“Glorious blonde hair,” Heath murmured. “But that lady is not their mother.”
“No? A duenna?”
“Hardly. That’s Lady Downs. Lady William Downs.” Heath grinned. “A leading light in London society. And a widow.”
“Is that so?” Felix brightened, discerning a note of Heath’s sexual interest. “Know her well, do you?”
“Well enough.” He laughed. “No, Lex. I don’t favor her. I like her, yes. But she’s many years my senior.”
“When was age ever a deterrent?”
“Stop.” Heath put aside his glass on a nearby footman’s tray. “You think me more jaded than I am.”
Heath liked women. When Lex and he had lived in Paris while Bony was in Elba, Heath had availed himself of two French mistresses. His wealth from his estates and his status this past year as a diplomat had allowed him the pick of the demimonde. Happily, what he’d learned about how to seduce a woman could fill books. Getting a wife, which was why he’d allowed himself to be persuaded to come to Brighton this month, was not his usual pastime. But his parents demanded he pay regard to it. He was, as his father pointed out, aged thirty-three. His health, never the best since his abuse by the French, demanded he think of getting an heir. And soon.
He wished he could encourage his oldest friend to find a bit of fun in life, too. Words, however, tended to fall deaf on Lex’s ears. After a few more tries, Heath suggested Lex needed to smile. Think of women and babies.
He promised he would. “I’m close to learning who sold my father and me.”
Heath cursed. “I hope to God that’s true. I’m tired of watching you track each suspect. It’s eating up your youth.”
“No one soldyouinto prison, my friend.”
“I was condemned just the same,” Heath said between clenched teeth.The anxiety gave me ripping headaches that can send me to my knees.“I could hope to find each of Napoleon’s guards who pointed his rifle at my guts and poked me along the roads east. But what good will it do me, eh? I am done with it. I want to live the life I was born to. I want you to live yours, too.”
“I have only one suspect left. I’m closing in on him. As soon as I obtain proof, I shall confront him. Then I’m done with revenge. I’m on to women. A wife. An heir. Just like you!”
Heath wished to obliterate the memories of the squalor and starvation they’d endured in captivity. “I give you until Christmas. Then I want to see a new man.”
“You will.” Lex put his hand on Heath’s shoulder. “Go now. Pick one of those three lovelies.”
His friend checked his expression. Then he shifted to better avail himself of a glimpse of the three. He wanted to claim Adelaide for himself, but Lex had hardly ever allowed himself the joy of pursuing a woman who’d be a proper fit. “I don’t know which one to choose first.”
“Oh, yes, you do.” Lex insisted. “Ask her to dance. Make your father and mother happy.”
“I mustn’t look too interested.” Heath swung his gaze toward his parents, who stood talking with the host and hostess of this evening’s ball. He’d gotten an earful of scurrilous nonsense from his mother yesterday after their shop visit about the notorious Barry family. Her warnings about the “nefarious” grandfather, who was deceased, sounded like a whine.
His father had put her up to it, as ever when the duke wanted Gyles to do his bidding. Usually, he did not find too much fault with that, but this request cut deeper. This Barry girl had a carefree charm that made him smile. “I love them dearly, but they’ve become fanatics about my need to marry. One dance, and my mother wants to check the poor girl’s teeth. Papa would ask for her sire and dam.”
With a grin, Lex extended a hand toward the floor.
Heath would indeed pursue his quest of lovely Adelaide. “Well, since you won’t indulge yourself, I shall have to uphold all British manhood.” Heath clapped him on the shoulder. “Wish me luck.”
*
Adelaide took theintroduction of Cousin Cass to the scrumptious Marquess of Heath with the cool demeanor of one who knew her looks could enchant. She’d caught men’s attention before without trying. She’d rather not have to try too much with him, for there was an essence of him that spoke of his natural affinity for her. As if they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.
The other truth was that he was appealingly masculine, virile, yet vulnerable. Handsome and debonair, titled, too, yet he held a silent storm within him. Headaches such as he endured came to one who had suffered physically or even mentally over a period of time. That human frailty she found intriguing in a man so otherwise confident. It was a quality that endeared him to her, imperfect as she also was.
“I’m very pleased to find you here.” He took her hand and led her away from her family toward the dance floor.
“And I, you, my lord.” She liked a man with honesty in his soul. With the awareness that many young ladies in the ballroom noted them, she relished his invitation.
Not only had he remembered her from the shop, but his request improved her reputation. Interesting that he had maintained the illusion with Cass that Addy had just now been introduced to him. He’d not let on to Cass that they had a prior meeting, and she had not brought up the matter. Cass would have asked questions, and Addy supposed that the reason Heath did not wish to have their previous introduction known was the existence of his headaches.
The orchestra began, and he bowed before her as the other male dancers did to their partners. “I’m glad of it.”
Her heart pounded. She was proud to hear him compliment her so.
