“I’ve been posted here,” Lord John explained. “I arrived last night. I would have been here sooner but one ot our carriage horses slung a shoe and it took four hours to find a smith. I couldn’t sleep either. It’s just too exciting.” He smiled happily, expecting the Duchess to share his joy.
“You’re with the army?”
“Of course.” Lord John plucked at his uniform coat as though that proved his credentials. “Harry Paget asked for me, I begged Prinny’s permission, and he finally relented.” Lord John, though a cavalry officer, had never been permitted to serve with the army. He was an aide to the Prince Regent who had resolutely refused to lose his services, but Henry Paget, Earl of Oxbridge, who was another crony of the Prince and who also commanded Britain’s cavalry, had successfully persuaded the Prince to give Lord John his chance. Lord John laughed as he went to the sideboard where he helped himself to toast, ham and coffee. “Prinny’s damned jealous. He thinks he should be here to fight Napoleon. Talking of whom, is there any news?”
“Arthur doesn’t expect any nonsense from him till July. We think he may have left Paris, but no one’s really very sure.” Arthur was’the Duke of Wellington. “I asked Arthur whether we were quite safe having our ball tonight, and he assured me we are. He’s giving a ball himself next week.”
“I must say war is an ordeal,” Lord John smiled at the Duchess from the sideboard.
The Duchess shrugged off his flippancy, and instead offered the elegant young man a most suspicious stare. “Have you come alone?”
Lord John smiled winningly as he returned to the table. “Bristow is very kindly finding me two tickets.”
“I suppose it’s that woman?”
Lord John hesitated, then nodded. “It is Jane, indeed.”
“Damn you, Johnny.”
The Duchess had sworn in a very mild tone, but her words still made Lord John bridle. Nevertheless he was too much in awe of the older woman to make any voluble protest.
The Duchess supposed she would have to write to Lord John’s mother and confess that the silly boy had brought his paramour to Brussels. She blamed the example of Harry Paget who had run off with the wife of Wellington’s younger brother. Such an open display of adultery was suddenly the fashionable sport among cavalrymen, but it could too easily turn into a blood sport and the Duchess feared for Lord John’s life. She was also offended that a young man as charming and eligible as Lord John should flaunt his foolishness. “If it was London, Johnny, I wouldn’t dream of letting her come to a ball, but I suppose Brussels is different. There’s really no saying who half these people are. But don’t present this girl to me, John, because I won’t receive her, I really won’t! Do you understand?”
,Jane’s very charming – , Lord John commenced a defence of his slighted lover.
“I don’t care if she’s as beautiful as Titania and as charming as Cordelia; she’s still another man’s wife. Doesn’t her husband worry you?”
“He would if he were here, but he isn’t. At the end of the last war he found himself some French creature and went to live with her, and so far as we know, he’s still in France.” Lord John chuckled. “The poor fool’s probably been imprisoned by Napoleon.”
“You think he’s in France?” The Duchess sounded aghast.
“He certainly isn’t with the army, I made sure of that.”
“Oh, my dear Johnny.” The Duchess lowered her cup of coffee and gave her young friend a compassionate look. “Didn’t you think to check the Dutch army list?”
Lord John Rossendale said nothing. He just stared at the Duchess.
She grimaced. “Lieutenant-Colonel Sharpe is on Slender Billy’s staff, Johnny.”
Rossendale blanched. For a second it seemed that he would be unable to respond, but then he found his voice. “He’s with the Prince of Orange? Here?”
“Not in Brussels, but very close. Slender Billy wanted some British staff officers because he’s commanding British troops.”
Rossendale swallowed. “And he’s got Sharpe?”
“Indeed he has.”
“Oh, my God.” Rossendale’s face had paled to the colour of paper. “Is Sharpe coming tonight?” he asked in sudden panic.