“Maman,” he said with as much patience as he could muster, “the duchess and Lady Eastlake have only just arrived in London. It’s far too soon to arrange a grand affair.”
“Well, of course they have only just settled in, but one cannot merely snap one’s fingers and make a ball happen within a day’s time,” his mother countered, not swayed by his logic. “A revelry of this size and import shall take at least a month’s time to organize. Lady Eastlake and the duchess will have weeks to settle in whilst we go about the preparations.”
He glanced toward his wife to find her gray eyes watching. They had parted the night before after exchanging a few polite words, and he had spent the rest of the night alone in his bed, plagued by a cockstand that wouldn’t be ameliorated by any amount of frigging himself that he could manage. And he had managed rather a lot of it.
He had scarcely slept a goddamn wink. The woman was like a poison in his blood. The more he had of her, the more he wanted her. The more he wanted her, the more he resented her for hertreachery. And now, in his weary, frustrated state, his mother was insisting upon aball, of all things.
“Perhaps we ought to inquire with my wife and Lady Eastlake,” he suggested to his mother, hoping that Sybil would see the wisdom in avoiding a ball altogether.
Her life at Eastlake Hall had been quiet. Although she had made her presentation at court, she had spent much of her time in the country at her father’s estate, under his tyrannical rule. Surely she would have no wish to be the hostess at whatever manner of monstrosity his mother chose to conjure.
Sybil turned to her mother, who was seated in her invalid chair and had scarcely touched her breakfast. “I wouldn’t wish to undertake any endeavor that would prove too much for your delicate constitution. What do you think?”
Blast. That was decidedly not the route he had hoped she would take.
“A ball would be lovely,” Lady Eastlake said.
From across the table, Verity chortled. Everett flicked a glance toward his sister, thinking she was having far too much enjoyment at his expense. She knew he disliked balls as much as he loathedMaman’s planning.
“I would dearly love one as well,” Verity said with exaggerated cheer.
They both knew she couldn’t abide balls. She found the merriment overwhelming and preferred time alone with her nose in a book or her charitable deeds with the orphanage to the crush of a fashionable rout any day.
“It’s settled,”Mamanproclaimed, victorious in her short-lived campaign.
Everyone had turned against him, it would seem. He had been neatly trounced by four women. It didn’t escape his notice that his household ratio rendered him decidedly outnumbered.
“We must start planning at once,” his mother added, all but gleefully rubbing her hands together at the prospect of holding the first ball in their town house in ten years’ time.
“I’m afraid I have promised the Children’s Foundling Hospital that I shall devote the entire day to them.” Verity instantly extricated herself from obligation with a serene smile.
The minx.
“Surely they will understand the necessity for your presence here.”Mamanfrowned, some of the air fleeing her sails. “It is not every day that we have the opportunity to present the new Duchess of Riverdale to polite society, you know.”
“ButMaman, you have the duchess and Lady Eastlake to assist you,” Verity objected slyly. “With such capable expertise, I cannot fathom that you would also require me. You know I’m dreadful at such matters.”
“Oh no,” Everett interjected, deciding to have his revenge upon his sister, “they cannot possibly organize a ball without you, sister. You must offer your aid. I insist.”
Her eyes narrowed on him, and he knew she was actively plotting a means of exacting her own retribution. “I didn’t know you felt so strongly about my assistance, darling brother.”
He smiled brightly. “I do, dearest.”
His ham was growing cold by the time he lifted the final bite to his lips, but he didn’t care. If he was going to be forced into hosting a bloody ball, then Verity was damned well going to help, and she was going to be present as well. He would need her for solidarity.
Christ knew if any of his chums would be in attendance. The Wicked Dukes Society was growing more scattered by the moment, their determination to remain steadfast bachelors diminishing like the last few hours of sunlight on a winter’s day. Brandon and Camden were already happily wed. Whitby was smitten. Their numbers had sadly diminished.
“Then if that is what you would like, I will be more than happy to help plan a ball befitting the duchess’s introduction,” Verity told him. “It will have to be suitably extravagant, of course.”
No doubt he would pay for this miserable ball with the draining of his coffers. But then, perhaps having a cause to occupy Sybil would prove a boon. The less time he spent in her company, the better. She was a temptation in which he couldn’t afford to indulge. A weakness he would not allow to lay him low yet again. Besides, then he could attend his club or do whatever he wished withoutMamantaking him to task for his absences.
“Naturally, it would have to be.” Everett agreed with his sister before turning to Sybil. “I leave you in capable hands to plan the fête, madam.”
Bidding farewell to the rest of the table, he hastily made his escape, thoughts of Sybil haunting him with every step he took. But he remained determined not to succumb to his weakness where she was concerned. His feelings for her would remain buried where they belonged.
One fact had become dismallyapparent to Sybil, and it was that, beyond the bedchamber, her husband still wanted nothing to do with her. That had never been more painfully obvious than when he had all but fled from the breakfast table earlier that morning, entrusting her to his mother and sister for the planning of a ball that had not been her idea.
If she had believed that the intensity of the passion they had shared the night before had altered anything between them, shehad been decidedly wrong. He had made haste with his escape at breakfast and hadn’t returned for luncheon. After spending hours ensconced with the dowager, her mother, and Lady Verity formulating a guest list, she had at last made a flight of her own in the presence of her new sister-in-law.
