Page 56 of The Gentlewoman Companion

Margaret handed the bottle to Roger. “Never mind him.” She held out a hand.

Roger reluctantly placed a coin in her palm, then kissed her wrist.

Margaret wiped her hand on her skirt but did not seem otherwise affected. “Get going.”

Roger winked and shuffled away, resuming his song.

“Does he…take advantage?”

“None of your concern.”

James stepped closer to her and lowered his voice. “Let me get you out of here.”

“No, you are going as well as he. I don’t need anyone spreading it about that I’ve had a visitor the likes of you.” She gestured to the still open door.

James sighed, out of arguments. He would have to return another day. He politely stepped toward the door, then felt her hands against his back, shoving him out.

“Don’t come back.”

The door slammed, and the lock clicked into place.

Despite the waning light, the street was louder and no less crowded. A couple’s argument echoed from a window above. A bottle shattered in an alley. A gang of ragged children brushed past him. Harsh laughter, drunken song, and broken weeping joined together in an opus of suffering.

He forced a heavy step toward Mayfair, where his townhouse in Grosvenor Square smelled of beeswax polish and contained five empty bedrooms. Poverty had been a myth before walking Rosemary Lane. It was known as Rag Fair, due to the myriad hawkers who littered the streets with heaps of stolen goods supplied by gangs of pickpocketing children.

He passed the Tower of London, which contained the nation’s mint, a fortune printed and molded in a fortress that overlooked the poorest part of London.

A hackney driver called out, “A ride for the fine gentleman?”

James refused. He needed the hour to think over what he’d learned of Margaret and Samuel. With time and consistency on his part, she might grow to appreciate his reliability and allow him to advise them. He would prove that he was not his father; he would not forget about them.

After reading the letter from Margaret’s mother, the world had tilted, but witnessing the tangible fact, the visible evidence of his father’s debauchery flipped the plane of reality entirely. Margaret was a real person who should have been taken care of by the same father who had raised him with such love, yet she had been left to sew by the light of a single candle and sell gin to survive.

He unlocked the door to his home and was greeted by the glow of a dozen candles. How many could he carry to Margaret without drawing attention?

Graham greeted him with a bow. “Lady Halverton and Miss Thorpe are out for the evening. Dinner is ready when you are, my lord.”

James removed his coat and waistcoat, passing them to his valet. “I don’t have much of an appetite. Will you send a light repast to my study?”

“You will pardon my saying so, my lord, but your breeches are so loose, you may lose them to a breeze. I suggest you eat.”

“I will be in the study.”

Graham opened his mouth and closed it again. James’s face must reveal his fatigue. “Very good, my lord.”

A housemaid entered with a tray and left him with enough food to feed the inhabitants of Rosemary Lane. It was not fair that he should be so blessed while others, even of the same blood, should suffer. What if he brought his half-siblings to Mayfair, made it “proper” as Margaret had dared him? The radical thought sparked. Announcing and accepting his father’s illegitimate children would hurt his mother, but was that reason to abandon his siblings?

If he acknowledged them, his mother would suffer in the knowledge of her husband’s betrayal. Lady Halverton was a social woman, her presence sought with earnest desire as she attended gatherings. London already embraced her, and she had eagerly told him of her plans to use her popularity to garner support for her favorite charities and hold court at literary salons. Public acknowledgement of his illegitimate siblings would destroy the entire family’s reputation. James would not deprive his mother the opportunity to contribute much-needed good to the world.

There must be another way to provide Margaret and Samuel with a home, security, and a future. He would persist until he found it.