A Man Above Reproach Read Online Free Page B

but a strange hiccup in her normal routine.
    “Good evening,” she forced out.
    The next day, she was sure it would be like it had never happened.

C HAPTER T WO
----
    “Foxhunting, as a so-called sport, does not have much to recommend it. If it serves only as a social activity, I can think of many examples that would involve more merriment and less blood. I do not think it bold of me to wonder if the hounds and the gentlemen are not too far apart in personality and I ask you, do we not have ambition to be more than merely dogs?”
    —F ROM
T HE C OLLECTED E SSAYS OF L ORD E LIAS A DDISON
    Elias was groggy in the morning, staring into his dressing mirror. He was trying to remember the dream he had been pulled out of, one of a piano and miles of fabric dropping to the floor. His valet fussed around him, muttering muted curses about the state of his hair.
    “Are you certain you will not take more time with your hair today? Perhaps I can trim it? Her Grace expects you to accompany her to the market and you know how she hates you frowzy.”
    “Yes, of course, I ‘look like a wild man.’ My mother will have to accept me as I am if she wants to go to Cheapside this morning. She could just take Alessandra like usual.”
    “I believe the duchess wants to speak with you, Your Grace.”
    Of course, why take his sister when the duchess could use the time to criticize her son alone?
    “She wants to speak at me, not with me.”
    Elias regarded his countenance. He was glad to be out of mourning clothes. The black had become stifling. The navy chosen by Dryden suited him much better. His cravat sat starched brilliantly white on his dressing table.
    “You may go, Dryden,” he dismissed his valet, who frowned with disapproval.
    “But your cravat, my lord…”
    “Yes, yes,” Elias waved a hand. “You have made it clear that you find it improper, and you would rather take care of it. However, you may go.”
    He sank down into a chair and let out a long sigh, one that he would only release when alone. Elias hated Cheapside, he hated shopping, and he especially hated wasting the day away. He wanted to finish searching his father’s study. James Addison had a habit of hiding papers that he thought might be embarrassing: bills of sale for things bought for his courtesans over the years, deeds for city houses bought for the same. Elias was exaggerating when he complained that his father had frittered away the fortune—and he would only complain to Thackeray. The duchy of Lennox had so much money that his father’s debauches could not put a dent in it, but Elias was annoyed nonetheless. The farms around the Lennox country estate were not suffering greatly, but his father had done little to improve their situation. As the new duke, Elias intended to fix this, to give his young sister Alessandra the London debut she deserved, and take up his seat in the House of Lords. He had plans that did not include finding a wife immediately.
    It was inevitable that was what his mother wanted to talk about on this little trip.
    He picked up his cravat and began to tie it into a mathematical knot, hoping that the tight angle would hold his head on his neck as he listened to Sophia natter on endlessly about finding the proper woman and making an heir. She had already been on Elias to pair off before James died, but now that he was gone and there was no successor, she had ratcheted up her efforts. She believed he was far too old to be unmarried, as did the patronesses who threw every available lady in his path each time he attended a ball.
    He would eventually marry. He had no choice. It was just that he refused to believe that any of the women—to be more accurate, girls—would be happy living with a man of his demeanor. He could alreadysee himself beginning to resent their tittering. The woman he would marry would be the one he would sit across the breakfast and dinner table from for the rest of his life, and he did not want a life where he was