The Devil's Match (The Devil DeVere #4)(8)

“May we at least have a moment alone?” Vesta pleaded. “Just a few minutes in the garden? Please, Aunt Di.”

“What harm can there be?” Ludovic asked, glancing from the couple to Diana, who visibly bristled at him. He knew she didn’t wish to concede for that would also place her alone with him. “Given my brother’s eagerness to see the knot tied, I daresay any damage has already been done.”

The younger couple colored and exchanged guilty glances.

“Five minutes,” Diana said tersely. “Not a moment longer.”

Vesta nodded and seemed to glow when Hew offered his arm.

“Edward will not like this at all,” Diana remarked after the couple had departed out the terrace door.

“But he will accept it nonetheless,” DeVere countered.

“I never could have pictured Hew and Vesta,” she said. “But I daresay they seem to have grown fond of one another, which I suppose gives them as good a chance as any of making a go of it.”

“So cynical, Diana?”

“I have reason, as you well know, but isn’t the pot calling the kettle black?”

He laughed. “Mayhap so, for I have little faith in the institution of marriage. Had I my choice, I would abolish it altogether.”

“And pray, what would that accomplish other than creating a country teeming with illegitimate children?”

“At least there would be no stigma to bastardy,” he said blandly. “All would equally fall under the bar sinister.”

“And who do you suppose would take responsibility for all these unnamed children?”

“Were we to adopt the ways of the East, as in the sultan’s harem, they would be raised all together. It’s rather a hedonistic ideal, is it not?”

“You do not believe a man should provide for his own offspring?” she asked with disdain.

“Certainly he should...” Ludovic retrieved an enameled snuffbox from his pocket, a memento from his days in Paris, and studied the bawdy picture on the lid. “...if he can be certain they are truly his. In this country, the law covers a multitude of sins, for a man has no choice but to claim another’s bastard if he and the woman are wed at the time. In Constantinople, the law protects a man from the injustice of raising another’s bastard.” He took a pinch of his favorite custom blend, replaced the box in his pocket, and shook out his lace cuffs.

“And how is that contrived?” she asked.

“A sultan is permitted to take four wives to provide his heirs and then numerous concubines to provide his pleasure. He is required to provide for the material wants of all the women and children under his care. In return, they are kept segregated from any other males, save eunuchs. To even speak to any of these women can merit a penalty of death.”

Her lips thinned. “A hundred women enslaved to one man? And kept confined for life? You speak as if you condone this barbaric practice.”

He laughed. “It is highly effective to ensure fidelity, for it ensures that the sultan’s sexual needs are met within his own home. Thus, he has no reason to stray outside of it.”

“What of the women’s needs and desires?” she asked.

He shrugged. “It is a man’s world, Diana. They may not have the freedom that English women enjoy, but they are well cared for.”

“Do you honestly believe this is the only way to ensure faithfulness?”

“Yes, in my experience,” he said. “I do not believe in lasting fidelity. When passion fades, lovers, even married ones, inevitably stray. What then is left?”

“Affection? Companionship?” she offered.

He waved a bejeweled hand. “Readily supplied by a pack of spaniels.”

“If you have such antipathy toward marriage, why would you encourage your brother to wed?” Diana stood and walked toward the window, presumably to check on her charge.

“Because I have a responsibility to ensure the propagation of little DeVeres, the continuation of the line, so to speak. Since Hew and I are all that remains, and I have no inclination whatsoever to reproduce, my brother shall do so in my stead.”

She glanced outside and then remarked over her shoulder, “An altogether convenient arrangement...for you.”

He ignored her sarcasm with a smile. “I believe it so. But I have also made it well worth my brother’s while. He will receive properties and a more than generous settlement when he and Vesta are wed. Indeed, I am thinking of settling Woodcote Park upon them as a bridal gift.”

She stared at him with surprise. “Woodcote Park? Your estate at Epsom?”

He inclined his head. “The same.”

“But you only bought it four years ago. I thought you were quite enamored of the place.”

“Yet I have never returned to it. I only maintain my stables there.”

Diana frowned. “Never? You just closed it up and—”

“Yes. There was some unpleasantness there that I have had no wish to dwell upon.” He allowed a meaningful pause. “But I think Hew and Vesta would enjoy it well. Do you agree?”

“Given their mutual love of riding and its proximity to the down, I could hardly disagree.” She studied him intently. “You surprise me, Ludovic.”

“In what way?” he asked, noting with satisfaction her lapse in the use of his Christian name.