Edward looked away, his throat tight.
Sebastian smiled again. “Come. You can brood tomorrow. Tonight, you’re drinking with me. Thetonmay have forgotten your scandal, but I, sadly, remember all your worst habits.”
Edward huffed a reluctant laugh.
Dinner was also unremarkable in the way Bath excelled at being unremarkable. The soup was properly hot. The wine was appropriately decanted. The candles flickered gently.
Edward noticed all of it because there was nothing else demanding his attention—and because noticing had become his habit.
Sebastian, by contrast, seemed determined to supply interest where the house would not.
“You’ve always eaten as though meals were an interruption,” he said, watching him from across the table. “Margaret says it’s because you prefer control to pleasure.”
Edward lifted his glass. “Margaret attributes far too much psychology to table manners.”
“She’s rarely wrong.”
Edward ignored that. “You didn’t come to Bath to discuss my chewing.”
“No,” Sebastian agreed easily. “As I said, I came to see whether exile had improved your temper.”
“And?” Edward asked dryly.
Sebastian considered him. “Not worse. Possibly more… pointed.”
Edward set down his glass. “You didn’t ride all this way to hurl polite insults. What is it?”
Sebastian smiled into his wine. “London news.”
Edward stiffened. “I thought you said thetonhad moved on.”
“They have,” Sebastian affirmed. “Which is precisely why it’s interesting.”
Edward waited.
Sebastian dabbed his mouth with his napkin, deliberately casual. “Your Duchess has been making herself useful.”
Edward’s hand paused halfway to his cutlery. Only for a moment. “Meaning?” he prompted.
“She’s been visiting orphanages,” Sebastian explained. “Quietly. No announcements. No patronage displays. Just… turning up. Asking questions. Making arrangements.”
Edward kept his gaze on his plate. “Beatrice has always believed in order.”
“Yes,” Sebastian said gently. “But this is not order. This is care.”
Edward said nothing.
Sebastian leaned back in his chair. “One of the matrons mentioned that she brings lists. Names. Ages. Needs. She listens. Apparently, she intends to return.”
Edward’s mouth twitched before he could stop it.
Sebastian caught it immediately. “Ah,” he said, delighted. “There it is.”
Edward looked up sharply. “What?”
“That.” Sebastian pointed to his face. “That look when you forget you’re meant to be unmoved.”
Edward scowled. “I’m not?—”
