“Very fine. Now, tonight is another dinner party with some music and dancing afterward, this time with George and Edith Gould.”
James breathed a sigh of relief. Gould’s children, daughters included, were all still in the nursery. Though George Gould had two sisters, James knew the elder, Helen, was a socialite with more of an interest in philanthropy than marriage. The younger sister, Anna, had safely wed in April.
“Sounds like a pleasant evening.”
Maggie nodded. “I believe it will be Mr. Gould’s cousin Elise, who has come to spend the winter with them. I know you’ll like her. She’s a charming girl…”
His words had fallen upon deaf ears. “Girl?”
“I believe she’s nineteen now?”
James grimaced at the thought. “Not another one. If you’re so determined I should wed, why don’t you wed wi’ me and spare us both all this nonsense? You’re closer to my age than a chit of nineteen.”
Her laughter chimed like the bells of St. Patrick’s. “If I were even a decade younger, I might take you up on that.”
“It would be my honor.”
For all her fifty or so years, Maggie Preston was petite and lovely still with a trim figure. Her pale blond hair hardly touched by gray, her genuinejoie de vivre, gave the impression she was far younger than her years. The male populous of Manhattan must have been dominated by fools if one of them hadn’t put an end to her widowed status.
She clucked her tongue, though a becoming blush colored her cheeks. “Dear boy, I know what you’re looking for and I’m not it. You need a young wife who can give you a dozen children and keep you in good company for more decades than I have left in me.”
“I tossed that idea in the rubbish bin long ago. My sole purpose at this point is to make more money than Crocus possessed and roll in it in complete solitude.” James smirked as she laughed again.
“That will never happen. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
He didn’t protest too much. Not only because he knew it would do him no good but because he was thankful for her friendship and counsel, and she knew it.
After accepting her fur wrap from the butler, he set it on her shoulders and turned back to don his cape and snatch up his cane. He set his top hat upon his head with a resigned sigh.
“None of that now! You can’t expect a good evening if you go into it with such a dog face.”
“You know I am far more comfortable in the boardroom than I am in the drawing room these days.”
“As was Mr. Preston.”
She accepted his proffered arm and James led her out of the house and down the steps to the carriage awaiting them, though their destination was only a half dozen blocks north of the Preston residence.
“Did he ever come around?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean I ever stopped trying.” She laughed. “You have far more potential to succeed in this at least than he ever did.”
“Yet, he won you.”
“Yes, he did.” A shadow passed over her face then was gone, her eyes once again as bright and merry as always. “And you’ll win your lady fair, I promise you.”
“I’m only going tonight so that I might speak to Robert Goelet without a dozen lawyers listening in before we head up to Albany to lobby support prior to the assembly’s vote next week.” He paused then added in stern warning, “You’re not to abandon me again once we’re there.”
“It’s not abandonment, it’s allowing you opportunity.”
* * *
She’d abandoned him…again. Blast it. Left him at the mercy of a trio of young debs with a masterful talent for whipping up gale force winds, not only with their heavily employed fans but with the constant fluttering of eyelashes.
They buffeted him from all sides, hardly giving him a chance to speak with their constant chatter. Certainly not allowing him a chance to flee.
“Is it true your brother is an earl, Mr. MacKintosh?” the lady hovering at his right elbow asked, brazenly resting a gloved hand on his forearm.
James deftly rolled his arm away and snatched a glass of champagne from the tray of a passing footman, offering it to her so that she might have a better way to occupy her hands. She simpered and batted her lashes even faster, as if he’d bestowed some great gift upon her. Though he wasn’t even sure of her name. She looked so young, definitely too young for someone as jaded as he.
