A Principle of Honour

Chapter 21

James had just had another busy day. The little intelligence he had received from France, had been confusing. It did not help that the French had spies everywhere and that he was in a country that, until only a year ago, had been loyal to France and its Emperor. Many locals still distrusted the British and were secretly hoping for Napoleon to cross the border and vanquish their foreign occupiers back across the channel.

Over the past week, young Stanford had done an excellent job. He had ridden for hours, without complaint, delivering messages to other commanding officers, based in the surrounding countryside outside Brussels. James had kept a close eye on the young man, and, as far as he knew, he had not been either drinking or gambling. James had made it clear, on the morning after he had extracted him from Ellington's club, what was to be expected of him. He would spend the day in the saddle delivering important messages. And at night, he would be on call, just in case an urgent communication needed to be sent. Consequently, young Stanford had no free time to call his own.

But tonight, James was expected to go to dinner at Lord Marlow's. He had promised his Lordship that he would attend one of his wife's soirées some time ago, but this one came at a particularly inconvenient time. The last place James wanted to go was to a society drawing room, to listen to music played by mediocre musicians, and engage in small talk with people he did not like. But, he had no choice. He had given his word that he would attend, and attend he would.

As usual, he arrived a little later than planned, just as the guests were about to enter the dining room for dinner.

'Good to see you, Colonel,' the booming voice of Lord Marlow said as he entered, 'just in time. We were about to make our grand entrance into the dining room.'

James recognised most of the guests gathered in the Marlow's drawing room. His brother and wife were in attendance, along with their ever-present escort, Lady Caroline. His heart sank when he saw the young woman in question, who smiled at him coquettishly as he looked over at her. It seemed that at every function he attended, she was always there. He had recently told his sister-in-law, that he did not fully trust Lady Caroline. He did not know why, but there was something about the way she conducted herself publicly, that did not sit well with him. James always prided himself on being a shrewd judge of character, and over the years his judgment had been proven correct. Now, looking over at the young woman in question, he was in no doubt that she was hiding something from the world.

He was busy thinking of ways to avoid being left alone with her when Lord Marlow boomed once more. 'Have you met my friend Harrington and his good lady wife, Lady Harrington?'

'Yes, of course,' James said as he turned around to greet Lord and Lady Harrington politely. However, his attention was soon drawn to the young lady that stood next to Lady Harrington.

She was beautiful, standing in the candlelight wearing an ivory silk dress inlaid with embroidered gold thread. Her glorious red hair had been swept back and was held in place with golden combs that were studded with pearls. Around her neck, she wore a single pearl drop necklace, that was paired with matching earrings. If it had not been for those amber eyes, looking at him with a flicker of amusement, he would never have recognised her.

He quickly came to his senses and greeted Lord and Lady Harrington. 'I do believe you are already acquainted with Miss Stanford,' Lord Harrington said as he motioned towards Verity.

He suppressed a smile as he saw a faint blush on Verity's cheeks. 'Yes,' he said, without showing any discomfort, 'her brother is a young cornet in the 7th, and has been working for me carrying messages around Belgium.'

'Excellent,' Lord Marlow said as his voice, once more, was heard clearly by everyone in the room. 'Miss Stanford was without an escort. Would you do the honours?'