A Baron for Becky

Chapter ten

In the end, it was closer to three weeks. Aldridge said goodbye to his friend, then went off to Margate, summoned by His Grace, the Duke of Haverford to explain the scandal that had erupted at a Society masquerade ball the night after Astley's. The gossip rags were relatively circumspect, aware of the Duke's reach. But the mother of one of Sarah's friends, Mrs Harrowmead, was an eyewitness and poured it all into the ears of the assembled mothers when they walked with the girls in the park.

"There was a queue. Can you believe it? Aldridge and Overton turned up hoping to find volunteers and had an excessive number of applicants for the last two... encounters. So they decided to conduct interviews. All very discreet, nothing stated plainly, but the word travelled right through the house, and—I swear to you, my dears, I saw it with my own eyes—the ladies formed a queue in the hall outside the study, and went in one at a time."

"But... their husbands?" protested one of the other women, leaning forward so she didn't miss a word, her eyes wide and avid.

"They were mostly widows, dear. One or two ladies whose husbands do not seem to mind—you know the sort—but Major Lord Vincent came and dragged his wife away; literally dragged her, and she screaming that he deserved to be Aldridged. Darlings, I did not know where to look." Mrs Harrowmead's shudder of horror would not have shamed Mrs Siddons.

"Dreadful!" the other women agreed, with great delight.

"But that wasn't the worst. After they had chosen the... successful ladies, they went back to dancing. I think they must have arranged to meet them later, do you not agree? They were but an hour in the study, and they must have interviewed at least nine ladies. I did not see the whole, for Edward disapproved heartily when he noticed I was watching, and took me off to dance."

"Then Lord Ballingcroft arrived, looking for Overton."

Mrs Harrowmead paused for dramatic effect.

"He challenged him to a duel, and Overton planted him a facer right in the middle of the Douglas Reel!"

The response was suitably shocked, both at Overton's disregard of etiquette, and at Mrs Harrowmead's use of schoolboy slang. She'd not have heard that from her husband. A careless younger brother, perhaps?

"Then Ballingcroft pulled a sword out of his cane, and Aldridge—I did not perfectly see how, but Aldridge took it from him, and, my loves, he told Lord Ballingcroft that he did not deserve Lady Ballingcroft, and if the lady ever did stray, Lord Ballingcroft would have brought it on himself, for he was an unfaithful husband and a poor..." here the lady blushed. "Um. Lord Aldridge implied that Lord Ballingcroft was inadequate in..."

"Bed sport," supplied one of the other women, bluntly.

"Then what happened?" asked Becky, who had seen Aldridge's black eye when he called on his way to Margate.

"A brawl, Mrs Winstanley," Mrs Harrowmead said. "Lord Ballingcroft hit Lord Aldridge, and Lord Overton hit Lord Ballingcroft, and some other gentlemen joined in, and even some ladies, and Edward took me home." The lady was clearly disappointed. "And Lord Ballingcroft is at home with a broken jaw, or so they say. So there will be no duel."

"But the newssheet said..." the lady who had spoken of bed sport was clearly intrigued. "How did they manage it?" And she quoted the gossip column entry from memory. "'Lord O. and the M.M., despite the unfortunate incident, apparently found time to complete the game bag required to win the bet with Mr H.' When did they find time? And the energy?"

Becky thought to herself that this lady's husband would be wise to keep her away from Aldridge. Her own experience with Aldridge suggested several plausible answers, but she didn't enlighten the company. Mrs Winstanley would have no idea about such scandalous goings-on.