Tonight she was contented to listen to her siblings recount their day’s adventures, smiling when an amusing story was shared.
“I do not believe a word of it,” declared Richard, her fourth eldest brother, leaning back in his chair to glare at Penny.
“It is true. The footman chased the pig for several minutes to the amusement of many. It was a great spectacle at the market.”
“And why were you at the market, young lady? That is no place for you,” Lady Celdon admonished.
“I went with Mary and Susan,” Penny said, lowering her fork, a decided twinkle in her dark blue eyes.
The dowager countess glanced at all nine siblings at the table. “Mary and Susan?”
“They are kitchen servants,” Richard said, his lips curving as if he took great delight in upsetting their grandaunt’s expectations.
“You went to the market with servants?” the question was asked in such an astonished tone, everyone stopped to stare at Lady Celdon.
“Yes,” Penny said, looking discomfited.
“Sisters of earls donotvisit markets,” she said in a strained tone. “That is what the servants are there for.”
“I did not visit to do the shopping and haggling. I went because I wanted to take in the sounds and sights.”
The dowager countess appeared ready to give in to a fit of apoplexy. Their mother rushed in with the distracting news that Colin and Hermina were considering hosting a ball toward the end of the season. That had everyone exploding again in excited chatter. Eleanor lowered her fork and leaned back in the chair, her gaze skipping from one sibling to the other. Nicholas and James were not present tonight as they had their own lodgings in St. James Square and did not dine as often with the family.
Her eyes met Richard, who winked at her, and Eleanor smiled. He was a very handsome and charming gentleman who’d once had his heart broken at a young age. Unfortunately, though he was only seven and twenty, he’d already developed a rake-about-town’s reputation. He had not left his disreputable behavior in Penporth. Julia, the youngest of them all at fourteen, was now laughing with a hand over her mouth. That did not contain the tinkling sound that was no doubt considered raucous to the dowager countess’s ears.
Emma and Ester seemed to be arguing with Phoebe, who was nineteen years of age and too wild at heart. Lizzy kept glancing at the clock by the mantle, and Eleanor suspected she had somewhere she needed to be and believed it was a meeting with a particular duke. Penny was still defending her choice to visit the market, using the ludicrous explanation that she was only seventeen and surely should have more freedom from propriety than her siblings, who were of a more marriageable age.
Lady Celdon silenced her with a glare and the clipped reply that Penny herself was also of marriage age and was expected to make a good match in the next year or two. Eleanor’s heart squeezed at the trapped expression that came over Penny’s face. Her dreams did not include marrying, and the mutinous glare she sent Lady Celdon spoke volumes. Her family was indeed a rebellious and improper bunch, but Eleanor loved them with her entire heart.
And it was for them she was willing to be courted by Mr. Hayford, the man to inherit a barony.It will be good for my family, she silently reminded herself and vowed to do her best to forget one extraordinary encounter and a pair of magnificent storm gray eyes.
CHAPTER4
“Ihave never seen our brother this distracted,” a soft voice said. “Have you ever seen him so, Edmond?”
“No.” This answer was clipped and disinterested.
“I do believe the cause of it to be a woman,” said Ollie with a curious laugh.
“What else could distract a man so from his ledgers?” This tone was teasing and curious. “Especially one obsessed with numbers.”
With a sigh, Lucien Glendevon closed the large ledger and leaned back in his high wingback chair to stare at his siblings. “I am trying to work,” he said.
Genevieve arched an elegant brow with gray eyes like his own glittering with amusement. “I beg to differ. You have been staring at the same page for the last thirty minutes, the edge of your pencil poised above the same figure. Nothing in those accounting books can stop a legendary mathematical genius such as Lucien Thomas Glendevon. So I agree with Ollie,” she said, casting a glance at their second eldest brother. “You have met a woman.”
Two of his siblings waited, an air of anticipation about them.
“I have,” he murmured, with a slight frown, still astonished at his preoccupation with his mysterious lady.
This stirred their eldest brother, who had been staring out the window into the street of St. James at their patrons’ carriages queuing up and letting off respectable folks in mask and wig to enter their den of sin and decadence. Edmond casually took a sip of his brandy, a sharp edge to the lips that smiled.
“I never thought a woman would leave you so distracted that you are unable to concentrate on business.”
The words were low, but they held the cold bite of a rebuke. Their eldest brother did not believe in anything interfering with the running of their gambling den, the business they had poured sweat and blood into for the last ten years to see it successful.
“Ah, it is a good thing I am so brilliant that I can afford to allow myself distractions,” Lucien drawled, standing to walk over to the mantle and pour himself a drink.
He knew the personalities of his brothers. They could be arrogant, hard, and domineering men. But Lucien also understood himself and was assured of his place in the family and in this business. Though he was the youngest brother at six and twenty and was more considered the brains of their operation, he often stood toe to toe with his brothers and glared them down. While he was milder mannered than Oliver and Edmond and was often teased to loving numbers more than the wicked and often sensual pursuits offered below, Lucien could be ruthless when needed.