“You said ‘your set.’ I never knew you had a set.”
I realize how little I know about this man. He mentioned Oxford for university—but that is the extent of my knowledge of his education.
“I don’t have many friends from Oxford or Charterhouse. My current set—I know them through my club.”
“How despicably masculine. But I do not see why you cannot belong to the club any longer.”
“Oh,” Alfred says. “He didn’t mean—he meant a different club.”
“A different club?”
“It is a joke.”
“I don’t understand. What other club does my scandalous reputation bar you from? I should know what privileges I am causing you to lose.”
“It is not that.”
“You aren’t making sense. I demand to know. I will fix it.”
I am prepared to punish anyone who harms Alfred for his association with me. There is much that I can make right with threats and money.
He smiles sheepishly.
“You misunderstand. My set—we have a strange thing that unites us. We refer to ourselves as a club in jest.”
“What unites you?”
He sighs.
“We are all virgins. Or we were.”
“There aremoreof you?”
The idea that Alfred is not a wholly singular creature stuns me.
“Yes,” he says. “Although all of our reasons are different. None of my friends are clergymen. We are a varied bunch.”
“But the lord said he ismarried—or is Lady Calloway his mother?”
“No, Lady Calloway is his wife.ThatI do not understand. His wife is a known beauty. And he seems very fond of her. And yet…”
“Do you care for their disapproval? These friends who write you letters?”
“Damn it, Annabelle. They don’t disapprove. They are merely concerned.”
“Do you think their concern is warranted?”
The silence that follows my question is deep. I am not sure why, but the meddling of these men makes me violent. I itch to find their sources of affluence and stopper them. To make these men beg for my approval.
I cross my arms.
“Very well,” I say finally, after he has merely sighedand rubbed his brow once more.
“You do not understand me. Or them,” Alfred breaks out. “You must think of who I was. Careful. Devout. It is hard for them to understand such a change. And for some of them, it will make our friendship more difficult.”
“I see. You give me up.”
He looks at me with wide eyes.
