School For Heiresses 2- Only a Duke Will Do by Sabrina Jeffries Read Free Book Online Page B

taking certain risks in his own political career.”
    The blood drained from George’s face. “I can’t imagine where you got such a ridiculous idea.”
    “From your daughter. Who, unlike you, is eager to expound upon her new interest in political reform.”
    Simon crossed his arms over his chest. “Come now, Your Majesty, surely you did not think you could hide it from me. I am the one who first learnt that Canning turned down Liverpool, who predicted long before the Cato Street Conspiracy that the Spenceans would cause trouble. So admit it—the London Ladies are no mere charitable group, are they?”
    The king hesitated, then sighed. “No, damn you, they’re not.”
    “They’re pressing Parliament to reform the prisons.”
    His Majesty’s voice dropped so low that Simon had to strain to hear it. “First those blasted females started coaxing their husbands to raise the issue of reform in sessions. And if a husband refused, they denied him what a man wants most.”
    “His wife’s bed?”
    “What good would that do? Half the men have mistresses, and the rest are too old to get their cocks to a stand. No, their creature comforts. Their wives withheld the niceties that make a man’s home his castle, like cigars and brandy and newspapers. Some ladies even commanded their cooks to serve bad meals, or instructed the laundry maids to overstarch their husbands’ shirts—”
    “You must be joking. England’s statesmen are being brought low by too much starch in their shirts, for God’s sake?”
    “You scoff, but a man can only spend so much time at his club.” The king stabbed his stick into the packed earth. “Still, the men didn’t let it trouble them until the London Ladies became a cause célèbre. And now Louisa is rumored to have a new approach—”
    “Louisa was behind this…this ‘creature comfort’ tactic?”
    “I heard that she dreamt it up, yes.”
    Simon burst into laughter.
    “It’s not funny, damn you,” the king grumbled.
    “The devil it isn’t. Leave it to Louisa to find a ‘domestic’ way to influence politics. She’s a clever girl, I will give her that.” And she would be a clever wife, too. Though he would have to outplot her to win her. The challenge only made him desire her more.
    “That clever girl is headed for a fall if she goes through with her new plan.”
    “And what is that? Having the ladies put peas in their husbands’ drawers? Delaying dinner?”
    “Putting up her own candidate for the upcoming by-election.”
    That certainly got his attention. “You cannot be serious.”
    “I wish I weren’t. Mrs. Fry has already put her brother-in-law in the Commons to support their cause, so it can be done. But there’s a rumor going ’round that Louisa is considering a radical candidate. And you know damned well if she rallies her ladies behind some hothead, we’ll have trouble.”
    Trouble indeed. No ladies association had the political acumen to manage such a candidate. Louisa would merely succeed in getting the old guard’s back up, making it harder for him to achieve change in a reasonable manner. Especially with the balance of power in the Commons so uncertain right now.
    “She’s a loose cannon,” the king went on. “But the public likes her. They see the polished lady-in-waiting to their beloved deceased princess selflessly garnering donations for poor female prisoners. They don’t realize that those donations may shortly go to whatever ass she thinks will support her cause.”
    “And if you expose her—”
    “Are you mad? The way things are now, she might rally half the rabble behind her. The last time a radical started making speeches and firing up the common people, eleven people died and hundreds more were wounded.”
    Simon stiffened. St. Peter’s Field had been as much the fault of the government as the radicals, but that hardly mattered to Parliament. After that disaster, it had passed the Six Acts and behaved as the old guard always