“Lord Michael.” Toby bowed. He tried not to hate too many people in his life. This was one person he had no qualms about doing so.
This man had been a benefactor at Blackwood House. He’d known what was going on. Toby had once asked him to do something about it, and he’d laughed, saying it was just a rite of passage, and harmless fun.
Tall, elegant, with silver hair pomaded into the latest style, Michael was the epitome of a society gentleman. His clothes were expensive, and his friends rich. Toby, however, was richer and more titled, a fact Michael hated.
“I had heard you are interested in investing in the Hall Road consortium, Lord Michael?”
“I am.” Lord Michael frowned. “How is it you know that?” The man’s polite facade slipped.
“My friends are behind it. You know them of course, Lords Hamilton and Stafford.”
He visibly paled. “I had not realized they were involved.”
“Yes, we are involved, in fact it is our consortium,” Toby said holding the man’s gaze.Therefore, you will never be part of it.
“Tobias!”
He turned to see who had called him, and found Lady Petunia waving at him a few feet away.
“Michael, I am being summoned. Excuse me.” With a brief bow, he walked away, knowing he’d left the man seething, and feeling a great deal better for it.
“Ladies,” Toby said, bowing to Anthony’s three aunts. “May I be of assistance to you in some way?” They were all seated against the wall on a chaise.
“Draw a chair up before us, Tobias. We wish to discuss a matter with you,” Lady Petunia demanded. She was the one who usually gavethe orders out of the three of them.
Toby wondered if Anthony had told them about Florence. He would be more than happy with these three in the child’s life as they would dote on her. In fact, when she had settled into life with him, he’d make sure it happened.
He located a seat, and placed it down before them, which was directly in the path of people wanting to skirt around the edges of the room, but he knew better than to argue.
“Now, we have decided…”—four words that never went well for anyone—“that it is time for you to marry.”
“Oh… ah.” Toby had been speaking for many years. Since he was one? Maybe earlier, he had no recollection, but right then everything he’d learned was suddenly a jumbled mess in his head.
“And to that end, we have drawn up a list, dear,” Agatha, who sat directly to Petunia’s right, said.
These three were creatures of habit. The way they dressed, how they sat, and how they planned their attacks. He’d seen it before. Petunia always started, and then the others joined her.
“Lovely ladies, all three of them,” Lavinia said.
“I don’t want to marry,” Toby said with as much force as his dry throat could muster. He should marry, now Florence would be in his care, but he was not doing so just for the child. When the time came, if the time came, it would be with someone he’d carefully chosen.
“And yet it is time,” Agatha said.
“Why now is it time?” he asked when he could have just said no, absolutely not. The problem here was, these women had saved him and his two best friends, one of whom was their nephew, and because of that, he would always love and watch over them. Toby would never be rude to them, but he’d not believed he’d have a need to until now.
“We have seen how happy our nephew is,” Petunia said. “It fills our hearts with joy.”
“Joy,” Lavinia parroted as if he’d not heard.
“And as we think of you like we do Anthony, we have decided that it is time to help you find joy.”
“Not Jamie?”
“We’re starting with you, as he is not ready,” Petunia said with a cat that has the cream smile on her face.
“Now, the three women on this list are here this evening.” Agatha held out a small square of paper, then waved it before him until he took it.
“Don’t read it now, save that until later, and we shall see you soon to get your thoughts. There are plenty more lovely young women we could have added to that list, but we had no wish to frighten you,” Lavinia said.
