His smile deepened.
“Barring any intimacies, of course!” Adelaide cried.
India rolled her eyes. “Mr. Dautry, I assure you that my clients do not think of me as a wife, temporary or otherwise.”
“Actually, that’s probably why they’re always falling on their knees before you, waving a ring,” her godmother said.
“I’m going to pay through the nose for a wife,” Dautry said, looking very amused. “It doesn’t seem extraordinary that I would have to pay for a provisional one first. According to my solicitor, you charge a sum larger than many dowries.”
“That is true,” Adelaide said, nodding. “From the moment that darling India decided to help people in a formal way, as it were, she determined that her services had to be seen as an extravagance, or she would not be treated with the respect she deserved.”
India decided to ignore this unhelpful exchange. She opened the first door to her left and entered a large drawing room. Its moth-eaten damask curtains had fallen to the floor, and only a few pieces of ramshackle furniture stood against the walls.
“Damned disappointing,” Dautry said, following her into the room. “There’s nothing very scandalous to be seen here at all.”
India turned in a circle. The sofa and all the chairs would have to go straight to the dust heap, along with the generations of mice homesteading within. But the writing desk against the wall needed little more than a good polish to be restored to itself.
“The proportions of this room are divine,” Adelaide said, poking at some paneling that had buckled from the wall.
“Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to make a complete tour of the house, since Rose is waiting for me. Lady Xenobia, can you speculate from the condition of this room whether you could transform the house into a background that will disguise the real me?” Dautry asked.
“I can transform the house, but not you,” India replied.
His response made Adelaide’s forehead crease. “My dear Mr. Dautry, you’ll have to curb your language. Laetitia’s mother won’t care for it.”
“Maybe you should delay those Greek lessons,” India said, keeping her voice sincere. “Just until you learn enough English to express yourself properly.”
“I suppose you never curse,” Dautry said, a distinct hint of provocation in his voice.
She was getting to know his measure now: he found her amusing. And not when she thought she was being witty, either.
“Mr. Dautry may not have had all the advantages one would wish,” Adelaide said earnestly, “but that doesn’t mean that he’s less of a gentleman. Why, some of the most gentlemanly men rise from nothing. My butler, for example.”
Dautry was terrifyingly attractive when he grinned; a dimple indented one cheek. Who would have thought such a forbidding man would have a dimple?
Without noticing, Adelaide rattled on about her butler and his exquisite manners. He never took the Lord’s name in vain. “At least, I’ve never heard him do so, and I can’t imagine that he would.” India, having hired him, was quite sure of that.
“I’m afraid it’s too late for me to learn that lesson,” Dautry said. “And now we’ll have to curtail this investigation of the property, because Rose has been in the care of my coachman long enough. Lady Xenobia, I believe that Lady Adelaide would prefer you didn’t take on Starberry Court.”
“I’m sorry, Adelaide, but I have already agreed to do it,” India said, adding, “and I shall not fail.” That sentence came out with a bite. The only time she had done so was after she’d had to ward off Lord Mening’s son and heir with a penknife, which meant she’d vacated the premises before she’d been able to replace the cook.
“But where would we stay?” Adelaide protested. “Surely not here. Our trunks and our ladies’ maids should arrive in an hour or two . . . are we to sleep on the grass?”
“I will take rooms for all of you in the Horn & Stag in Tonbridge,” Dautry said. “It’s a decent place.”