Lord Devere's Ward by Sue Swift Page A

benefit. While he heard nothing of direct assistance to his cause, he hoped that his presence in the company of political animals would help.
    Quinn rose from the table two hours later, several hundred pounds richer, caring nothing about the game or his companions. He wandered back home feeling hollow. What was missing from his life?
    Normally he would have accompanied Hawkes to the Nymphos, and released himself in the body or mouth of some street princess. Why had he hesitated?
    Kate. His Kate was the reason. No other woman held a shred of interest for him. Everything about her, from her shining chestnut hair down to her lovely little ankles, entranced, enthralled, and enchanted.
    “Damn,” he said aloud, whacking his cane against an iron fence at Berkeley Street. His heart ached when he thought of her distress due to the losses she’d suffered, as well as the effects of the brutality of Herbert and Osborn. For all he knew, Kate had never talked of the experiences to anyone, keeping all her pain inside. He wanted to ease her but did not know how without sacrificing his honor, and hers.

    * * *

    The Penroses removed their household to London shortly thereafter; except for the three youngest children, the entire family moved to Bruton Street in a parade of carriages, landaus, barouches, coaches, and traps.
    “What exactly is a season?”
    Kate broke off her conversation with Louisa to listen to Anna’s response to Pauline’s question.
    “And why do we have to have one? What’s so important?” Pauline, who had revealed herself to Kate in the past weeks as inquisitive, even curious, pursued the issue.
    “La, child!” Anna threw her head back and laughed. “The questions you ask!”
    “Seriously, Mamma. I have heard talk of seasons all my life, but no one has explained to me what ‘The Season’ is.” Kate knew that Pauline would chase her answers as tenaciously as any foxhound tracked its prey.
    Pauline’s mother answered. “Well! The London social season is very important, to be sure. It is most significant to a young woman of birth and breeding.”
    “To catch a husband, you mean?”

    Anna frowned. “‘Catch’ is truly not the proper term. It would be best to say that for quite a few years now, well-born persons gather in London after the worst of winter has passed. The gentlemen have hunted every fox and pheasant to extinction, and everyone has grown heartily bored of their country properties.”
    “I thought the Season began with the first race at Ascot, in March,” said Kate.
    Anna’s brow pleated. “There is no official event which begins the London social season. It merely seems as if the weather clears sufficiently in spring to allow easy travel from the country to London.” At that moment, the horses pulling the landau splashed through a mud puddle rimmed with ice.
    Kate suppressed a smirk.
    “So in the spring,” Anna continued, “we go to London to socialize with our friends and relations after the winter has passed. That is all.”
    “There is more awaiting me, though, Mamma, isn’t there?” demanded Louisa.
    Anna smiled. “For a young woman of
    marriageable age, the parties and social events are an opportunity to see and be seen by young men.”
    “The mating dance, so to speak,” Kate said.
    “But no one knows Lou, Mamma, and you don’t go to London except to buy clothes. How will Louisa be invited to any parties?” asked Pauline.
    “As soon as we get to Town we shall give a ball for Louisa after she is presented at court. We’ll invite all our old friends and our relations. They’ll reciprocate with invitations for Louisa,” Anna said, smiling. “Unless, of course, they have eligible daughters. They will not invite Louisa because our Lou is sure to cast everyone else into the shade.” Kate laughed with the others. “How long will we be in London, ma’am?”
    “No longer than two months, perhaps three.
    London becomes quite stifling in the summer, so we’ll go back to