“I’m not. Come into the dining room with me. I’ll wager you’ve never tasted anything as good as what you are about to eat. Are you hungry?”
“Famished.”
That gave Alexander pause. “Did Mrs. Lester or Greaves not see to you?”
His father cast him a wry smile. “I may have barked at them and told them to leave me alone.”
Alexander laughed. “Serves you right, you old dog.”
He glanced at his father as they walked down the hall to the dining room and waited while his footmen raced about to set the table under Greaves’ direction.
Alexander poured his father a drink in the meanwhile.
He resembled his father, was probably a younger version of him. All the men in the Dayne family were big and blond-haired, although his father’s hair was a little darker and now turning mostly gray. Their eyes were also a similar shade of blue. Perhaps their temperaments were similar, too. They all had a stubborn streak.
He liked to think that he and Gabriel also had a strong streak of valor, a trait they had probably inherited from their father. It may have been inherited from his mother’s side, as well. She had spirit and certainly knew how to deal with his father to keep him in line.
It also helped that his father loved her to pieces.
This is what he wanted for himself.
Gabriel had found this same consuming love for Daisy.
He supposed the entire point of throwing his own house party was to find this sort of love for himself.
If there was a difference among the Dayne men, it was that their father had retained a strong streak of the traditional. This meant he placed far too much weight on his heir marrying a young lady with impeccable bloodlines rather than marrying a young lady who was thoughtful, intelligent, warm, and of good nature. The old man had found the perfect woman in his mother, but it was probably the clever doing of his grandparents that the arranged marriage between his parents had turned into a love match. Left to his own, his father would have botched his wife search.
“The game pie has cooled a little, but I’ll wager it is still divine.” Alexander settled into a chair beside his father and served the man himself. “Go ahead. Dig in.”
His father eyed him warily, but was too hungry to question Alexander. He took a hearty mouthful. Being stubborn, his father said nothing. But Alexander did not need words, for his father’s actions said it all. He devoured the first slice and then asked for a second helping.
Alexander grinned. “I told you it is nothing like you’ve ever tasted before.”
“Who is this cook? Will you engage him for your party?”
Alexander nodded. “The cook is a she. And yes, this is what we were doing. Reviewing the menu for my party.”
His father sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I came here to dissuade you from holding it. You ought to be in London with us, going around to all the society affairs. Your grandmother told me of the three young ladies you have selected. I have no quarrel with your choices. They are all from the best families. But why limit yourself to just those three? You are my son and heir. Come to London and you will have a hundred ladies fluttering like butterflies around you.”
“This is precisely what I do not want.”
His father coughed lightly. “Um, there is also another consideration. Speaking man to man.”
“I think I am quite beyondthatsort of talk. I was married and did father a child, if you will recall.”
“All the more reason why you should be somewhere you can satisfy your manly urges without the locals knowing what you are doing and with whom. Why not sow a few wild oats while in Town? No one will question you or care. Enjoy yourself while you seek a wife.”
He groaned.
Where was his dear mother to put a muzzle on his father?
“You cannot do such a thing here,” his father continued, “and especially not at your house party when the three girls you’ve chosen will have their parents closely guarding them. If you are caught in a compromising position with one of them–”
“I have no intention of compromising any of them. Nor do I intend to gowhoringin London. I had that sort of adventure while in university, as most boys do. But I am a grown man now and do not need to prove myself to anyone.”
“Son, do you not have these carnal urges?”
“Of course, I do.” Viola immediately sprang to mind, images of him taking her in every room in this house, hearing her breathy moans and soft whimpers as he brought her to pleasure. Bloody hell, what was wrong with him?
