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“How thoroughly modern! Do you suppose his engines use steam?”
“I didn’t ask.” She was out of practice with meeting people outside her own small circle, being curious about them. He claimed to make better fire engines. He had been in the midst of the great fire at the Houses of Parliament. He was truly active in the world, trying to change it, drawing its notice and unafraid of that notice when it came. They could not be more opposite. Perhaps that was why it was so unsettling to be near him. Still, once she and her aunt and grandmother removed to the dower house, she would likely see little of him. Verwood would keep him quite busy.
A sharp rap on Honoria’s door interrupted Cassie’s thoughts. Honoria started and glanced at the cloth covering her desk.
The door opened and the duchess walked in, still in her riding habit. “So here’s where you two are hiding.”
“Not hiding, Grandmama.” Cassie gave her grandmother a quick kiss on the cheek.
“No? More likely plotting. Have you heard what that man has done?”
“You mean our new … tenant?” Honoria asked.
“Our tenant? He wishes he had such a privilege.”
“Has he given you some new offense, Grandmama?” Cassie asked.
“Offense? Not at all.” The duchess looked round the room for a place to sit. “Honoria, what is this clutter? I know you’re bookish, but this is taking the whole thing too far.”
Cassie stepped in and removed the books from the bench at the end of Honoria’s bed. The duchess sat, and pulled off her gloves.
“Grandmama, you were saying Sir Adrian did something?”
“It’s the talk of my stables. Yesterday he saved Dick Crockett from that wretched boy of Ramsbury’s.”
“Horrible Hugh,” said Honoria.
The duchess shot her a quelling look and turned to Cassie. “If he thinks, he can insinuate his way into my favor by—”
“Doing a kindness to Dick Crockett? He had no knowledge of Dick’s connection to Verwood.”
“But I don’t doubt he’ll take advantage of it. Sir Adrian was here this morning, was he not? On Apollo.”
Cassie drew herself up and met her grandmother’s sharp gaze. She suspected there was truth in her grandmother’s assessment of Sir Adrian, but that didn’t change the facts. “Yes, he was here. He remains interested in a lease. I’ve invited him for tea.”
“Tea? A man like that doesn’t want tea, little cakes and dabs of sandwich. He wants substantial fare.”
“We should have a picnic,” suggested Honoria.
“It doesn’t matter what we offer him,” said Cassie. “What matters, Grandmama, is whether you are willing to have him as a tenant.”
“What do we know about this fellow? Who are his people? For what did he earn a frippery knighthood? I suppose he thinks a trip to St. James and being knocked on the shoulder by the king makes him very grand.”
“Sir Adrian makes fire engines, and he brought a pair of engines to the fire at the Houses of Parliament.”
“Did he? So he is not purely decorative then, but useful. Still, for an ironmonger, he aims above himself. Are we to let a duke’s house be polluted by a common tradesman?”
Cassie took a deep breath. Her grandmother might rail about Sir Adrian’s origins, but Cassie suspected that her real objection to the man was to his force of personality. “A modest country estate, discarded by the present title holder, and very much in need of an infusion of cash can hardly be polluted by a man who can afford it.”
Honoria’s eyes went wide at Cassie’s boldness.
The duchess laughed. “Very well, Cassie. I will meet this fellow again, if only to make it clear to him what is permitted and what is not.”
Chapter Five
At Verwood at four, a stable boy came running to take Raven’s horse while William the footman led Raven through a courtyard on the west side of the house. A wide vista of lawn and gardens opened up, and Raven imagined strolling the grounds with Amabel on his arm. Somewhere in this garden he would find a place to ask for her hand in marriage. He simply needed to secure the lease to bring his plan to completion. William pointed to a path, and Raven set out.
This afternoon was some kind of test. He believed he was ready for objections to his birth and background, objections he understood all too well. Her Grace had a value for rank, for keeping property in the hands of those who inherited it, not those who currently moved the nation forward by their energy and exertion.
