“You made your own way. And I had no idea we were that close to ruin until it was too late. I don’t know how you could have seen it coming,” Shaw said.
“I knew I was the heir. I didn’t take that very seriously.”
“And now you are. That’s more than he did. If his creditors hadn’t spread the rumors all over the ton when he died, I don’t imagine anyone would even suspect the mess he made of everything.”
“He was careful,” Tristan said.
“No, he wasn’t. You were careful. You still are.”
Tristan smiled. “So full of compliments tonight. You want me to have a word with Penrose, don’t you?”
Bradshaw chuckled. “No. Just the opposite. I want you to stay as far away from him as possible. He still remembers that two hundred quid you won from him at faro. I can’t tell you how many times he’s reminded me of that ‘damned lucky brother of mine.’”
“Luck had nothing to do with it, my boy.”
Sighing, Shaw patted his brother on the knee. “And I suppose I wanted you to know that I understand how little you like the idea of marrying for wealth, and that I appreciate it.”
“I was actually thinking that you look so splendid tonight, you might snag an heiress and I could go back to pursuing actresses and opera singers.”
“Not likely,” Shaw scoffed.
“Me with the opera singers, or you getting married?”
“Either one.”
Bradshaw was probably correct, and on both counts. Without the lure of a title, Shaw’s prospects were even less promising than his own.
It wasn’t that Tristan had lacked for partners, but he’d become more circumspect about the process. Mistresses didn’t want him for his money, though they did still seem to want him. At times, however, he felt like a prime stag with his antlers missing. Women were more than willing to share his bed, but he didn’t get shown off much. He understood it, but he didn’t like it, all the same.
For that reason he’d almost come to dread gatherings like the one at the Devonshire ball. This evening, though, anticipation ran hot under his skin. It had nothing to do with his promised dance with Amelia, however, and everything to do with seeing and holding Georgiana in that emerald gown. If she said her dance card was full, someone was going to get hurt.
He saw her as soon as he and Shaw strolled into the ballroom. He had been right about the gown; in the chandelier’s glow she seemed to have an ethereal light that drew his, and every other male’s, attention. Even if she’d been in rags, though, he would have noticed her.
“Your Amelia is fluttering at you,” Bradshaw muttered.
“She’s not my—”
“And there’s Penrose. You’re on your own, brother.”
Tristan was used to seeing a crowd of single men around Georgiana at every soiree, and he’d never attempted to make himself part of it. The two of them together had been simply too volatile. Catching her for a swift exchange of insults or a knuckle-bashing late in the evening had been the best he’d hoped for, and it was enough, barely, to satisfy his masochistic desire to see her up close. Tonight, though, he needed to join the throng. Tonight, he wanted to dance with her.
“Tristan, I’ve saved the first waltz for you,” Amelia said, sweeping up to him, angelic in pink and white.
“And when is the first waltz?”
“As soon as they end this quadrille. Doesn’t everyone look magnificent tonight?”
“Yes, magnificent.” He glanced at the orchestra. In two or three minutes he would be out on the floor with Amelia, and by the time the waltz ended, Georgiana’s dance card would be full with a dozen alternates waiting in the wings for slips or falls on the part of primary partners. Damnation. “Will you excuse me for just a moment?”
Her pretty face fell into a heartbroken frown. “I thought you might want to chat with me.”
Tears would be next; he’d seen the progression before. “Of course I do. And I’ll chat with you after the waltz, as well. But Lady Georgiana is looking after my aunts, and I had a message from them for her.”
“Oh. That’s all right, then. Hurry back, though.”
“I will.” Sweet Lucifer. He hadn’t even asked for her hand, and she was already trying to dictate with whom he could socialize. Whatever the outcome of the next few weeks, that particular irritation was not going to continue.
Without a backward glance, he strode across the edge of the ballroom floor up to the cluster of males surrounding Georgiana. He was taller then most of them, and she caught sight of him immediately. To his surprise and suspicion, she smiled.
