another nest now, and it wouldn’t do for me to be poaching. Maddie has already rung a peel over me on that score.”
“I am only helping my cousin Fordwich, with a little of his correspondence. It’s as much personal estate business as anything else, to leave him free for politics. He’s so busy, it is the least I can do.”
“I think it a great waste of your time and talents to be nothing more than a scribbler, but then I’m sure you know what you are about,” Eskott said, biting back a sharper rejoinder. Estate business was not conducted from Westminster.
“My cousins have been so kind to me, you know, that I could hardly refuse to give Fordwich a hand when he asked.”
“Yes, I quite understand your position.”
Lady Margaret entered smiling. Henry left, and as Madeline did not return to the saloon, Eskott assumed she had joined her cousin in her father’s study.
“I haven’t seen you in two years, Eskott. I hope you’re keeping well? Have you time to join me for a cup of tea? Nasty cold weather we are having.”
“That would be nice. I had not heard you were in town, or I would have been here sooner to pay my respects.”
“I hadn’t intended coming, but...” She stopped, with a worried glance to the doorway.
“Is it Aldred that has you worried?”
“Aldred and that foolish niece of mine. She is infatuated with him, Eskott. There is no other word for it.”
“Surely Fordwich does not go along with it?”
“He refuses to see what is going on beneath his nose. I don’t understand it, unless it is Aldred’s telling him ten times a day he should be the next prime minister that accounts for it. That is sweet music to my brother’s ears, you must know. He realizes it will never happen, but I think it has always been a secret ambition. Well, it is only natural; every man wants to rise to the top.”
“Some are not too exacting as to the devices they employ,” he said, with a meaningful look that had nothing to do with Fordwich, nor was Lady Margaret so slow as to think it had.
“He is a self-seeking, unscrupulous man, Eskott. But family, cousins to us, that is how he got his foot in the door in the first place. Now he has got his entire body in with this business of acting as secretary to my brother.”
“Maddie suspects nothing?”
“When you are in the state that poor girl is in, you see what you want to see. I could almost pity her, if I weren’t so disgusted.”
“What do you figure is his aim, to use the family to get a good position, or to marry her fortune?”
“Both. If it were only a job he was after, I wouldn’t mind. Of course she is attractive; I don’t say he don’t like her, but certainly he is making use of her, using her connections to climb the ladder. If he found someone he liked better, or someone richer, I expect he would drop her without so much as a second thought.”
“There is a rumor he played a similar stunt on a young lady back home. I think I must investigate that matter more thoroughly. Maddie puts an innocent coloring on the incident, but perhaps if he actually jilted a girl...”
“She wouldn’t believe a word of it if he did. You would have to put the girl under her nose to convince Maddie, and then she’d be more apt to believe Henry than the woman.”
“Perhaps I have been working on the wrong angle. I have been trying to discover his character by means of his politics. Just what exactly is it he does for your brother? What sort of work?”
“Work connected with Fordwich’s position on the Privy Council. He summarizes reports my brother hasn’t time to read, writes letters for him, that sort of thing.”
“Nothing of a more personal nature? Estate business?”
“No, no, the bailiff at the park attends to all that. He may scribble off an occasional note about something my brother wishes done, but it is mainly government work. In fact, he is paid by the government.”
“I see. I have just determined the fellow is a liar at
“I am only helping my cousin Fordwich, with a little of his correspondence. It’s as much personal estate business as anything else, to leave him free for politics. He’s so busy, it is the least I can do.”
“I think it a great waste of your time and talents to be nothing more than a scribbler, but then I’m sure you know what you are about,” Eskott said, biting back a sharper rejoinder. Estate business was not conducted from Westminster.
“My cousins have been so kind to me, you know, that I could hardly refuse to give Fordwich a hand when he asked.”
“Yes, I quite understand your position.”
Lady Margaret entered smiling. Henry left, and as Madeline did not return to the saloon, Eskott assumed she had joined her cousin in her father’s study.
“I haven’t seen you in two years, Eskott. I hope you’re keeping well? Have you time to join me for a cup of tea? Nasty cold weather we are having.”
“That would be nice. I had not heard you were in town, or I would have been here sooner to pay my respects.”
“I hadn’t intended coming, but...” She stopped, with a worried glance to the doorway.
“Is it Aldred that has you worried?”
“Aldred and that foolish niece of mine. She is infatuated with him, Eskott. There is no other word for it.”
“Surely Fordwich does not go along with it?”
“He refuses to see what is going on beneath his nose. I don’t understand it, unless it is Aldred’s telling him ten times a day he should be the next prime minister that accounts for it. That is sweet music to my brother’s ears, you must know. He realizes it will never happen, but I think it has always been a secret ambition. Well, it is only natural; every man wants to rise to the top.”
“Some are not too exacting as to the devices they employ,” he said, with a meaningful look that had nothing to do with Fordwich, nor was Lady Margaret so slow as to think it had.
“He is a self-seeking, unscrupulous man, Eskott. But family, cousins to us, that is how he got his foot in the door in the first place. Now he has got his entire body in with this business of acting as secretary to my brother.”
“Maddie suspects nothing?”
“When you are in the state that poor girl is in, you see what you want to see. I could almost pity her, if I weren’t so disgusted.”
“What do you figure is his aim, to use the family to get a good position, or to marry her fortune?”
“Both. If it were only a job he was after, I wouldn’t mind. Of course she is attractive; I don’t say he don’t like her, but certainly he is making use of her, using her connections to climb the ladder. If he found someone he liked better, or someone richer, I expect he would drop her without so much as a second thought.”
“There is a rumor he played a similar stunt on a young lady back home. I think I must investigate that matter more thoroughly. Maddie puts an innocent coloring on the incident, but perhaps if he actually jilted a girl...”
“She wouldn’t believe a word of it if he did. You would have to put the girl under her nose to convince Maddie, and then she’d be more apt to believe Henry than the woman.”
“Perhaps I have been working on the wrong angle. I have been trying to discover his character by means of his politics. Just what exactly is it he does for your brother? What sort of work?”
“Work connected with Fordwich’s position on the Privy Council. He summarizes reports my brother hasn’t time to read, writes letters for him, that sort of thing.”
“Nothing of a more personal nature? Estate business?”
“No, no, the bailiff at the park attends to all that. He may scribble off an occasional note about something my brother wishes done, but it is mainly government work. In fact, he is paid by the government.”
“I see. I have just determined the fellow is a liar at
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