The Ruthless Rake

Chapter One ~ 1790-2

“I am yours to command, Sire, where my service, my sword and my fortune is concerned,” he said. “But as regards marriage, I must beg your leave to choose my own bride.”

The Prince of Wales shook his head.

“Mrs. Fitzherbert will be disappointed.”

“And so unfortunately will Lady Elaine,” the Earl added. “But, Sire, I find so many women delightful that I have no desire to shackle myself to one for the rest of my life.”

“You mean you do not intend to marry?” the Prince asked.

“I intend to enjoy myself, Sire. When one has such a choice of beautiful flowers, why should one confine oneself to picking just one bloom?”

The Prince threw back his head and laughed.

“As I have said before, Rothingham, you are incorrigible. The trouble is you are a rake.”

“An unrepentant one, Sire.”

“Marriage is a very competitive institution,” the Prince said almost coaxingly.

“If one desires comfort,” the Earl agreed. “At the same time I would find it hard not to wonder just how much of my wife’s affection was engendered by the comfort of my Bank balance!”

“You cannot be so cynical!” the Prince cried.

“I have yet, Sire, to meet the woman who would contemplate marriage with me without the comfort of knowing that I could house, clothe and feed her in the manner she most desires.”

“And who should blame her?” the Prince asked almost aggressively. “Being without money is a cursed embarrassment, as I know to my cost! But you are a dashing figure of a man, Rothingham! There must be any number of fair charmers who would love you for yourself alone.”

“We were talking of marriage, Sire,” the Earl said. “Love is a very different kettle of fish.”

“Very well, continue to be a rake and a roué!” the Prince exclaimed crossly.

Then, with one of his flashes of intuition that his friends knew well, he added,

“No, that’s not true. You are not a roué. You are too autocratic, too inflexible, too – ”

The Prince hesitated for words.

“Would ‘ruthless’ be the word you require, Sire?” the Earl suggested.

“Yes. it is,” the Prince agreed. “You are ruthless, Rothingham, in many ways. Look how you turned that fellow Mainwaring out of his Clubs and made everyone ostracise him.”

“He deserved it, Sire,” the Earl replied.

“Maybe, but few other men would have had the determination to punish him in such a way.”

The Prince paused.

“Yes, ruthless is the right description for you, Rothingham, but perhaps a wife would be able to change that.”

“I doubt it, Sire.”

“All the same,” the Prince continued, “you will need an heir, if your fortune is as large as it is reported to be.”

There was an obvious curiosity in His Royal Highness’s expression and the Earl replied,

“For once such reports are true. I am, as it happens, extremely warm in the pocket.”

“I am full of curiosity as to how you have achieved it,” the Prince said. “After all, if I am not mistaken, you left England when you were twenty-one without a penny piece to your name.”

“My father was bankrupt,” the Earl replied, and his voice was hard. “He had gambled away every penny of the family fortune and, as if that was not enough, created a scandal by getting himself killed in a duel in discreditable circumstances.”

“It was all very regrettable,” the Prince said. “I remember the King speaking of it with deep concern.”

“I was fortunate enough,” the Earl continued, “to transfer into a Regiment that was going to India. It cannot be of particular interest to your Royal Highness, but the wound I received, which was a minor one in a very minor battle, changed my whole life.”

“How?” the Prince asked.

There was no doubt of his interest and the Earl went on,

“I was invalided out of the Army. Having no money with which to return to England, I looked about me for some sort of occupation that might be remunerative. The aristocrats of England might find it reprehensible, but I went into trade.”

“Trade?” the Prince questioned.

“I was extremely fortunate,” the Earl said, “and I was helped by a very alluring pair of dark eyes in getting to know the merchants who are making enormous fortunes in this Oriental El Dorado of which in the next few years we will hear a great deal more.”

“Tell me about it,” the Prince demanded with a most flattering expression of curiosity.

“Your Royal Highness is well aware that England is receiving from India an ever-growing stream of spices, indigo, sugar, ivory, ebony, tea, sandalwood, saltpetre and silks. It is this trade and the ships that carry it in which I managed to obtain a share, which has enabled me not only to reinstate myself but to retrieve my father’s reputation.”

“Mrs. Fitzherbert tells me that you have paid back all his debts,” the Prince said.

“Every farthing,” the Earl answered, “and with interest! If I may say so, the slate is clear.”

“And your estates?”

“Those too I have recovered, but only in the past few weeks,” the Earl sighed. “Twenty-three years ago when my father began to lose his possessions one by one in reckless gaming, a cousin, Colonel Fitzroy Roth, came forward and took over the family house and the great acreage surrounding it. He assumed all liability for our tenants and pensioners, the herd of cattle and other commitments on condition that it remained his for his lifetime.”

“You mean he has now died?” the Prince asked.

“A few weeks ago,” the Earl replied, “and so I have now come into my own.”

There was a faint note of elation in his voice.

“I am glad for your sake, Rothingham, but all the more you will now need a wife to grace the head of your table.”

“There are, I assure you, Sire, many applicants for the position.”

“That I can quite believe!” the Prince ejaculated. “But you are still determined not to marry?”

“I intend to enjoy myself for many years to come,” the Earl declared. “Perhaps when I am in my dotage I may find some conformable creature to toady to my idiosyncrasies and cosset my failing health. Until then – ”

The Earl paused.

“Until then, you will play the field?” the Prince suggested.

“Exactly! Your Royal Highness could not have expressed it better.”

“Well, Lady Elaine will have a long wait,” the Prince said rising to his feet.

“She will indeed, Sire, but doubtless she will speedily find an alternative attraction to console herself with.”

“You underestimate the fidelity of a woman’s heart,” the Prince said, “or the damage you may inflict on it.”

“I have always found,” the Earl responded, “that diamonds have an exceptionally restorative quality. I have never yet met a woman who could refuse such medicine!”

The Prince laughed and enquired,

“Will you come with me to Newmarket tomorrow?”

“I regret, Sire, I must decline such a delightful invitation, but I have already arranged to visit my estate. It is almost a lifetime since I saw King’s Keep and I am sure that there are many alterations and improvements to be put in hand. But I shall not be away for more than two or three days.”

“Then I shall eagerly await your return,” the Prince said. “I find, Rothingham, the dullest party is amusing when you are present.”

“I thank you, Sire, but let’s avoid dull parties at all cost. There is at the end of the week to be a very amusing evening with the Corps de Ballet from the opera. It would be deeply appreciated if you could find your way to be present.”

“The Corps de Ballet, eh?” the Prince asked. “I don’t mind telling you, Rothingham, I find some of them extremely good-looking.”

“They are indeed an enchanting collection,” the Earl said. “May I therefore count on your presence next Thursday at eleven o’clock?”

“You may indeed,” the Prince replied. “Are you giving the party?”

“I imagine that I will be presented with the bill,” the Earl replied.

“And who could better afford it?” the Prince exclaimed. “And that reminds me, Rothingham, I hear you paid two thousand guineas for those greys you were driving yesterday. Finest pair of horseflesh I have seen for some time! I wanted them myself when they came up at Tattersalls, but they were beyond my touch.”

“You saw them?” the Earl asked.

“I saw them and admired them,” the Prince replied, “and Mrs. Fitzherbert agreed with me that they were the most exceptional animals we had either of us set eyes on for a long time.”

“Well, if Mrs. Fitzherbert liked them,” the Earl said slowly, “allow me, Sire, to make her a present of them. I would not wish her to be disappointed.”

The Prince’s face lit up.

“Do you mean that, Rothingham? By Jove, you are a generous chap! But I ought not to accept such a gift, as you well know.”

“If we either of us did only the things we should do, Your Royal Highness, the world would be a very dreary place.”

The Prince laughed and put his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Then if you mean what you say, I accept with thanks. It is generous of you, damned generous, and I shall not forget it.”

“They shall be delivered to your stable tomorrow,” the Earl said, “and I will rely on you, Sire, to see that they make my peace with Mrs. Fitzherbert. Perhaps she would be gracious enough to soothe the injured feelings of Lady Elaine.”

The Prince laughed.

“I might have known that there was some condition attached to such generosity!”

“You cannot expect me to forget so quickly the trader’s instinct,” the Earl retorted.

The Prince was laughing as they walked from the salon into the broad corridor that led towards the stairs.

But the Earl’s lazy blue eyes showed cynical amusement.

On leaving Carlton House the Earl found waiting for him his yellow and black high-perched phaeton in which he drove to a house in Curzon Street.

*

The door was opened by a manservant whom his Lordship greeted familiarly.

“Good afternoon, John. Is her Ladyship in?”

“Yes, my Lord. Her Ladyship is upstairs trying on gowns with Madame Bertin.”

”It sounds expensive,” the Earl remarked. “I will find my own way up.”

He walked quickly up the staircase and crossing the landing knocked perfunctorily on a door and entered before there could be an answer.

In the centre of a bedroom that was decorated in rose-pink silk, Lady Elaine Wilmot, wearing a diaphanous negligée of lime-coloured gauze, was inspecting a gown held out to her by Madame Bertin, the most exclusive dressmaker in Bond Street.

Madame Bertin had been lady’s maid to Marie Antoinette.

But when the first rumblings of revolution had started in France, she had quickly crossed the Channel and established herself as an arbiter of fashion to the Beau Monde.

The gown Lady Elaine was inspecting was full-skirted, her tightly laced waist was encircled by a sash and the low décolletage was veiled by a fine muslin fichu in the fashion set by the Queen of France and which had been adopted by most English Ladies of Quality.

As the door opened, Lady Elaine turned her head indifferently as if she expected the entrance of a servant.

When she saw the Earl, she gave a cry of delight.

“Ancelin, I was not expecting you!”

She ran towards him, oblivious of the fact that silhouetted against the light from the window her transparent negligée revealed the exquisite perfection of her naked body.

The Earl took the two hands she held out to him and raised them to his lips.

“Can it be possible that you are in need of more fripperies?” he demanded.

Lady Elaine pouted at him prettily, but her eyes pleaded as she said,

“I have nothing to wear and you did say – ”

“Yes, I did say,” the Earl replied good-humouredly.

Lady Elaine gave a quick sigh of relief and turned to Madame Bertin.

“Let me have the four gowns we have chosen as quickly as possible,” she asked.

“Certainement, my Lady. Et le compte to his Lordship as usual?”

“As usual,” the Earl agreed before Lady Elaine could speak.

Madame Bertin and an assistant who had remained discreetly in the corner of the room collected their boxes, their gowns, several rolls of silk and curtseyed themselves out of the bedroom.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Lady Elaine moved nearer to the Earl and put her arms round his neck.

“You are so kind to me,” she sighed. “I was half afraid that you would think me extravagant in buying new gowns when you have only recently paid the old harridan’s exorbitant bill.”

“Think you extravagant?” the Earl asked mockingly. “What could have put such an idea into your pretty little head?”

He looked down at her as he spoke, seeing the slanting dark fringed eyes, the winged eyebrows that matched the raven curls elegantly arranged to frame the oval perfection of her face.

There was no doubt that Lady Elaine was a great beauty.

The whiteness of her skin, the seductiveness of her large eyes and her full sensuous mouth had been acclaimed by almost every buck in London.

The daughter of a Duke, she had, however, made a disastrous marriage almost before she had left the schoolroom. It was fortunately of short duration.