“Are you sure about that? It seems to me there’s more to your feelings than just a sense of duty,” Phillip countered.
Christopher looked away, struggling with his emotions. He always knew that his life would change once he was married. But he never thought that it would change to this degree.
“I do not think it is wise for me to fall in love with her,” he admitted after an internal battle with his own thoughts.
He looked over at her again, and she seemed to be laughing at something that her sisters were saying.
If only she knew the power she held over him at that moment, how beautiful she looked, how effortless.
He motioned for the waiter to bring him another glass.
“And why not?” Phillip pressed. “I have never known you to be someone who shies away from risk, and adventure. Being in love with the right person is the best adventure of all.”
“There is just too much at stake,” Christopher sighed. “She is not some gorgeous stranger. The children have formed an attachment to her.”
Phillip observed his friend for a moment, a sympathetic expression on his face. “I see. But what makes you believe that things will go bad between the both of you and that the children will be impacted?”
Christopher’s fingers tightened around his glass. “Even if they do not, there will be greater complications for me to deal with.”
“And those are?” Phillip prompted, not letting Christopher have a moment of rest. He could be quite persistent when he felt like it.
Christopher lowered his voice to a whisper. “With it, love brings children.”
Phillip looked even more confused than before. “And what is the problem with that? You have already proven how much you like being around them. It would do you well to have your own.”
Christopher shook his head, obstinate. “I do not wish to have an heir.”
“And you are firm on that decision?”
Christopher’s stomach churned at the thought. Was he firm?
“It’s not to do with Frances, at all. But more to do with my family. My mother… she’s always been obsessed with duty and the dukedom. She ruined my father’s life, and I don’t want to bring a child into that kind of pressure. It should end with me.”
Phillip was looking at his friend with a mix of sadness and understanding now. “I can understand your fears, as I have been in your situation, too. But for me, having more children was the biggest blessing. Esther made me change my mind on that, and I shall be forever grateful to her for it.”
Christopher mulled over his friend’s response for a moment. He was in the middle of figuring out what to say to him when he was interrupted.
“Christopher,” came a voice laced with cold authority.
They turned to see Teresa Grant, the Dowager Duchess of Huntington, standing before them.
Christopher’s face paled with shock. “Mother? What are you doing here?”
It had been years since he had last seen her. Still, she looked as though she had not aged a single day. The Dowager Duchess’s presence was a stark contrast to the otherwise lively atmosphere of the ballroom. Even her gown was a dark color, perfectly fitting her personality.
Christopher wanted nothing more than for her to leave.
“I came to see you, Christopher. You haven’t replied to any of my letters, and I heard that you have made some big decisions in your life.”
Her gaze was piercing, and Christopher could feel that even Phillip was uncomfortable in her presence.
“I do not see how they concern you in the slightest, Mother.”
The Dowager Duchess raised her eyebrow, a sneer crossing her face. “Does it not concern a mother what her firstborn is doing in his life? I think you forget that I was the one who birthed you.”
And then you were the one who left me.
Christopher bit his tongue, holding back those words. “You have no right to be here. You haven’t attended the Season in years. Why now?”
