Louise had apparently recovered from her shock, since she jumped into the conversation. "Mothers are such an intriguing question. Lord Gryffyn, you do realize how much passionate interest we all have in discovering the identity of your son's mother, don't you?"
"I fail to see why," Gryffyn said. "Why don't you contemplate Villiers instead? Teddy has but one mother, whereas Villiers's children will afford six times the pleasure."
"Ah, but there's a difference," Louise said. "We all know about Lady Caroline's unfortunate situation... Villiers, you are raising her child, aren't you?"
"I find this conversation most objectionable," he said flatly.
Louise fluttered her fan as if he hadn't spoken. "Not that all of us believe that Lady Caroline told the truth about the parentage of her child..." She paused. Villiers didn't deign to answer, so Louise rattled on. "As to the parentage of the duke's other five children..." She shrugged. "One has to believe that the mothers are not one's next door neighbors. Yet everyone is quite convinced, Lord Gryffyn, that your child's mother is well-born. There is nothing more fierce than an English lady with a nose for scandal and a mystery that involves her peers."
"Teddy shows no interest in the question, and he's the only person with the right to know."
"Even I don't know," Roberta said, giving her husband a mock scowl. "Damon promised to tell me on our wedding night, and then he reneged."
The earl tightened his arm around his wife and dropped another kiss on her head. "I remembered that it wasn't my secret to tell."
"But you two are supposed to be one body and soul now," Lady Nevill put in, just the faintest edge to her voice implying the impoverished nature of her own marriage.
"I don't want to know her identity," Roberta said, leaning against her husband. "That way I needn't think of her as a real person. Teddy is mine now."
Damon was smiling down at Roberta with such a foolishly loving look that Villiers felt nauseated.
Louise caught his eye and laughed. "I gather you plan to indulge in marriage, but not for love, Your Grace."
"Marriage is for the courageous, but love is for the foolish," Villiers said. "I have doubts regarding my own bravery, but I have long been convinced that I have at least a modicum of intelligence."
"In that case you will fall in love quite soon," Roberta announced. "Such monumental arrogance must necessarily be answered by the gods."
Villiers walked away thinking of marriage. He could imagine nothing more repellent than the idea that his wife might fall in love with him. Or worse, far worse: that he might lower himself to worship a woman the way Gryffyn apparently did his wife.
A civil, practical union was far preferable to a messy pairing involving adoration. That was an obvious point in favor of Lady Eleanor. She was in love with someone else. There was a courteous indifference about her that was remarkably peaceful.
It could be that he'd found his perfect match... as long as she decided to pay a visit to Kent, of course.
If not, he'd be stuck with the lady rather indelicately referred to as witless.
Chapter Four
Eleanor found her mother in the refreshment tent, surrounded by her friends. The moment the duchess caught sight of her eldest daughter, she rose with the air of a mother cat shaking off a litter of nursing kittens and bustled Eleanor to the corner. "Well?" she demanded.
"It seems quite possible that Villiers will offer for me," Eleanor admitted. "He implied as much."
"I am astonished," her mother cried, releasing her grip on Eleanor's arm. "Astonished!" She dropped into a chair in a dramatic flourish of her hands. "This will surprise you. I thought you were a fool."
The response that sprang to her mind seemed rather abrasive, so Eleanor said nothing.
"All these years, I thought you were a fool," her mother continued. "And yet here you are, marrying a duke, just as you always insisted you would. I suppose one is never too old to correct one's mistakes."
"I suppose not," Eleanor murmured.
"I made a mistake!" the duchess announced, patently dumbfounded at the very idea. "It never occurred to me, not even once, that you would have a chance at Villiers. For goodness sake, child, he is among the richest men in the kingdom."
At least until he endows all those illegitimate children, Eleanor thought to herself.
"He must be very high in the instep, given his search for a woman of equal rank. Everyone has been predicting that he will have to widen his focus to include the daughters of marquesses. But I always insisted that you should be the one, even given your age. Oh Eleanor, I am so very grateful to you!"