The Beauty Of Rose

B R I S

XIII

"HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS MARY?" the Viscountess asked.

Lady Thomas, formerly known as Mrs. Whitfield, sat on her terrace sipping tea with her friend. "What news?" Lady Thomas asked.

"The latest gossip about your son. Apparently, he fought the Duke of Worcester at Princess Lettie's ball."

Mary set down her teacup. "How did he even get invited to the crown princess' ball?"

"Everyone was shocked to see someone so common at a royal ball. That wasn't even the highlight of the evening."

Mary peered at her friend in disbelief. "What could be more shocking than a brawl at a formal event?"

"Your daughter-in-law publicly admonishing the princess for supposedly trapping her in the gardens with the Duke."

"Sarah, you've always been very dramatic. It can't be as bad you say," Mary said dismissively.

"Mrs. Whitfield took the princess' fan and threw it on the ground."

Mary nearly spit out her tea. What was wrong with young people these days? Where were their manners? "I cannot believe my ears."

"My daughter said she could not believe her eyes when she wrote to me." the viscountess said. Mary sighed. She couldn't remember the last time her son wrote to her. "You should do something about him and his wife, Mary."

A visit to her son was probably overdue, Mary thought to herself. "They're grown adults. I shouldn't have to give them a lecture on proper manners."

"Twenty years and eight and twenty years are only children," Sarah disagreed. "But that's not what I meant. They need some motherly intervention in their marriage."

"Marriage?" Mary asked to more herself than her friend. She hadn't thought of her daughter-in-law in years. She remembered a buxom young woman who hadn't breathed a word at her wedding. For what it was worth, Mary had advised her son against the marriage. She'd married Matthew's father for love and she'd expected him to follow her example. Her son had not. "I don't think he ever had much of a marriage with that girl."'

"I disagree. Do you know that he ravished her in a savusauna a fortnight ago?"

Mary had a slight coughing fit before she was able to speak. "What is wrong with him?" she rasped.

Sarah only laughed. "Don't pretend you don't remember what it was like to be young. You and Robert had quite the dalliances back in the day."

The mention of Mary's late husband brought heat to her cheeks. "Robert and I never did anything like that."

"So you don't remember how the two of you made love in a field?"

Mary pushed her teacup aside. "This isn't about who I was decades ago. It's about how my son is making a fool of himself."

"It's also about how your son is rumored to have a pregnant, live-in mistress who he plans to marry before the baby is born."

Mary's eyes widened. She remembered a certain mischievous courtesan Matthew kept years ago. "This rumored mistress doesn't happen to go by the name of Victoria Sill?"

"I don't know her surname. Victoria does sound right though."

"You think that this, Mary nearly spat out the next word, pregnant mistress is preventing my son from having a true marriage."

"According to current gossip and my very own flesh and blood, that appears to be the truth."

"I think you're right, Sarah. That marriage does need some intervention."