“You won’t see him again, will you?” Shane persisted.
Prim wouldn’t agree to it, but then again, the matter might have already been decided for her. The way she’d dismissed him, rejected him so publicly, he might be well and done with her.
CHAPTER 18
“You’re dangerous,” he says.
“Why?”
“Because you make me believe in the impossible.”
~ Simone Elkelesfrom Rules of Attraction
Thursday morning
James crumpled his sister-in-law’s letter in his fist with a low curse. It wasn’t the primary subject of the missive that had resulted in its mauling. Though it had come as a surprise to learn that Fiona was already with child and due to deliver Aylesbury an heir in the spring.
No, it was the tidbits of local gossip that riled him. Or, more to the point, one tidbit in particular.
The thick stationary received another sharp twist as he fought the urge to fling it into the flame of the roaring fire the Preston servants had lit to combat the winter chill.
“James, darling…?” Maggie strolled into the room carrying a few letters of her own. He stood to greet her. “Oh my, what has you all aflutter?
“Am I aflutter?” James asked innocently, dropping back into his chair after Maggie sat. “I hadn’t noticed.”
The lady just laughed lightly. “Two years you’ve been here, dear boy. I’ve come to think of you as my own son, the one I never had. A mother can read her child with astonishing ease, you know.”
“You are far too young to be my mother,” he parried, avoiding her question with the truth. “Besides, how can I be a son to you when apparently there’s some gossip out there that I live with you as yourinamoratoor something.”
“Really?” she asked, shocked. Then astonished him with a burst of laughter, rocking back in her chair and slapping her sack of letters against her knee. “Oh, how fabulous!”
“Fabulous?” Not at all the reaction he’d expected.
“Utterly.” She giggled like a schoolgirl again. “Oh, I knew those old biddies were jealous. I just had no idea how much so. They envy me my handsome young escort and all the attention you give me.”
“You think this is amusing?” He gaped at her.
“Oh, James, you take life far too seriously.”
“They paint me as your kept man.”
Maggie clapped her hands in delight. “We should go out tonight, then. The opera maybe to see theNutcracker. I’ll flirt outrageously and simper all along as if I don’t know. What fun it’ll be!”
“It sounds like an unforgettable evening.”
The remainder of her amusement faded away. “Oh, dear boy. Come now, tell me what has you so troubled.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing?” She arched a blond brow. “Is that why you’re strangling that poor scrap of paper in your hand?”
With astonishing ease, she made him shift as guiltily as a stern look from his own mother had never managed.
There’d be no talking around her. He’d learned that much over the past two years.
“I’ve a letter from Eve.”
She cocked her head in curiosity. “What could my daughter possibly have said to upset you so? Surely you’re not upset about Fiona’s news?”
