The following morning, long before the fashionable made their visits, Ester was surprised to greet the Dowager Lady Beaumont and Freddy in her morning room. Ester welcomed them warmly and with a great deal of curiosity.
“Lady Beaumont, Freddy, to what do I owe this pleasure? I have not seen either of you for an age.”
“Ester, you owe our visit to my scapegrace nephew,” Freddy replied. “We had the dubious pleasure of receiving him yesterday afternoon, when he informed us he was to wed your niece, Lady Serena.” Freddy frowned. “It was not the news, which was welcome, but the fashion in which it was delivered that raised our suspicions that all may not be right.”
The look in Freddy’s face told Ester they hoped to be wrong about Beaumont’s actions.
Ester was sorry to disappoint them. “The betrothal is not as we would have wished it.”
“Drat the boy!” Lady Beaumont’s face turned red and she pounded her cane on the floor. “Why can’t he behave like a normal man, fall in love, admit it and marry? I don’t know what ails him to act like a rascal. Don’t you tell me you are going to let him get away with this . . . this infamy?”
Ester laughed. “No, we will not. We are, the whole family and then some, leaving for France to-morrow. In our haste, we may have overlooked informing a certain person.”
Lady Beaumont chuckled. “I always knew you for a smart chit.”
“I have to give credit to my niece, Evesham.”
“Well, that doesn’t surprise me either. Gets her brains from her mother’s side, I’m sure. So tell me the worst. What did Robert do?”
Lady Beaumont’s frown deepened as Ester told her Serena’s story.
“What an idiot. He’s mad in love with the girl! Why, he practically flew out of my carriage when he saw her with another man driving in the Park. That I should live to see a grandchild of mine act without the least delicacy of mind!”
Freddy’s face took on an appearance of unholy delight. “Mama, would you like to visit France?”
Lady Beaumont scowled. “At my age? What a ridiculous . . .” Then her eyes twinkled with mischief. “Freddy, I’ve always said you had my brains. It’s just the thing to stop any gossip. All of us ladies traveling to Paris to buy Lady Serena’s bride clothes. It’s perfect. Robert will be furious. I’ll see that young jackanapes admit he loves Lady Serena and be happy about it, if it is the last thing I do. Freddy, make the plans.”
