Free Simply Scandalous by Tamara Lejeune Page A

half of it at that."
    "I got it from you, sir," Swale reminded him. "Along
with my hair."
    "That is no excuse," said the Duke. "Over the centuries, the Ambler family has accumulated land and
wealth and titles. Now, it is our turn to enrich future
generations of Amblers."
    "We're going to accumulate a nose?"
    The Duke nodded. "The moment I saw this nose,
Geoffrey, I knew we had to have it. It had the most
astonishing effect on me."
    "Did it make you sneeze, Father?"
    "I am perfectly serious, sir," the Duke said coldly. "The Ambler profile is profoundly weakened by this
snub nose of ours. Yours, at least, has a high, sturdy
bridge-Maria's is positively a pug! I want my grandson to have a nose worthy of our position in Society."

    "I can't say I've spent much time looking at ladies'
noses," Swale said, trying not to snicker, "but let me
venture to guess. Miss Cheeveley? Or is it to be Laura
Ogilvie? Now there is a nose!"
    "I should think it highly doubtful," said the Duke
with a touch of asperity, "that either Mrs. Cheevely or
Lord Ogilvie would encourage an alliance between
their daughters and one who stands accused of such
ungentlemanlike conduct."
    "Well, it don't signify," said Swale stubbornly, "for I
don't wish to marry them, I can tell you. What clings to
a man like a limpet ought to be a limpet, not a female."
    "Bravo, Geoffrey," the Duke said without applause.
"I put it to you plainly. If you do not marry the young
lady I have chosen, I will."
    Swale thought it a good joke. He hooted with irreverent laughter. "You marry? Why, you're fifty if
you're a day! What about the nose? How's it to end
up on your grandson's face if you marry her? But perhaps you mean to do away with me and make my little
half-brother your heir."
    His father continued as though there had been no
interruption. "I am confident that when the young
lady discovers you are not guilty of this crime, you will
suit very well. She is courageous and loyal. She will
stand by you come hell or high water, as the expression goes.
    Swale snorted in derision. "I don't want a wife to
stand by me. I want her to lie down for a few moments
and then go away. I never met a female yet whose company I could bear above five minutes," he declared.

    "Don't think I don't know what you do in those five
minutes!" snapped his Grace. "In my day-!" He
paused to gain control of his temper. "I need hardly
remind you that it is your duty to marry."
    "Not, surely, at the tender age of twenty-five, your
Grace! Why, there are bachelors twice my age whose
duty it is to marry," Swale pointed out. "It doesn't do,
you know, to run a fox to earth before it's had a fair
run of the country."
    "You are not a fox, sir," his parent informed him
acidly. "You are my son, and you are in a devilish
scrape, though you pretend not to know it. Geoffrey,
I had rather you were fifty thousand pounds in debt
than this! Do you think I care to hear the Ambler
name maligned, or my only son labeled a coward? A
despicable, cheating coward?"
    "It is most unfair," Swale agreed. "And if you think,"
he added magnanimously, "that my marriage will put
an end to the scandal ... " He shrugged as one does
who has resigned himself to his fate. "Then I expect
there is nothing for it. I always meant to do my duty and
carry on the Ambler name and all that sort of thing."
    "That is gratifying," said his parent, "considering you
cost me twenty thousand a year!"
    Swale smiled. "I'll need more than that if I'm to
maintain a nose, I mean, a wife. I trust you to be fair,
sir. Indeed, I leave all the arrangements to you. Solicit her hand-or nose-and I agree to meet her in
due time at St. George's altar like the good son I am."
    The Duke's eyes were veiled, and for the first time,
he seemed apologetic. "I'm afraid I would be unequal
to the task of soliciting her hand, dear boy. It was all I
could do to claim two dances with her at Almack's."

    Much later in his rooms at the Albany,