So. Many. Kearsleys.
Female ones.
The negligent brother would be easier than this merciless lot before him.
In fact, a firing squad would be preferable—and by the rage-filled gazes centered on Argyll, a safer course.
Why, even the youngest had made it into the mix. He cast a line for her, the closest thing he had as an ally.
“Well, hello, Eris,” Argyll said as he closed the door behind him. “It turns out you’ve not had to wait very long to make it into my clubs after—”
“Stuff it, Duke,” Eris snapped. “I’m not happy with you.”
Argyll knew when to shut his mouth. Granted, he’d never been made to do so before now.
“None of us are happy with you, Your Grace.”
Argyll turned to the dark-haired lady with a streak of white hair.
“My lady,” he murmured, bending low at the waist.
“It will take more than a courtly bow to earn our pleasure, Argyll.” This from Brenna the Bluestocking.
“I would expect nothing less,” he muttered. He returned his focus to the bespectacled marchioness. “My wife speaks with great regard for your husband.”
The young woman’s eyes grew even more serious behind her metal frames. “Does she?”
He nodded.
“Enough,” Cora snapped. “We are not focused on the matter at hand.”
That almost truce he’d been on a path for broke fast.
Various shades of fury ranged among their similarly colored eyes.
“The matter being Dar—”
“The matter being you left our sister!” Eris cried. “She despises crowds, Argyll. Hates balls. Detests them.”
A sharp, knife-like sensation carved a hollow in his chest.
He knew that.
“He gets the point, Eris,” Anwen murmured, touching the little girl’s shoulder.
Eris shrugged it off angrily. “And you made her go alone, Argyll!”
“I am planning to join her…” His chest throbbed.
Argyll’s eyes slid shut.
I am the worst bastard…
His legs suddenly too heavy to hold him, he collapsed against the wall. He wanted to be with her. He fought this need for her because it wasn’t solely a physical need; the hunger to be with her extended to morning wakings and conversations about paintings and…
He was going to stop running from her.
He didn’t know what this was.
