‘Do you think I can pull this off, ma’am?’

‘I would not put it in such terms, but yes, I do. You are a good-looking enough man without looking “dangerously handsome”, you have humour, when you are not lost in gloom, and you can dance well. I saw you last night and you even made the awful Leyburn’s daughter look competent, poor child.’

‘Miss Yate. She does appear very …’

‘Downtrodden. That is the word you seek. Aurelia Leyburn is a bully. She probably bullied Leyburn to death, and she makes life a misery for the girl. Never going to do well, of course, but had a chance, until she had her mama criticising her every step, and then she became so self-conscious she grew clumsy and distrait. From what I have heard, there was even a young man of unimpeachable breeding but little prospects, a younger son in the army, or was it navy, back in Norfolk, but that was squashed because Aurelia wanted a better catch. She’ll get none now, and although it is good to see Aurelia’s desperation, it is a shame for the girl.’

‘I believe her name is Dorothea.’

‘Is it? Well, do not offer for her out of sympathy, that is all I … but on the other hand …’

‘Ma’am?’

‘I think showing just enough interest in Miss Yate might be advantageous. A little jealousy in your childhood companion might waken her to possibilities. Hmm.’

‘But would not be fair to Miss Yate.’

‘Nothing in life is fair to Miss Yate, so your attempts would be futile. Now, we have to plan your campaign.’

‘This is not a battle, Lady Vernham.’

‘No, Henfield, it has more strategy. It is a war.’

Charles Henfield gulped.

CHAPTER NINE

Lord Martley would never have been described as scheming by any of his many friends and acquaintances, who generally put him down as the best of good fellows, and both open and honest. However, he was currently engaged in scheming that for him was of Machiavellian proportions. If Lady Vernham considered Lord Gorleston ‘amiable but not acute’, she at least spoke with maternal affection. Lady Pirbright, whose last moment of closeness with her eldest son had been just before the umbilical cord was cut, regarded him as a fool of a magnitude only marginally different from her lord, and that the slight improvement was only through his inheriting at least a few drops of her own, superior, blood. He certainly inherited her looks rather than those of his sire, but she was wont to tell her friends, few though they might be, that he took after his father in wits, and was therefore disobedient through failing to comprehend her simple commands.