“I invited him to dine with us.”
Fiona shook her head, struck witless by incomprehension.“But–but...why?”
Eve eyed her curiously.“I thought that with the numbers odd at the table tonight, what with all the younger lads out for the evening, you would enjoy a pleasant dinner companion.”
They expected her tositnext to him, as well?
“Besides, we like him.”
Granted, Fiona had never breathed a word of what had occurred between her and Aylesbury to anyone in the family.Still, they must have taken some hint from her unmistakable displeasure at seeing him again?From their recent conversation?At least enough to assume she was not as overjoyed with his presence as they all were.
Even an inkling that she might be irked to find him as her dinner partner.
“Evie, whatever you think you might accomplish with this, you’re wrong.”
Vin spoke from her other side.“What is he doing here?”
Fiona raised a brow to Eve.“It seems he is here because welikehim.”
“Like him?”Vin scoffed, tossing back his drink in a single swallow.“He’s as irritating as a horse’s arse, is what he is.There’s not a serious bone in his body.He’s...What’s the word?Irksome.”
“Hubristic,” she added with relish, pleased to have an ally who shared her dislike of the marquis.
Her brother nodded, casting her a satisfied grin.It seemed he felt the same way.“Cocky.”
“Pribbling.”
“Vainglorious.”
“Nonsense,” Eve countered with a smile for Vin.“You’re only saying that because he was in love with Moira.”
It stung to hear it out loud.But then, the truth often did.Just as it had to listen to him admit his love for another unknown woman so publicly.
Moira’s laughter had them turning to find her nearby on Aylesbury’s arm.“In love with Harry?Heavens no!”
“Not at all,” the marquis concurred smoothly, his somber gaze falling on Fiona though she refused to meet his eye.“We were too good of friends.Like an old married couple.Like a comfortable slipper.”
“Well, I like that!”Moira laughed, hugging his arm affectionately.“I’m a slipper now, am I?”
“Yes.”A shadow of a smile passed over Aylesbury’s lips.“All worn in.”
“I rather think she’s like a new pair of shoes,” Vin said dryly.“Always pinching.Do you mind, Aylesbury?”he added over the laughter.“I’ll take my wife’s arm and put it back where it belongs.”
Moira abandoned the marquis in favor of her husband quickly enough, and Vin led her away, whispering something in his wife’s ear that prompted what could only be labeled as a provocative laugh.Fiona watched them go, but Eve caught her eye, looking pointedly at Aylesbury before she, too, slipped away, leaving Fiona standing alone with the marquis in the middle of the room.
Aylesbury rocked back on his heels but didn’t speak.She didn’t know what he was waiting for, but whatever it was, he wouldn’t get it from her.Instead, she stared up at an oil paint landscape hanging above the fireplace until the brushstrokes began to blur.He studied her just as intently.
Finally, he spoke in that deep, melodic baritone that once rang musically in her ears and now grated against her tightly strung nerves.“I wanted to apologize for abandoning you so rudely in the park yesterday.Business called me away.”
“Business?”she repeated, lifting a mocking brow.“Is that what you call it?”
He winced at her suggestive tone.He hadn’t considered what his departure might have looked like from her point of view.“Of sorts.I’d like to explain.”
Her lips compressed into a flat—regrettably familiar—line.“You needn’t explain anything to me, Harry Brudenall,” she said with brisk indifference.“I am not your keeper, nor does it matter to me what your business is.”
“That’s too bad.I was hoping you had missed my company.”
“You hoped wrong.I do quite well without it, thank you.”
