“Apologies,” he offered kindly, “I did not mean to speak so harshly. I just- I was on my way over for a little impromptu visit and I was surprised. Please. Forgive me.”
Theo relaxed in front of him, then hooked her arm through his.
“You would not be you if you were not overprotective,” she said with a small smile as they walked up the path to her and Alistair’s London house, “I forgive you.”
She then winked.
“For now.”
Tristan let out a small chuckle as they went inside.
“To answer your question I was with Ophelia. The poor darling has been having a time of it lately,” Theo said as she led him to the parlor.
Tristan stiffened at the mention of the woman who’d been taking over his thoughts.
“Oh?” He asked, “I hope it is nothing too dreadful.”
He was trying to sound as casual as possible, but his sense of urgency heightened even further. It confused him all the more, but he waited with growing impatience as Theo instructed her maid to bring them tea and sandwiches.
“Her father has suffered some sort of coronary event,” Theo finally explained, coming to sit down beside him on the light green velvet couch, “I fear he is fading away.”
Tristan’s heart quivered. How strange it was to receive such news as he was investigating his father’s own death.
“That is awful,” he murmured.
“I fear Ophelia is not taking it well,” Theo said with a sad sigh. “Her life is about to completely change.”
“Indeed,” he muttered, the cogs of his mind turning. “The sorrow from losing a parent is an awful one.” Then something about what Theo said struck him.
“Wait, what do you mean precisely?” He asked. “In that her life is about to completely change?”
“Hmm?” Theo hummed, “Oh, well I mean her intent on being a spinster, of course. Her father, bless his soul is worried for her, so he made her promise to marry. Which of course was a horrid shock to her as her father had always accepted the life she had chosen up until now.”
Tristan’s brows flew up in surprise.
“Ophelia’s getting married? To whom?”
“Oh, she is not sure as of yet,” Theo replied, “However she has asked that I allow her to come with Alistair and I to the last few balls before the winter season as chaperones. We will, of course, do so. but I cannot imagine Ophelia trying to catch a husband. The whole idea is entirely foreign to even my imagination.”
“Indeed,” he muttered. He tried to picture it himself and all he could conjure was the image of Ophelia slapping an overly flirtatious gentleman across the face.
“What is that smile for?” Theo asked.
Tristan withdrew from his thoughts.
“What?” He asked, then realized that he indeed had been smiling. He quickly dropped the smile and shook his head.
“Oh, nothing.”
“Speaking of marriages,” Theo went on, drawing on her own grin as she lounged back into the couch and looked at him. “When are you going to take a wife, dear brother?”
Tristan grimaced at the question. It was not that he was appalled with the idea of marriage as Ophelia was- though he did have some fears of becoming a father. He’d always imagined that one day he would take a wife. After the thrill of operating the Masquerade had run its course and his needs were little more tame.
“When I have time for it,” he finally replied when Theo nudged him for an answer.
“And what is keeping you so very busy right now?” Theo asked with a curious smile.
He smirked back and leaned forward until their noses almost touched.
