas. I hope that he and Alex have calmed their bile. Why were he and Alex shouting at each other, I wonder?”
“I believe,” Jack said, “that it has something to do with a very big lady named Helen Mayberry. The woman who helped me save Gray.”
“Oh, Helen. I took her to Gunther’s on Tuesday. She told me Douglas had taken her there on Monday and she certainly did like those ices. Douglas and Alex were screaming at each other about Helen? Why, for heaven’s sake? She’s a good sort. Likes a jest and a mug of ale. And those Gunther ices. When we were driving in the park later, she knew at least half a dozen people. She said that Douglas had taken her driving the day before and introduced her to everyone. I’ll have to tell Alex to get a grip on herself.”
He rose and dusted his hands on his breeches. “Now I’m off to think. Re-rotten the borough, huh? That might be an appropriate solution, Jack. Thank you.”
Jack just stared at Ryder’s back as he accepted his newly reshaped hat from Quincy and left, talking to himself.
“Er, my lord, there are two letters here for you.”
“I’ll see to it later, Quincy.”
“They appear to be important, my lord.”
Gray
grabbed both envelopes and stuffed them into his waistcoat pocket. He gave Jack a big smile, hauled her up in his arms, and took the stairs two at a time.
“Our boy is married,” said Mrs. Piller fondly, standing beneath a large portrait of an eighteenth-century St. Cyre viscount. “Imagine, carrying a young lady in his arms in the middle of the afternoon, all the while kissing her and laughing. It would have quite scandalized my dear mother. In her day, she told me, things of that sort didn’t happen in a gentleman’s household.”
“Your mother lied to you,” said Quincy. “Everything has always happened in gentlemen’s households since the beginning of gentlemen.”
24
AS FOR the gentleman in question, Gray was starting to breathe hard. Not because Jack was weighing him down but because he was randier now than he’d been just three steps before. “I swore that not another day would pass without me trying to show you that a woman’s second time with her husband brings tears of joy to her eyes. The day is nearly over and I haven’t yet done a blessed thing. Yes, it’s late afternoon, nearly evening. We must work fast, Jack, while there’s still daylight.”
“What if it were raining?”
“I’d have to go by the clock in that case.” He set her down in the middle of his bedchamber. “You’ve never been in here before. It’s my room. It’s got a lot of light if you fling back those heavy draperies, but you might think it’s a bit heavy with all the Spanish furniture my father brought back from Cordoba. This second time, Jack, there’s no blood and I won’t hurt you.”
“I imagine that chest at the foot of the bed is sturdy enough for you to give me teasing lessons on, Gray. What do you think?”