Lucas sucked in a breath. There was no running from what had dragged him away from his future. He’d tried and never fully succeeded.
“Perhaps it’s…time to face it all,” he admitted slowly. “And I promise you, these invitations would not endanger anyone. Just put me in the public eye where I could be seen again.”
“Well,” Simon said, coming over to sling his arm around Lucas. “I have a few ideas about that.”
Chapter Seventeen
Diana cast her gaze toward the house above and tried not to let her thoughts wander too far. It was almost impossible when all she wanted to know was whether Lucas was well. Whether he was able to face the friends he so cared about despite whatever had inspired him to push them all away. She longed, in some foolish part of herself, to be with him. To support him.
“You and I are of a mind,” the Duchess of Crestwood said as she sank down into the bench along the garden path and gently settled her hand on her belly. She looked up toward the house, as well, her concern plain.
The difference was, she had a right to feel that way. Diana’s cheeks grew hot with a blush. What this woman must think of her, despite all her outward kindness and friendliness.
“I do not know Willowby’s intentions,” the duchess continued. “But I can assure you that Simon and Tyndale’s are only the most loving. Their entire group of friends has missed him keenly, especially considering all the turmoil and joy that has come to our circle in the last year and a half.”
Diana swallowed hard. “I am certain it is none of my business.”
“Isn’t it?” She glanced back up at the house. “It seemshefeels differently.”
Diana shifted at those words. At what they meant in this context. At the idea that this lady knew she and Lucas were lovers. That she labeled Diana a whore, however quietly.
“You know what I am,” she said.
Meg’s cheeks darkened and she darted her gaze from Diana’s. “His friend,” she said.
“Your Grace,” Diana began.
The duchess smiled. “Oh, please don’t do that. We are a very informal group, with too many dukes and duchesses to go around Your Gracing everyone. It gets too confusing. Please call me Meg, and I shall be very forward and call you Diana in return.”
Diana blinked in confusion. “Meg?” she repeated.
“Excellent,” Meg said. “You’ve made this very easy, with far less argument than I encountered with, say, Adelaide or Helena.”
Diana shook her head. “I don’t—”
“It seems very possible you might know them soon enough.” Meg sighed. “Assuming all goes well with the gentlemen, as I’m sure it will.”
Staring at the duchess, Diana tried to think of something to say. Here she’d thought Meg viewed her as Lucas’s mistress, but she was speaking to her as if she were something more important. Someone that deserved a place at a table full of dukes and duchesses in the upper echelon of Society.
“I think you may be mistaken in your view of me, Your Grace.”
“Meg.”
She clenched her hands in front of her. “Meg. I-I am not going to be a part of your circle, no matter how this meeting of Lucas’s goes today.”
“Are you not?” Meg laughed, and it was a gentle, playful sound. “I know there are a great many unsavory tales of those with titles, but I assure you, we have not an ogre in the group. They’re all good men with many fine qualities. And the wives, thus far, are a girl’s dream when she thinks of the friends she would be lucky to have in her life.”
“I’m certain you are right. It isn’t a slur on any of you, I assure you. It’s just that I am…I’m…”
Meg lifted her brows when Diana didn’t finish and nodded. “You are…?”
Diana folded her arms and fought not to turn away. “You will make me say it out loud? I’m staying in his house, unchaperoned. I’m his…”
“His mistress,” Meg finished. “Yes, that is how it appears. I admit that idea made me a bit uncomfortable at first, but having talked to you, I’m beginning to think my view of it isn’t entirely true.”
Diana drew back. “I assure you, it is. There is nothing between us outside of our—our arrangement.”
She blushed even hotter at those words. Here she had been telling Lucas that she didn’t want to be seen as a lightskirt by his friends and now she was defending her position as just that. All the while, the duchess gave her a knowing look.
