“She has money,” Robert said. Oh yes, he’d had his man look into her since their last encounter. Isabel’s words had tweaked him. James’s were starting to do the same.
“Yes, Emma said something about her having her own little home here in London. Charlotte thought she had a small inheritance to live on. But you cannot believe that is all a woman needs in life. To return to Society after such a scandal, to come into those rooms with one’s head held high.” James let out his breath. “That takes a strength of character I wouldn’t guess half of us have.”
Robert thought of Katherine’s expression when he’d asked her to dance. How her gaze had darted to the women watching, flickered with humiliation. And then she’d been all strength. Confidence. That was part of what drew him to her, not just her beauty.
“I’m certain it isn’t easy,” he agreed.
“And then there is her father,” James said. “I remember Mr. Montague from when she was out three years ago. It was the Season before I met Emma, and there were whispers about the man. He was obsessed with morality. I think I might have considered asking his daughter to dance and was put off by another gentleman who said I was inviting a scene. For her. For me.”
Robert tensed and stared at his very rich, very handsome friend. “You had an interest in Katherine?”
James blinked as he stared at him. “Thatis what you brought out of that story? That I considered asking the lady to dance with me once three years ago?”
Robert shifted. “No, of course not. I was simply having a hard time imagining you with a tendre for anyone but Emma.”
“I didn’t have designs on Lady Gainsworth, or is sheKatherineto you?” James rolled his eyes. “I was eligible and she was available and I danced with a great many ladies in those days. Christ, man, the point was that her father’s behavior had already ostracized her on some level. So she has a bad start with him, and now this nonsense with how her husband died. Her prospects are not the best.”
“But she doesn’t have to get married,” Robert repeated, circling around to the beginning of their argument. “So what do prospects matter?”
“I realize this is a foreign concept to you, but perhaps shewantsto get married. Not for money or standing, but on her own terms. For love, even. I can imagine she might have been starved of it these last few years if her late husband’s public coldness stretched to their home.”
Robert shifted. “None of those things are my fault.”
James smiled, almost a pitying expression and Robert’s heart began to pound. “Of course not. But if you are bent on this idea of wagering to seduce her, you’ll make her life all the harder. Those friends of yours, the ones who don’t belong to our group, they will crow of any conquest that is completed. Society will judge her even further. She could be ostracized and isolated completely. I know you are not so cruel as to want that. To be blind to how you would make another person’s life so much harder.”
Robert squeezed his eyes shut and ground out, “Please don’t be my conscience, old friend.”
That inspired another laugh from James, this one warmer. Like he’d said his piece and he could just be Robert’s friend again. When Robert looked at him, James chucked him in the shoulder gently. “You have one of your own. I just need to pluck it from time to time to keep it awake.”
“Alive,” Robert corrected.
James laughed again and slung his arm around Robert. “Come on, don’t be so glum. I know what you’ll do. Come to Abernathe with the party. Join us there for ten days and be with your friends who love you and see the man you truly are beneath that swagger and nonsense you show to the world.”
Robert pulled away and walked to the other side of the room. “Come, James, I appreciate the invitation, just as I did the first time you made it three weeks ago. But you know I’m busy here.”
“Busy,” James repeated. “Carousing keeps your schedule full, does it? At least give me the real reason for your reticence.”
Robert ran a hand through his hair as he considered that request. Order? It felt like an order. One he wanted to deny because the answer felt very…vulnerable. Only James was staring at him and he knew he couldn’t avoid speaking forever. Nor could he think of what to say that wouldn’t reveal the whole truth.
“Kit is busy with running the estate and making final arrangements as his father’s illness progresses,” Robert said. “And the rest of our friends who are making the trip to your estate are married. I will be the sole bachelor amongst the blissfully happy couples and families.”
James cocked his head. “Is that the lilt of regret I hear in your voice?”
“No,” Robert said firmly. “Love is fine for you lot. I admire that you have found it. But I am not seeking it, I assure you.”
“Please come,” James said. “Don’t think of it as being amongst couples, think of it as being amongst friends. Hugh and Amelia are still locked away at his estate celebrating their marriage, so they will not attend. Lucas and Diana will also be away. Do you ever get the feeling he and Diana aren’t as separate from his old work at the War Department as they claim?”
“Every time I talk to them,” Robert chuckled.
James grinned. “And Kit won’t be there, of course, as you mentioned. But the rest of us will be, and we want to have you.”
Robert drew a deep breath. “You only want me there in the hopes I’ll forget my bargain regarding Katherine.”
“That’s not true. But if it gives you time to reconsider your decision, I won’t lie and say that wouldn’t please me. Come and remember who you really are, Robert. Please.”
Robert’s foot tapped nervously and he pulled away from James to lean on the billiard table as he considered the invitation. James’s words, Matthew’s words, Isabel’s words…they all rang in his ears. As did Katherine’s spectacular set down at the party a few nights before.
Perhaps going away was the best thing. It wasn’t as if the Season had much left in it. In fact, London Society in winter would be an easier place to find Katherine. With his friends all ensconced on their estates, making more babies with their wives, no one would be around to cluck at whatever he decided to do about the comely countess.
