Page 21 of Souvenir of Love

“He nearly had your sister.”

James stiffened. “But he did not, did he?” he said with a casualness he was far from feeling. “And if my sister is not good enough for His Lordship, then for certes, I am not good enough for his beloved sister.”

Grenville dabbed at his lips with a napkin. “No jabs of conscience, then? The girl is most likely ruined and you are content?”

“Damned if you aren’t as inquisitive as Torquemada tonight.” James swiveled in his chair, glass aloft. “The service in here is frightfully slow. A man could perish from thirst.” A man in livery materialized from the shadows, decanter in hand, and refilled his glass.

“It won’t end here, you know. Moreham will come after you.”

“It is his right,” James admitted, raising his glass to drink.

Grenville’s thick arm shot out with surprising speed. He caught James by the wrist and held it. “I knew your father, James, knew him well. Before his mind…”

“Drifted?” James offered, bitterness like dregs at the bottom of his voice.

“We served together in the war department; he had the sharpest mind of any man I ever met. You’ve a sharp mind yourself, if only you’d use it. If you get tired of playing at games, Dinsmore, you let me know.” Grenville’s grip tightened. “And if you ever need help, for God’s sake, ask. I owe that much to your father.”

James’s blue eyes widened slightly. “Damned if everyone I meet these days doesn’t seem to think I’m in need of saving.”

Eight

The members of White’s were engaged in the usual: smoking, drinking, playing cards, placing bets. “I should call the bastard out and kill him.Thenthis whole mess would be over,” Rafe said, expertly folding a deck of cards. When Rafe Harcrest was truly angry, he didn’t drink, he stripped men of their fortunes.

Cole cast a glance around the room. “I’m told the betting’s running about even as to whether you’ll do that, or demand he marry Elizabeth, make an honest woman out of her.”

“My sisterisan honest woman,” Rafe snapped. “That’s her damn problem. Too honest. Sees no harm in people, no harm in doing what she calls ‘experiencing life’—”

“Admit it, my friend,” Cole interrupted, “Elizabeth has the high spirits of your late father and brother George. She’s had them since she was a child. Since she’s been under your care these last thirteen years, you’ve been determined to smother them.” Cole raised his hand to silence a protest. “I thought you might have learned your lesson with Alix. Women are like high-spirited fillies, the more you rein them in, the more they want to run…”

“I tried to ease up on Elizabeth, and look where it’s gotten me. Did you see that scandalous rag this morning?”

Cole pursed his lips.

“Of course you did. Admit it, Davenport—the whole town’s seen it.” He nodded at a cluster of foppishly dressed men. “Weatherby there had the nerve to praise my sister’sliterary interests. That man can barely read; someone must have read it to him.”

“Most likely Anne Dinsmore.”

“Damn it, it wasn’tAnneDinsmore who had my sister’s gown around her elbows!”

“But it was Anne who was trumpeting the news about Hyde Park. You should have seen her this afternoon, dressed in a red and blue riding habit. You’d have sworn she was from some regimental band.”

“You were in the park this afternoon?”

Cole nodded.

“Then you saw how Elizabeth was greeted?”

Cole nodded again, his face grim.

“I had hoped Alix was exaggerating.” Rafe drummed his fingers in an angry tattoo on the table. “I will not let him marry her.”

“Has Dinsmore asked?”

“Elizabeth imagines that he will, but he hasn’t had the decency to show his face at my door. Which makes him either a conscienceless rake or an inexcusable coward.”

“James may not be entirely respectable, Moreham, but the Dinsmore family name is. And he is heir to a dukedom.”

“Heir to a madman. Heir to an impoverished, obscure estate.”