It was hard to tell that the Duke of Bedford had suffered the loss of both his brother and his wife within two years.
He seemed perfectly well, even somewhat cheerful. Just as Miss Gordon had said, he was very fortunate. Georgiana had heard people say that losing one's wife in middle age was a fortunate thing. Yet Francis Russell looked entirely different from his father. He still seemed immersed in the pain of losing his mother. He was the eldest of the three sons left behind by the previous Duchess of Bedford. He was not friendly toward this young stepmother, but he was merely sharp-tongued; he did not deliberately cause trouble or try every means to drive her away, as happened in some stories.
The British seemed to possess a natural melancholy, and Francis was at that bleakly green age as well. His entire person seemed dim.
He was very polite when greeting Bonaparte, with an aristocratic reserve about him. Bonaparte was equally indifferent toward him. In any case, it was all very perfunctory.
William Pitt the Younger's brother, Earl of Chatham, was now in the navy, though not in a frontline unit. He worked at the Board of Ordnance, the very department the new First Lord of the Admiralty, Earl Saint Vincent, wanted to reform.
Pete had once told Georgiana to pay attention to what he had done in India. At the time, he had tackled the East India Company's corruption.
If Earl Saint Vincent intended to purge every evil as thoroughly as that, it would not only have a major impact on the navy, but might also snowball, the cases growing larger and larger. Yet compared to his brilliant younger brother, Earl of Chatham was said to be pitifully mediocre. No one knew how much he could