Brooke almost laughed, but still said sarcastically, “Really? The precious heir?”
“You don’t know how angry Thomas was. I’m quite sure he meant it.”
“And how will that matter once Thomas is dead?” Brooke demanded. “He’s old. He doesn’t have that many more years before him. And then there will be nothing to curb Robert’s nefarious tendencies.”
“Nefarious? He’s not a villain. Prone to the same rages your father has and a bit of a rake apparently, but—”
Eyes flared wide, Brooke asked incredulously, “Do you evenknowyour son?”
Harriet looked back toward the ballroom and blatantly evaded the question. “This was to be our triumph tonight. Have you even noticed that the men here can barely take their eyes off of you?”
Brooke hadn’t noticed that, but her eyes had passed over the room when she’d been trying not to watch what Dominic was doing. She noted quite a few handsome men were present. She’d even guessed she might have fallen in love tonight—if she had come here with her mother. One of them even winked at her when her eyes had passed over him. It hadn’t made her blush. It probably should have, but it had simply had no effect on her.
Her mother wasn’t done. “Yet because you are affianced to the wolf, they won’t approach. But he can’t keep his eyes off of you, either, even though he’s dancing with someone else. Why is he doing that?”
Brooke was able to spot Dominic through the open terrace doors. He was dancing with a third lady, yet another pretty one, too. “Courtesy,” she lied with gritted teeth, still staring at him. “They are friends of his mother’s.”
With raised brow, Harriet turned back to her to ask pointedly, “A bit young to be Anna Wolfe’s friends, aren’t they? You don’t mind?”
Brooke barely heard the question. Dominic just got slapped again! She rolled her eyes and looked at her mother to quip without the smirk she was feeling, “Not yet.”
Harriet sighed. “Robert lied to us. I didn’t realize such a horrific tragedy was the reason for the duels. I didn’t think Lord Wolfe would hate you.”
That was a strong word. It had applied, but Brooke wasn’t sure if it still did, and said, “I’m tolerated, or I was, until Robert showed up and tried to get me to poison him—and made sure to mention to Dominic that I would.”
Harriet actually blanched. “You wouldn’t.”
“If that’s a question, then you don’t know me any more than you—”
“It wasn’t.”
“But thatisyour son, Mother. Vicious, capable of murder, lacking any moral fiber or scruples. There’s not a good thing that can be said about him except that he is handsome. A pity, that. He should look as wicked as he truly is. And not another word about that toad.”
“Then shall we discuss how jealous you are?”
“Of Robert?” Brooke snorted. “Don’t be absurd.”
“I meant of your husband-to-be.” When Brooke looked away, Harriet added, “No? Well, I need a drink. I suspect you do, too. Shall we?”
Why not? Brooke followed Harriet back inside the ballroom to one of the refreshment tables set about the edges of the room and was amazed when her mother drained a glass of champagne down to the last drop. So she didn’t hesitate to do the same thing. Jealous? Was that why she couldn’t stop bristling?
Chapter Forty-Nine
“THAT LAST ONE ISpossible.”
Brooke swung around to see that Dominic had finally remembered that he had a fiancée in the room. And how businesslike he sounded. Considering what she’d witnessed, again, it took every bit of will she had not to slap him herself.
Instead she had to whisper because her mother was only two feet away. “But she slapped you, too.”
“That was so—” He had started to whisper back but shook his head and led her out onto the dance floor instead so he wouldn’t have to. “That was so her husband wouldn’t get suspicious.”
Brooke’s eyes flared wide. “D’you like dueling so much? Shame on you.”
“Really? When this was your idea?” he shot back.
“Not with married women it wasn’t.”
“You didn’t specify.”
