Belgravia Read Online Free

chiseled features, his hard mouth smiling above his cleft chin. She caught herhusband’s eye. They both knew the situation was almost out of control. Perhaps it was out of control already.
    “Mr. James and Lady Frances Wedderburn-Webster,” announced the chamberlain, and the Duke stepped forward to greet the next arrivals. “Lady Frances, how lovely you look.” He caught his wife’s worried glance after the young lovers. Surely there was nothing more the Richmonds could do to manage the matter? But the Duke saw the care on his wife’s face and leaned in toward her. “I’ll speak to him later. He’ll see sense. He always has before now.” She nodded. That was the thing to do. Sort it out later, when the ball was over and the girl was gone. There was a stir at the door, and the ringing voice of the chamberlain sang out: “His Royal Highness, the Prince of Orange.” A pleasant-looking young man approached the host and hostess, and the Duchess, her back as straight as a ramrod, plunged into a deep Court curtsy.
    The Duke of Wellington did not arrive much before midnight, but he was cool enough about it when he did. To James Trenchard’s intense delight, the Duke looked around the ballroom and, on spotting him, walked over. “What brings the Magician here tonight?”
    “Her Grace invited us.”
    “Did she, indeed? Good for you. Has the evening proved enjoyable so far?”
    James nodded. “Oh yes, Your Grace. But there is a good deal of talk about the advance of Bonaparte.”
    “And is there, by Jove? Do I understand this charming lady is Mrs. Trenchard?” He was very collected, no doubt about it.
    Even Anne’s nerve failed her when it came to addressing him as Duke. “Your Grace’s calm is very reassuring.”
    “That’s what it’s supposed to be.” He laughed gently, turning to an officer nearby. “Ponsonby, are you acquainted with the Magician?”
    “Certainly, Duke. I spend a good deal of time outside Mr. Trenchard’s office, waiting to plead the cause of my men.” But he smiled.
    “Mrs. Trenchard, may I present Sir William Ponsonby? Ponsonby, this is the Magician’s wife.”
    Ponsonby bowed slightly. “I hope he is kinder to you than he is to me.”
    She smiled too, but before she could reply they were joined by the Richmonds’ daughter, Georgiana. “The room is buzzing with rumors.”
    Wellington nodded sagely. “So I understand.”
    “But are they true?” She was a good-looking girl, Georgiana Lennox, with a clear, open face, and her anxiety only served to underline the sincerity of her question and the threat that hovered over them all.
    For the first time, the Duke’s expression was almost grave as he looked into her upturned eyes. “I’m afraid they are, Lady Georgiana. It looks as if we’ll be off tomorrow.”
    “How terrible.” She turned to watch the couples whirling around the dance floor, most of the young men in their dress uniforms as they chattered and laughed with their partners. How many would survive the coming struggle?
    “What a heavy burden you must carry.” Anne Trenchard was also looking at the men. She sighed. “Some of these young men will die in the days ahead, and if we are to win this war, even you cannot prevent it. I do not envy you.”
    Wellington was, if anything, agreeably surprised at this from the wife of his supplier, a woman of whom he had barely been aware before this evening. Not everyone could understand that it wasn’t all glory. “Thank you for that thought, madam.”
    At this moment, they were interrupted by a blast from a score of bagpipes, and the dancers fled the floor to give way to a troop of the Gordon Highlanders. This was the Duchess’s coup de théâtre , which she had begged from their senior officer, citing her Gordon blood as her excuse. Since the Highlanders had originally been raised by her late father twenty years before, there wasn’t much chance for the commander to refuse, and so he was pleased to grant the Duchess’s