The Rake's Redemption by Anne Millar

Theodore’s face. She could see both her aunt and Lady Horsley watching her curiously too. “Where he was wounded.”
    “Of course we will humour him. For John’s sake.” Sir Theodore might have intended his smile to convey the depth of his forbearance, but it only made him look desperate as if he knew he’d lost command of the room, but was uncertain how to regain it. “Even if the major is a dull dog, whose conversation turns on training drills and muskets.”
    Judith could feel the flush creeping up on her, and fought desperately against the colour, which would only heighten the interest Lady Horsley was displaying so blatantly. “Do the Volunteers know their drills, Sir Theodore? After all we rely upon them for our defence.” The question might be inane, but it was preferable that the focus should be switched back to Sir Theodore instead of her.
    “My dear Judith, you need have no worries. The Volunteers would make short work of any Frenchman foolish enough to land on these shores. Or any malcontents from the cities.” Sir Theodore was back to his confident and expansive best, and he wasn’t about to sell himself or the Volunteers short. “Indeed I shall arrange a review for you. To demonstrate our prowess.”
    “Thank you, Sir Theodore. I’m sure that is not necessary. But it is kind of you.” It was tempting to let the bold baronet continue with his vanity, but ridiculous, quite ridiculous that it might lead to a review of the battalion. But try as she might, Judith couldn’t shake Sir Theodore’s resolve until she found herself watching the departure of the Horsley procession, committed to attending the review.
    “A fine thing, Judith, for a lady to be honoured by a regimental review.” Aunt Matilde could be waspish when she wished, and Judith turned to her father instead of answering. 
    “I understood the militia had not shown well in review, father?”
    To her surprise her father laughed. “Not shown well? I heard their performance described as column of mob. They apparently tried to march in two different directions at the same time. Sir Theodore had to be restrained. Struck dumb with fury.”
    “Did John manage his part, father?” John and maybe even father would blame her if her brother were humiliated at the forthcoming review.
    “As well as the next incompetent subaltern, Judith.” Both father and aunt seemed to be deriving a great deal of amusement from what Aunt Matilde had already christened ‘Judith’s review’ .
    “Isn’t extraordinary the lengths a gentleman will go to to prove himself the foremost of a lady’s suitors, Jonathon?” Aunt Matilde wasn’t just waspish but insufferable when she put her  mind to it and Judith could only curb her response by taking herself off to the garden in defiance of accepted etiquette that demanded a hostess remain in the house to receive her guests.
    ~
    The man who considered himself the most eligible of Judith Hampton’s suitors was favouring his mother with his opinion of Judith at that moment. “Good lineage, mother. The family has lived in that house for four centuries. And she’s pretty. Fine figure. That matters to a chap, but I don’t think I’d be disappointed, mother. Seems biddable too. Papa wanted me to wed well.”
    “You can marry who you will, Theodore. Any of these families will be proud to match with us. Blunt is what drives them.” His mother smiled disparagingly at her foolish son.
    “Didn’t think you even knew the term, mama.”
    “Your father was no fool, Theodore. He might have been a merchant, a cit as these lords and ladies would have it, but he knew the value of money. A lesson you have still to learn. Don’t mistake their easy ways. The Hamptons haven’t the cash to buy their footmen new britches.” Her smile this time was nothing more than a smirk, and Theodore wondered, not for the first time, whether his father had really been the master in his parents’ marriage. That was one mistake he