Virginia Henley by Enslaved Page A

changed. His brother, the earl,has ordered him home because he discovered Peter gambling. He’s a tyrant apparently, but a tyrant who controls the purse strings, and Peter cannot afford to enrage him further since he’s up to his eyebrows in debt.”
    “He wouldn’t be in debt if he controlled his gambling,” Prudence condemned.
    Richard said dryly, “If he weren’t on Queer Street, m’dear, he wouldn’t be aligning himself with us.”
    “I take your point, Richard.”
    “All you have to do is talk Diana into visiting Bath.” He held up his hand as Prudence opened her mouth to protest. “Bath has its advantages, as young Hardwick pointed out to me.”
    “You don’t think he’s trying to give us a slip on the shoulder, so to speak?”
    “Where do you pick up these expressions, m’dear? No, I don’t think any such thing. He’s keen as mustard. Well, he’d have to have a few slates missing from his roof if he passed up an opportunity to get his hands on Diana’s fortune, to say nothing of getting his shoes under her bed!”
    “Richard, there is no need to be vulgar,” Prudence said squeamishly. “What are the advantages?”
    “Well, there are the obvious ones, of course, for a young lady of Diana’s temperament. Bath has a feeling of escape from social constriction. Entertainments and activities go on round the clock, making the atmosphere conducive to
amour.
Then there is the singular advantage of Diana being invited to Hardwick Hall. It cannot fail to capture her imagination and make her long to live there. It is a fifteenth-century Elizabethan manor on the River Avon. You know how fascinated she is by anything Elizabethan.”
    “I’ve done my homework on the Hardwicks, Richard. The earl is wealthy as Croesus. He owns stone quarries and a fleet of barges to transport the golden stone up the Avon canal to Bristol. He is a justice of Somerset and a confirmed bachelor. We have nothing to worry about exposing Diana to his ‘charms.’”
    “If Mark Hardwick never marries, she could be the mother of the next Earl of Bath. I believe you should convey that vital piece of information to Diana.”
    “I take it the cost of a season in Bath can be deducted from Diana’s money?”
    “Absolutely, m’dear—perfectly legal expense.”
    “Then get on with leasing an elegant house in the smartest part of town and leave Diana to me.”
    When Diana came downstairs in a cream evening gown trimmed with pink rosebuds, the carriage was waiting to take them to Almack’s.
    Prudence waited until they were enclosed in its dark privacy before she broached the subject forefront in her mind. “Diana, I’ve had the most wonderful idea! I think we should take a lovely sojourn to Bath. We will lease a fashionable little house for a month and enjoy a holiday. Bath was on every tongue this afternoon at tea. It seems that no place in England affords so brilliant a circle of good company as Bath.”
    Diana couldn’t believe her ears.
What maggot is eating your brain, Prudence?
“But surely our plans preclude any such thing. I’ve been invited to the opera, and I’m quite certain you won’t want to miss the Devonshire Ball, not with Prinny as its centrepiece? No, no—we will go another time.”
    Prudence, momentarily speechless, saw the carriage had arrived. She would have to postpone her efforts until later.
    Although Diana didn’t admit it to herself, she looked forward to seeing Peter Hardwick. He arrived late and walked a direct path to her. He took her dance card and said, “We can throw this away.”
    “Since when did you start making my decisions?” she asked archly.
    “Tonight,” he murmured intimately, for her earsalone. His glance caught and held hers—his brown eyes had a predatory gaze. “Diana, I want you to come to Bath.”
    Had she heard him right? Within hours she had been pressed to go to Bath twice. What an amazing coincidence —except Diana did not believe in coincidence.
    She opened her fan.