“Don’t bother.”
“Excuse me?”
“Sitting.” Caspian pushed back his chair and stood quickly. “We’re already running late, and I’m not about to allow that lateness to increase because you slept in.”
“I told you, I am late for your convenience.”
“And if you think that I believe that, I wonder if you have always thought of me as a moron? Or is this a new development?”
“I want a drink,” Ironvale complained.
“Have water.” Without another word, Caspian strode past his friend, across the gentleman’s club, and out the front door.
And, as he knew would happen, Ironvale hurried after him.
“Someone is in a mood!” Ironvale snapped as he fell in beside Caspian. “I would ask what is the cause, but we have covered that topic already.”
“Am I?” Caspian asked. “In a mood?”
“Having one’s heart broken will do that – oh, wait. That would require you to have a heart in the first place. My error,” he chortled gaily.
Caspian rolled his eyes as he and Ironvale started together down the street. It was a warm summer’s day in London, the type that seemed to encourage crowds to gather en masse outside, which in turn made walking difficult as Caspian was forced to push and shove through the throngs because he wasn’t one to slow down and allow others to pass by.
Were he not in a hurry, he might not have cared so much, but his friend’s tardiness ensured that lateness was exactly what Caspian was experiencing.And how I hate not being on time.
It was a business meeting that he and Ironvale were on their way to, one that Caspian would have liked a few extra minutesto discuss. Alas, as Caspian was starting to learn, one did not always get their way in this world, and the best one could do was adapt to changing circumstances any way that was needed. So long as one still came out on top.
“So, tell me then,” Ironvale asked as he strode beside Caspian. “When is the wedding?”
Caspian frowned and looked back at his friend. “How did you know about that?”
Ironvale blinked. “Everyone knows! For a week, it has been all that anybody is able to speak of. The assumption, rightly, is that the girl’s father will pull her back into line and arrange the wedding for another time and place. Seeing as you are who I am dealing with, I think it’s safe to assume you have already done that, no?”
Caspian allowed himself to smirk, realizing suddenly what Ironvale was speaking of.
He thinks I am going to try and marry Lady Rosaline again. I cannot blame him for thinking this, as that would be the usual way to approach this nasty business. For once, Ironvale could not be further from the truth.
What Lady Rosaline had done was not just dishonest, but cause for extreme alarm, and was the circumstance even slightly different, he could not say how he would have approached this mishap… only that Lady Rosaline, and her father, would not have enjoyed it.
But as was so often the case with Caspian, he was able to remove himself emotionally from the situation and spy a new path yet unseen. And that path, the one he was now walking, was proving to be a masterstroke.
Or it would be, save for the one variable that even Caspian could not quite come to terms with. His bride-to-be.
“It brings me untold amounts of pleasure to tell you that you could not be more wrong, Ironvale,” Caspian said.
“Is that right?”
“Despite what you might assume…” Just then, a small group of men appeared in the pathway, blocking Caspian. He did not slow his pace, standing tall and walking right through them. They scattered without a word. “…I will not be marrying Lady Rosaline.”
“What?” Ironvale hurried to catch him. “You are joking? Surely!”
“You know I don’t joke.”
“But Amberhall…” Ironvale was looking at him like he had lost his mind. “Correct me if I am wrong, but you and the girl’s father had a contract? You have a contract! Do not tell me that your pride is so enormous that you are willing to burn everything to the ground on principle?”
“You know I would do no such thing.”
“And yet you are.”
