A Proper Lord's Wife (Properly Spanked Legacy #2) - Annabel Joseph Page 0,2
because. He’ll not be received by many families next Season because of it.”
They all fell silent at the cruelty of such a maneuver.
“Hobart refused to marry her, then?” Townsend pushed his drink away. “For what reason? What’s wrong with her?”
Marlow and Augustine exchanged a woebegone look that did nothing to soothe his rising anxiety. “Tell me,” he insisted. “Tell me what I’ve done.”
“I can’t believe you don’t know about Lady Jane,” said August. “She’s a frequent subject of gossip.”
“I don’t listen to gossip. It’s rude and unmannerly.”
“And informative,” Marlow muttered, “when it comes to prospective brides.”
“Gossips are petty and tend to exaggerate the smallest flaws. Is there truly a problem? Don’t tell me she has lost her reputation somehow?”
“No, nothing like that. I don’t know her very well,” said August. “She’s loosely acquainted with Wescott’s youngest sisters. They met while he and June were considered an item. Not to put too much a panic on it, but in some circles the sister has been called…Insane Jane.”
“Her kinder nickname is ‘the naturalist,’” said Marlow. “Apparently, she’s been banned from the Exeter menagerie for protesting the animals’ captivity. She…” He swallowed hard, flushing. “She has apparently walked about in front of the building with a lettered sign.”
Townsend gaped at him. “She has not.”
“I believe she also snuck into a Royal Zoological Society meeting by dressing as a man. It’s not a well-known fact,” he added, as Townsend’s insides roiled in horror. “It hasn’t been proven or talked about much.”
“Then it can’t have happened. Mayhew wouldn’t have allowed it, would he?” Townsend asked, hating the plea in his voice. “These tales about her can’t be true. I would have heard.”
“Would have heard?” August scoffed. “You lunkhead, you couldn’t even figure out Wescott’s intended was June, not Jane.”
“I haven’t paid attention to this season’s marriageables,” he said. “I meant to marry Ophelia. She was, and always will be, the love of my life.”
“You can’t keep talking that way,” said Marlow sharply, looking around. “She’s married to your friend now, and Wescott won’t have you spouting off about your lost, unrequited love, especially in a public room like this. As for your hunger for revenge, I hope you’re happy. You’ve revenged yourself right into a disastrous engagement.”
“Come, that’s an awful thing to say to him.” August turned from scolding Marlow and patted Townsend’s hand, perhaps in an effort to stop him drinking more brandy. “Look at it this way. You enjoy disciplining women, Townsey, and now you’ve got a good project to take beneath your wing. I’m sure it’ll only take a week or two for you to set this Lady Jane straight as an arrow. Why, she’ll thank you for developing her into a more proper lady. Surely she hates being maligned by gossips all the time.”
“All the time? I can’t have a peculiar wife.” Townsend drew a ragged breath, then bent to rub his temples. “I have to find a way to escape this engagement or she’ll make me the object of ridicule. I didn’t realize to whom I was offering marriage.”
“And how will you explain this error to her father?” Marlow drew himself up into a mocking example of Townsend’s stature. “I’m terribly sorry, Lord Mayhew, but I thought I was engaging myself to an entirely different sister for vindictive reasons.”
“No, I won’t tell him that. I’ll tell him I didn’t understand…” He stopped, realizing how impossible such an explanation would be. “Bloody hell. I must go see my parents. Perhaps they’ll have some ideas, some way to undo this mess. My father has a persuasive way of speaking.”
Marlow and August stared back at him, their expressions communicating doubts they were too considerate to express. To break an engagement for such a ridiculous reason, because he misunderstood who she was…and the poor woman so recently rejected by Lord Hobart?
Oh God, what had he done? He hadn’t the least desire to marry an insane naturalist known for picketing outside the Exeter Exchange.
“You’ll excuse me for quitting your company, friends,” he said, pushing away the brandy. “My life seems to have taken another turn for the worse.”
“Tell your parents we said hello,” said Marlow. August continued to grimace at him, mirroring the sense of doom he felt.
*
Townsend checked in at his house to be sure his luggage had arrived, then dressed to go to dinner at his parents’. He thought of hiring a gig to their Regent’s Park mansion but decided to walk instead to disperse some of his panic, not to mention the