Free Lady Alex's Gamble by Evelyn Richardson Page A

Talavera he had even caught the eye of Wellesley himself as the First Hussars valiantly attempted to leap an unexpected and treacherous ravine right before engaging in furious fighting with the French. His own magnificent horsemanship and enthusiasm had urged others across when they might have hesitated and caused more confusion and disaster than there already was. At Ciudad Rodrigo he had again been conspicuous in the Hussars' repeated charges against the French cavalry as they strove to break through Picton's lines.
    Eventually, courage and quick thinking had distinguished Major Lord Wrotham, even among men renowned for such things. He had begun to become well known—enough so that Wellesley, now Marquess of Wellington, in search of men he could trust to go into the fiercest pans of the battle and return 73
    Lady Alex's Gamble
    by Evelyn Richardson
    unscathed with reliable information, had made him an aide. This hazardous position precisely suited Major Lord Wrotham, whose taste for excitement and risk had only increased since his arrival in the Peninsula.
    But it was more than the test of his bravery and resourcefulness that made his experience there so gratifying. It was the chance to do something with his life, to contribute his own particular skills to a cause he believed in, that Christopher found particularly satisfying after years escorting a mother who measured her success in life by the tributes she received.
    Thus it was with mixed emotions that Christopher had received the news of the Treaty of Paris. On the one hand, all that he had fought for had come to pass; on the other, where was he now to find any life as vital and challenging as the one he had been leading?
    Fortunately for him, Wellington still had need of clever, observant assistants who were sympathetic to his particular concerns and accustomed to his way of doing things. Major Lord Wrotham was requested to accompany Wellington to Vienna, where the rivalries—political, social, and romantic—
    were so intense as to make his new duties only slightly less hazardous than they had been on the Peninsula. If he was not dodging the eager embraces of amorous ladies determined to win the heart of a handsome, battle-hardened hero, he was avoiding jealous lovers, foreign politicians who mistrusted the motives of the British delegation, or spies who were suspicious of everybody. Still, it had been a heady experience made only headier by the escape of Napoleon from Elba. 74
    Lady Alex's Gamble
    by Evelyn Richardson
    It was the Corsican monster's renewed threat that was responsible for Lord Wrotham's present unwilling appearance in London. Naturally, he had been flattered when the Duke of Wellington himself had pulled him aside one evening and requested that he return home to drum up support in Parliament for the creation of an army that would be equal to the battle that was sure to come. "To tell you the truth, Wrotham," he had declared, "I am not very pleased with what I have now got—inexperienced, ill-equipped, and not enough of them. And," he added regretfully, "many of them are strangers to me. What with so many fine lads from the Peninsula away in America, we shall have to ask Parliament to call out the militia in order to raise enough troops. I shall feel your absence here sorely, but you will be of more use to me in London."
    So here he was, once again forced to grace his mother's drawing room and show at least some semblance of interest in her, for it would have been impossible to avoid doing so. Even had he not called upon her directly after he arrived in the metropolis, she was so well-informed of the least little on- dit that she would have learned of his whereabouts within a day of his arrival. At least he had had the presence of mind to procure chambers for himself and his batman at Stephens's hotel in Bond Street before presenting himself in Grosvenor Square. This had secured for him some measure of privacy and peace of mind.
    Unfortunately, to