His confidential agent could help him with something else. Miss Trim had arrived bearing glowing references. Perhaps it was time someone investigat
ed her background.
Chapter Five
From the corridor, Nell watched Leath entering his mother’s rooms. She hadn’t seen his lordship since that nerve-racking interview yesterday when he’d expressed his distrust. His expression this morning portended trouble. She had a premonition that the trouble concerned Lady Leath’s lowborn companion.
Nell slipped into her small office. She set down the ink she’d got from Mr. Crane—who was young and handsome and eager to help, and forgotten the moment she left his company—and crossed to close the door to the marchioness’s sitting room.
“… Miss Trim isn’t suitable.” Leath’s deep voice carried to where she stood.
Nell couldn’t see mother or son, but she guessed that the marchioness was in her accustomed place on the chaise longue and his lordship paced the floor as he did when he was impatient.
“James, we had this argument when you arrived a fortnight ago.” The marchioness’s voice was softer.
“I thought I’d give her the benefit of the doubt before my final decision.”
“Your final decision?” Lady Leath asked sharply.
“Mamma, you know I’m considering your welfare.”
“I know you’ve taken an unreasoning dislike to Miss Trim.”
“She doesn’t deserve your confidence.”
“I grieve to think I raised such a snob. Your father took people on their own merits.”
“Well, my father was clearly a better man in every way.”
Despite everything, Nell felt a twinge of sympathy. Something in his weary tone indicated that he didn’t appreciate the comparison to his brilliant father.
“Nell is from a respectable family. Poverty isn’t a crime.”
“I don’t know anything about her background, and when I ask her, she’s remarkably noncommital.”
“Only because you bully her. Frightened people always look shifty.”
A contemptuous snort escaped Leath. “She’s not at all frightened of me, Mamma.”
“And is that why you want to dismiss her? Because she doesn’t cower at your merest whisper?”
Brava, your ladyship. The talent for political debate wasn’t confined purely to the male Fairbrothers.
“I want to dismiss her because I don’t trust her.”
“She’s worked as my companion for well over six weeks and the more I see of her, the more I like her.”
“You’re missing Sophie.”
“You’re here now,” the marchioness said with spurious docility. “Still I like Miss Trim. And you forget how long Sophie was in London before she married Harry Thorne.”
“Exactly.”
“James, stop this.” In her mind, Nell saw the marchioness glare at her son. “I mightn’t be able to run from Derby to York, but there’s nothing wrong with my mind.”
“I’m not implying that, Mamma.”
“Yes, you are.”