Cora (Virtue & Vice #4)

Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

GIDEON

I nstead of his wife, it was his mother who came to greet him when Gideon arrived home at the end of his workday. He had left the bank early for once. Eryx was, however begrudgingly, turning out to be a good business partner. The man had an enviable knack for spotting opportunities to make money, and Gideon found himself examining his own books more closely for possible ways to increase his own revenues.

“Where is your wife?” Martha demanded without preamble.

“How would I know, Mother?”

“She is your wife, Gideon. You have not taken nearly a firm enough hand with her.”

No, he had not. But he was quite certain that he and his mother had very different views as to what constituted a firm hand.

“Cora probably went to visit Miss Caldwell.”

Martha’s mouth flattened. “She must drop that deplorable connection. At once.”

“Miss Caldwell is harmless. Her father might be elderly and on his third wife, while she has been rather forgotten in the passel of offspring, but that doesn’t make her any less a lady. Or her father any less a potential client we might want at Wentworth’s.”

Acquiring Lord Caldwell’s account would hardly count as a coup, assuming there was any money left after breeding all those children. A decent man would have given up the game of getting children on ever-younger brides long before he passed into his eighties, but there was nothing stopping the man from seeding the entire earth with children if he so chose, and choose he did.

Upon second thought, the inevitable inheritance squabbles might be not be worth bringing this particular prospect into the Wentworth’s fold.

“I had not considered that angle,” his mother said in a tone that strongly suggested she had sucked on a slice of lemon. “She may maintain the acquaintance as long as Miss Caldwell stays away publicly.”

“What generous permission, Mother.” He bussed a kiss to her cheek, scenting the blend of lilac perfume she liked. “Is everything coming together for the event we discussed?”

Her lemony expression brightened. Arranging things to benefit the bank was his mother’s forte. That it would showcase Cora to the ton was a side benefit.

“I have secured the venue and started a guest list. I will begin drafting invitations tomorrow. Have you told her about the surprise yet?”

“I will. Soon.” Cora needed time to rehearse. Yet a note of uncharacteristic doubt about his plan had started to creep in.

She patted his cheek. “You have always been such a good boy, Gideon. Taking care of us all. I don’t know how I would have survived if your father had managed to work himself to death, and Reggie falling ill.”

Gideon eyed the spring flowers poking through a layer of melting snow out the window and thought longingly of warm weather. Next winter he would ensure that Reggie had a nice holiday to a seaside spa. Perhaps a visit to Italy was in order, where the winter wasn’t so biting. It would be better for his health, and if Cora wasn’t expecting, he might persuade Martha to go with him.

Assuming they continued at the rate they’d been going, however, Cora likely would be pregnant well before next winter. The thought brought a soft smile to his lips and a ball of warmth near his heart that was nigh unbearable in its sweetness. He couldn’t wait.

“I need to get ready for the Blumford’s ball. That girl you married needs to get home. Now.” Martha popped his warm bubble of happiness with her fretfulness.

“Will Reggie be going?”

“Yes. He is very excited to attend. You know how he adores these events even though he can’t really participate.”

Gideon knew damn well that his brother did not, in fact, adore these events. He did, however, find observing people to be a way to break up the monotony of being constantly stuck in the house with his overbearing mother.

Reggie’s presence this evening, however, meant the usual ordeal of transporting his wheeled chair, getting it inside the event venue, and getting Reggie into the venue as well without impugning his dignity along the way. He would not consent to be carried. Plenty of people would comment that Reggie should simply stay at home, and Gideon couldn’t afford to alienate the very people he relied upon for his income by giving them a proper dressing-down.

He frequently swore he was going to invent a collapsible platform that could be toted about on top of a carriage and unfolded over a stairway. Unfortunately, Gideon hadn’t an inventive bone in his body. Perhaps that Silas Huntley fellow…

A gust of cold air and the scent of wet dog announced Cora’s arrival. Titania came running up to greet him. Heedless of her dampness, he bent to pick up his greatest admirer, who wiggled in a frantic attempt to lick his face. “Who is a very good pup?” Gideon gently denied her access to his chin, chuckling.

“That creature ought to be consigned to the yard,” fumed Martha, her nose wrinkled with distaste. “I don’t know how you can bear to have that thing constantly underfoot. It will have to go, of course, once your wife finally does her duty and produces an heir.”

Good lord, one would think there was a high and mighty title attached to the Wentworth name instead of a mere bank, the way Martha went on about heirs. He knew it came from her profound anxiety over being left penniless and unable to support Reggie, should anything happen to him and his father, but she had daughters to rely upon should the worst happen.

“Is that what you think will happen, Martha?” Cora asked with deceptive sweetness. “That I’ll get rid of my pet simply because I have a baby?”

She glanced at Gideon as if seeking permission to say something spectacularly rude. Gideon cast her an incredulous stare, waiting to see what his bold, beautiful wife might do.

“Yes, that is what I expect to happen,” snapped Martha.

“That seems like an excellent reason never to have a child, then.” Cora bussed a kiss on his cheek and swept upstairs, leaving his mother sputtering in fury.

“You walked into that one, Mother. I advise you not to try and bend Cora’s will to your own. You’ll find her much more amenable when you treat her like a rational being instead of a child to be scolded into obedience.”

Then, he, too, left his mother to stew.