Helen closed her eyes and inhaled, trying to calm herself. She’d already agreed that the best plan was for Alistair to talk to Lister by himself. She couldn’t change her mind now. She needed to wait and let Alistair try to persuade the duke. The problem was it was so difficult to simply wait.
She opened her eyes and looked about the room, seeking something to distract herself with. There were several groupings of delicate low chairs, their arms painted white and gilt. Large portraits lined the wall, figures dressed in fashions long past, but the most commanding painting was of the young man that Alistair had stared at. Helen approached and peered up at it.
The painting depicted a young man dressed in casual hunting clothes. He held a tricorne carelessly by his side, and his gaiter-clad legs were crossed at the ankle. He leaned against a large oak tree, a long rifle cradled in the crook of one arm. At his feet, two spotted hunting dogs lay, their heads turned adoringly to the man.
Helen could understand their worshipful gaze. The man was so handsome he was almost pretty, his face smooth and unlined in that first youthful bloom of manhood. His lips were full, sensuously wide, and slightly tilted as if he repressed a smile. His heavy-lidded black eyes seemed to laugh at the viewer as if inviting participation in a naughty joke. His entire form was so full of vigor and life that one almost expected him to leap from the painting itself.
“Fascinating, isn’t he?” a voice said from behind her.
Helen swung around, startled. She hadn’t heard anyone enter the room. In fact, she’d thought she stood by the only door.
But a young lady had entered by a door paneled to fit into the wall, almost hidden. She curtsied. “I’m Beatrice Corning.”
Helen sank into a curtsy. “Helen Fitzwilliam.” Pray the other woman didn’t recognize her name.
Miss Corning had a fresh, open face, slightly freckled. Her light gray eyes were quite fine and rather frank, her hair a lovely wheat color, pulled into a large knot at the crown of her head. Fortunately, she didn’t seem in any hurry to toss Helen out of the house.
“I’ve always found him rather mesmerizing,” she said, nodding to the painting. “He looks so amused at something. So very pleased with himself and the world, don’t you think?”
Helen glanced back at the painting, half-smiling. “He probably fascinates all the ladies.”
“Maybe he did once, but not anymore,” was the reply.
Helen looked at the girl. “Why?”
“That’s Reynaud St. Aubyn, Viscount Hope,” Miss Corning said. “He should’ve been the Earl of Blanchard, but he was killed in the Colonies by Indians in the massacre at Spinner’s Falls. I suppose I should be grateful—my uncle would never have become the Earl of Blanchard otherwise, and I wouldn’t be living in Blanchard House. But I can’t find it in myself to be happy at his death. He looks so alive, doesn’t he?”
Helen turned back to the portrait. Alive. That was the word she’d thought of, too, when she’d seen the lounging young man.
“Pardon me,” Beatrice Corning said apologetically, “but I’ve just realized who you are. You’re connected to the Duke of Lister, aren’t you?”
Helen bit her lip, but she’d never been very good at lying. “I’m his former mistress.”
Miss Corning’s lovely eyebrows rose. “Then would you mind telling me what you’re doing here?”
HIS PLAN WAS a risky gamble. If he played this wrong, he and Helen might lose the children forever. On the other hand, if he did nothing, they were as good as already lost.
Alistair laid his hand gently on the closed dining room door, took a breath, and pushed it firmly open. The Earl of Blanchard had spared no expense in this royal luncheon. Flowers were massed in vases along the sideboard, sumptuous swags of gold and purple fabric draped every surface, and carved sugar swans sailed the middle of the long dining table.
There were as many servants as guests, and a bewigged fellow near the door held out his hand to halt Alistair. “Sir, you can’t—”
“Your Majesty,” Alistair called in a deep voice. He made sure his tone carried to the far end of the table, where King George sat next to a florid little man, presumably the Earl of Blanchard. He strode toward the king, moving fast and with enough assurance that no one gainsaid him. “I beg a word, Your Majesty.”
Alistair reached the king and bent in a low bow, arms outstretched, leg pointed before him.
“And who are you, sir?” the king asked, and for a moment Alistair felt his heart go still. Then he looked up, and the young king’s face lit. “Ah! Sir Alistair Munroe, our fascinating naturalist! Blanchard, bring a seat for Sir Alistair.”
Blanchard frowned but snapped his fingers at a footman, who leapt to obey. A chair was brought and set at the right hand of the king.
“Do you know the Earl of Blanchard, Munroe?” The king gestured to his host.
“I haven’t had the pleasure.” Alistair made another bow. “Forgive me, sir, for bursting into your party so precipitously.”
Blanchard’s expression was sour, but he could hardly demure now that the king had welcomed Alistair. He nodded curtly.
“And these gentlemen are the Duke of Lister; his son and heir, the Earl of Kimberly; and Lord Hasselthorpe.” The king indicated the men sitting across from him and to his other side.
Hasselthorpe sat to the king’s left. He was a distinguished-looking gentleman of middling years. Lister and his son were across from the king. Lister was of an age with Hasselthorpe. He wore a wine-colored coat with a waistcoat beneath that curved over his sloping belly. His heir was a brawny young man who wore his own brown hair clubbed back and unpowdered. He was frowning slightly as if in confusion at Alistair’s abrupt entrance. Lister was eyeing Alistair narrowly beneath a curled gray wig.
Alistair bowed and sat. The fact that Lister’s heir was present was an unforeseen bit of luck. “I beg your forgiveness, Your Majesty, gentlemen, but the matter I come about is most urgent.”
“Indeed?” The king was a fair man with pink cheeks and prominent blue eyes. He wore a snowy white wig and strikingly brilliant blue coat and waistcoat. “Have you finished your opus on the flora and fauna of Britain?”
“I am very near the end, Your Majesty, and if it pleases Your Highness, I beg the favor of dedicating my book to you.”
“Granted, my dear Munroe, granted.” The king’s color had risen in pleasure. “We look forward to reading this tome when it is finished and published.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Alistair replied. “I hope to—”
But Lister cut him off with a loud cough. “Pleasant as the information of your book’s progress is, Munroe, I do not see why you need interrupt the king’s luncheon to tell him of it.”
A very slight frown appeared between the king’s eyebrows. At the far end of the room, the door opened again and a blond young lady entered and seated herself in an empty chair at the table. She cast an inquisitive glance at them.
Alistair turned to Lister and smiled genially. “I do not mean to bore you with the details of my studies as a naturalist. I realize that not everyone is as fascinated by the oddities of God’s world as His Highness and I.”
Lister’s face went blank as he understood his faux pas, but Alistair continued. “Actually, the business I come about involves you as well.”
He paused and took a sip of the wine that had been placed at his elbow.
Lister’s eyebrows rose. “Do you mean to enlighten us?”
Alistair smiled and set his wineglass down. “Naturally.” He turned and addressed the king. “I have been studying the habits of badgers recently, Your Majesty. Amazing what secrets are hidden in even the most mundane of animals.”
“Indeed?” The king leaned forward in interest.
“Oh, yes,” Alistair said. “For instance, although the badger sow is a creature known for its unpleasant and even aggressive disposition, when it comes to her young, or kits, she shows a pretty maternal side that rivals even the most caring of animals.”
He paused to take another sip of wine.
“How extraordinary!” the king exclaimed. “We would never think a lowly badger to hold the higher feelings God has granted mankind.”
“Exactly.” Alistair nodded. “I myself was moved to sympathy by the plight of a sow when her kits were killed by a hawk. She cried most piteously for her dead children, running back and forth and refusing any sustenance for days. Indeed, I was afeared that she might starve herself to death, so saddened was she by the loss of her young.”
“And what has this to do with us?” Lister demanded impatiently.
Alistair turned slowly to him and smiled. “Why, do you not feel a small portion of sympathy for a badger so grief-stricken by the loss of her young, Your Grace?”
Lister sneered, but the king replied, “Any gentleman of true sensibility would, of course, be moved by such devotion.”
“Naturally,” Alistair murmured. “And how much more moved would a gentleman be by the plight of a lady deprived of her children?”
Silence fell. Lister’s eyes were narrowed to mere slits. His son was watching him in dawning understanding, and Hasselthorpe and Blanchard sat frozen. Alistair wasn’t aware how much the other gentlemen knew about Helen and Lister and their drama involving the children, but Lister’s son at least knew something. He looked quickly between his father and Alistair, his mouth set in a grim line.
“Do you speak of a specific lady, Munroe?” the king asked.
“Indeed, sire. There is a lady formerly acquainted with His Grace, the Duke of Lister, who has recently suffered the loss of her children.”
The king’s lips pursed. “They are dead?”
“No, thank God, Your Majesty,” Alistair replied silkily. “They are only kept apart from their mother, perhaps in honest mistake.”
Lister shifted in his seat. His brow had begun to shine with sweat. “What are you implying, Munroe?”
“Implying?” Alistair opened his eye wide. “I do not imply. I merely state facts. Do you deny that Abigail and Jamie Fitzwilliam are being kept at your London town house?”
Lister blinked. He’d no doubt counted on Helen not knowing where he’d hidden the children. Alistair had, in fact, only learned of their whereabouts this morning, via the simple expedient of sending a boy to bribe one of Lister’s footmen.
Lister visibly swallowed. “I have every right to keep the children within my house.”
Alistair was silent, watching the man and wondering if he saw the trap gaping wide.
The king shifted in his seat. “Who are these children?”
“They are—” Lister began, and then cut himself abruptly off when he finally saw where Alistair had led him. He shut his mouth and glared while Alistair smiled and sipped his wine, waiting to see if the duke was angry enough to throw caution to the wind. If he acknowledged the children in the presence of the king, they would have a claim on him and, more importantly, on his estate.
Kimberly turned to face his parent fully and murmured, “Father.”
Lister shook his head as if coming out of a daze, and his face assumed a polite mask. “The children are nothing to me—merely the offspring of a former friend.”
“Good.” The king clapped his hands together. “Then they can be returned immediately to their mother, eh, Lister?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Lister muttered, and then turned to Hasselthorpe. “When do you propose to submit this bill to parliament?”
The duke, Hasselthorpe, and Blanchard leaned together in a political discussion, while Kimberly merely looked relieved.
The king waved for more wine and when it was poured, tilted his glass slightly to Alistair and said, “To maternal love.”