Page 2 of A Contracted Spouse for the Prizefighter

He was good looking, extremely good looking, with hazel eyes, black brows, and full lips. These features distracted you from noticing a certain coarseness which, on second examination, prevented him from any claim to classical good looks. His neck was too thick, his face too tanned, and his lazy smile too crooked for conventional tastes. On top of this, his nose had clearly been broken at some point.

Felix cleared his throat. “Mr. Clem Dabney has recently joined the ranks of our profession, opening a little concert room establishment,” he said patronizingly, and Theo saw at once that her brother did not like Dabney and felt uneasy in his company. By the flicker in Clem Dabney’s eye, Theo deduced he also had not appreciated Felix’s insinuation that he was a mere novice to the business, but he looked affability itself as he gave a lazy grin and removed the cigar from his mouth.

“I’m charmed, ladies,” he said, extending his hand to Henrietta and gazing intently at her sister as she murmured back some greeting, eyes demurely lowered.

Theo cleared her throat. “I am also happy to make your acquaintance, Mr. Dabney,” she said loudly for it was clear he had forgotten all about her. He turned to her at once and shook her hand, though his eyes skated over her, clearly dismissing her in almost the same instant as undeserving of his notice.

Theo almost rolled her eyes. “And this is our colleague, Mrs. Lillian Longdon,” she said pointedly, for clearly, her brother had no intention of introducing Lil. Clem threw the older woman the most cursory of glances before nodding his head. “She played the shepherdess Amaryllis,” Theo added. “How did you find our little play?”

Dabney’s eyebrows rose a moment as though her persistence surprised him. “Quite honestly? A little highbrow for me,” he admitted with affability. “I confess I’m a simple man with simple tastes. Magic fountains and satyrs are a bit beyond my ken.”

One of the pretty ladies in his company tittered and another shoved playfully at his arm in mock reproach. “Go on with you!” she tutted. “You are ungallant to Miss Fields,” she cooed and shot a challenging look at Henrietta who was smoothing her skirts and not paying either of them the slightest attention.

Theo deduced the beauty must be an established actress already in Dabney’s outfit. Likely she was keen to prove her own superiority to a perceived rival. Theo thought it telling that Dabney had not bothered to introduce the pretty blonde who was clearly disappointed that Henrietta would not be baited.

Instead, her sister sent the actress an absent smile, so sweet and pitying that Theo almost applauded for she could see how it set the other’s teeth on edge. She tried not to take it personally that her own presence they barely acknowledged.

“It is a pastoral tragicomedy,” Felix responded rather stiffly. “Such features are staples of the genre.”

Clem shrugged and spread his hands wide. “I’m sure they are, and I meant no offense, Mr. Fields,” he answered smoothly, and Theo almost snorted for she could tell Mr. Dabney was not remotely abashed by his “confession.” Indeed, the way he delivered it sounded almost like a brag. Clearly, he had no shame admitting he was culturally a philistine.

“I am sure you know your business,” Dabney concluded and cast an unhurried eye over the rows and rows of empty seats. Theo saw her brother flush and wondered where Dabney had learned to give such offense in such a guileless manner.

Wherever it might have been, there was an air of brash assurance about Clem Dabney that stuck in your craw. His tweed suit was a shade too loud, though the cut was good. The pattern was too bold to be genteel and the colors jarring. He made little attempt, she thought, to pass for a gentleman born and bred.

Dabney’s tie pin, in the shape of a large glittering horseshoe, was decidedly vulgar and she found herself wondering about his background. He must be getting on for thirty. How had he wound up running a supper and song outfit? His background was surely not theatrical.

“Big handsome brute, ain’t he?” Lil murmured in her ear as the conversation drifted away from them. Clem had reclaimed Henrietta’s attention once again, and Felix was attempting politely to extricate himself from the pretty blonde actress who had managed to wangle her introduction after all.

Theo shrugged. “He is not quite as brutish as Vincent,” she pointed out.

“Vincent! I should say not! He’s a sight prettier than Vincent, my dear, and from what I hear,” Lil leered, “a good deal more successful with the ladies. Quite the ladykiller is Mr. Dabney by all accounts.”

“I’m afraid he does not tickle my fancy,” Theo murmured, and Lil let out a chuckle.

“Go on with you,” she said slyly poking Theo in the side.

“He doesn’t,” Theo insisted thinking instead of Harold Allsop’s sensitive profile as he bent over his piano keys. Harold had such a noble brow.

“You’ll catch cold thinking of that musician of yours,” Lil commented sadly, and Theo felt herself turn red at the accuracy with which her friend read her thoughts.

“Who said I am thinking of Mr. Allsop?” she asked, pulling absently on the ribbons of her shirt.

“You’re always thinking of him, more’s the pity,” Lil sighed. “No, don’t bother denying it,” Lil said cutting her off as Theo opened her mouth. “Lord, I’ve known this past year you’re sweet on him, but he’s a lost cause, my dear, and you need to wake up to the fact.”

“We are just friends!” Theo hissed, glancing about to make sure no one was paying them any heed. Fat chance of that, she realized wryly, seeing how Mr. Dabney had her sister cornered and Felix was attempting to pry pink tinted talons from his coat sleeve. “I had better go and rescue Hetty.”

Lil nodded and Theo sailed across to her sister’s side. To her surprise, instead of looking grateful for her intervention, Hetty gave a guilty start and hurried to tuck what looked like a small business card into her sleeve.

“As I said, Mr. Dabney,” her sister said aloud, “we are not looking to join another company. In fact, I will soon be leaving the stage on the event of my marriage, and I doubt you can interest anyone else from my brother’s ensemble to abandon The Parthenon for your own repertoire.”

Marriage? Theo gave a start. She had not realized things were quite so advanced along with Hillingdon’s courtship. Had a date been named?

“A pity,” Dabney responded smoothly. Too smoothly. Theo looked from one to the other with the oddest feeling they were covering up the true nature of their conversation. For one wild moment she even considered that Henrietta might have agreed to jump ship for Dabney’s music hall outfit. Ridiculous. That was even less likely than Hetty falling victim to Dabney’s dubious charms.

“I am not retiring,” she stated boldly, but her announcement was met with pointed silence.

Clem Dabney cleared his throat. “I am afraid no one else here caught my eye,” he had the nerve to respond blandly, after an awkward pause.