Lady Bewares by Jo Beverley

Author:Jo Beverley
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: 0
Published: 2007-06-04T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Darien had no idea why his goddess looked cross, but he would have liked to spend time with her and find out. Having Pup around, however, was like having a troublesome child. He couldn’t be let out of sight without some mishap—last night it had been cockfighting and he’d had his pocket picked and his watch stolen—but Darien was busier than ever. He needed a keeper, preferably a wife, and Maria had offered to help.

As they walked to Van’s house, Darien tried to prepare the ground. “So, Pup. What are your plans?”

“Plans?” Pup repeated the word as if this might be a new game. Then he said, “Astley’s?”

Astley’s was the theater known for circuses and spectacles.

“I mean for your future. Now you’ve had a taste of London, are you ready to settle down?”

“Settle down?”

Holding on to his patience, Darien laid it out. “You’ve a neat little fortune now, Pup. You’ll want a place of your own. A house. An estate. A wife.”

“Wife?”

“A pretty woman to come home to. Someone who’ll delight in arranging everything just as you like it.” A sensible person who’ll take care of you like the overgrown child you are.

“Oh, a wife,” Pup said, as if it were a novel idea. “Don’t know about that, Canem. Ladies don’t seem much interested in me.”

Darien almost said, You have money now. You only need to show yourself to be hooked. That wasn’t the image to plant in Pup’s mind.

“You’re here in London in the season. Lovely ladies hanging on every bough, waiting to be picked.”

“Like at Violet Vane’s?”

“Ladies, Pup. Respectable women. The sort you marry.”

“Oh. Wife, eh?” Pup said, clearly still getting to grips with the concept.

His tone was that of a lad presented with his first hunter—thrilled, but nervous about the animal’s size and power. He’d never been a coward, however. Foxstall would say he hadn’t the wits to know when to be afraid, and he might be right, but that meant that if the right lady could be found Pup would probably mount her without flinching.

Darien pushed that image out of his mind and steered Pup into Van’s house.

Maria greeted Pup with good manners and a motherly touch, instantly putting him at his ease. As they dined, she gently interviewed him, framing questions so simply that he soon relaxed and adored her. Darien began to worry that Pup would try to become Maria Vandeimen’s lapdog. He’d not intended to off-load his burden in that way.

She introduced the subject of marriage in a roundabout way, rambling on about her first and second marriages. Both were painted as havens of calm and stability. Darien knew nothing of her first marriage, but if Van provided calm and stability, Canem Cave was a ninety-year-old washerwoman.

Amusement died when Maria turned to ask Darien about his own marriage plans.

“None as yet.”

“You will want an heir,” she stated, ringing for servants to bring the second course.

“Doubt it. Frank may oblige. If not, the Cave line will die. Who will mourn?”

“It deserves to live if only for you.

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