Page 13 of After the Spy Seduces

“Before slinking off to join the men for port and cigars for the rest of the night,” she reminded with a chastising purse of her lips.

“Exactly.”

“Well, if this party is too much of a strain for you, we can always cancel it.” How much she wished he would do just that!

“We’re on the offensive, sergeant.” He emphasized his old nickname for her with a wag of his finger. “It’s the perfect opportunity to remind everyone that you’re still a highly eligible young lady.” His lifted a bushy brow. “And that you’re receptive to being courted again.”

She bit back a long-suffering sigh. Since Mama died, the general’s primary mission had become steering her successfully into matrimony. Diana knew it was because he worried about her and wanted her to find someone who would take care of her. Yet it grated.

“But if I find a husband, then who will be here to take care of you?” She softened her teasing with a pat to his arm. “It would only be you and Major Paxton, pouring over your memoir pages and locking yourselves away from society.”

“Not if you marry the major.”

Oh no.Diana fought to keep from rolling her eyes. Not this again.

Major Reginald Paxton had served as her father’s aide-de-camp since the end of the wars with Boney, and since the general’s retirement, the man had been spending hours helping with the general’s memoirs. More often than not, though, she’d caught the two men wasting time sharing stories over glasses of cognac and cigars rather than organizing her father’s writing.

Despite the major’s attentions, she wasn’t at all interested in letting him court her and turned him down gently at every opportunity. Of which there had been many. The man was quite candid about his interest in her. Lately, that interest had become downright stubborn, accepting neither subtle hints nor outright rebukes, and she’d become incredibly uncomfortable around him. Thankfully, Garrett had cut off the man’s entreaties at every chance, saving her from having to be bluntly rude to the major and upsetting Papa.

Oh, the major seemed like a good man, devoted to her father and to England, with a lauded army career and a no-nonsense bearing that did his uniform proud. But Diana had no intention of marrying him.

“I am not interested in Major Paxton,” she countered firmly. “Nor anyone else in uniform.”

Her father bristled. “What’s wrong with a man in uniform?”

For her, what was right? A man in His Majesty’s service had little say over his life or where he would be posted, especially an ambitious officer with promise. She couldn’t bear the thought of being sent to the other side of the empire, where she might be away from her family for years, unable to help Garrett find his way, watch Meri grow up, or help the general as he aged. Or worse, if her soldier husband was killed...

She pulled in a deep breath, knowing first-hand how terrible a life connected to the military could be. But those trials they’d endured in India seemed to have happened so long ago now, were never spoken of once they were back in England— She couldn’t blame her father for forgetting, even if her own heart still bled.

Not wanting to wound him with an answer, she placed a kiss to his forehead. “Leave all the party plans to me.” She hid her purposeful dodge of his question with a long-suffering sigh at the frustrating truth that army officers made for poor party planners. “I’ll take care of everything.”

“You always do.”

That innocent comment cut her. Because she hadn’t, not tonight. She hadn’t been able to rescue Garrett from his kidnappers.Ifhe’d been kidnapped at all. The more she thought about what Carlisle had told her, the more doubts began to plague her.

“Robert Carlisle and his wife will most likely be in attendance at the party,” Papa said quietly.

“I know.”

Given the Duke of Trent’s influence on the War Department and King’s Cabinet, of course invitations had been extended to the entire Carlisle family, including his brother Robert and Robert’s new wife. But the general needn’t have worried about any lingering awkwardness between the two of them. They’d made the right decision in mutually breaking off their courtship.

Besides, Robert wasn’t the Carlisle who bothered her now.

She asked as casually as possible, “His cousin Christopher… What do you think of him?”

He frowned, puzzled. “But you know him.”

“Only in passing.” Only enough to avoid him. Until tonight, when she’d lost her mind and fallen for the charms and good looks that he relied upon to make his way through the world. “What doyouthink of him? He is a Carlisle, after all.”

The general’s brow softened with a low chuckle. “That he’s most likely the best of the lot of them.”

She blinked. “ChristopherCarlisle?”

His eyes shined as he shook his head. “The most unlikely officer ever commissioned into the British army, I’ll grant you. Always did as ordered in the end, but in the most unconventional ways imaginable. If he’d stayed in uniform, he would have been destined for generalship.”

Her chest sank. This wasn’t at all what she wanted to hear. She’d wanted to know without doubt that he truly was the idle scoundrel that gossip made him out to be, so she’d have good reason to never be tempted to kiss him again.

“Or handed over to the enemy by his own soldiers,” the general continued. “When he served under me, it was still a toss-up.”