“No, because you don’t like her. So you will be happy to know there is a viscount who lives two estates over in Crestwood. Perhaps Meg will invite him to a cozy supper one night. He might be a wonderful match for Katherine.”
Robert pivoted, and his expression must have looked as fierce as it felt, for Simon took a long step away from him and his eyes went wide as saucers. “Would you like me to ask you my first question again?”
“I don’tknowif I like her,” Robert growled. He had never wanted to throttle a person so much in his life. Simon stared at him for a beat, two, long enough that the silence became uncomfortable. At last, Robert threw up his hands. “Out with it.”
“You’ve avoided entanglements for a long time,” Simon said gently. “I’m concerned.”
Robert’s heart sank. It was one thing to guess how little his friends thought of him. Quite another to see it, to hear it.
“You fear what I’ll do to her, cold-hearted snake that I am,” he sneered.
Simon shook his head. “No. I am concerned about what you’ll do toyourself. Opening your heart is well worth the risk. But thereisa risk. Meg and I know that fact as well as anyone.”
“Well, I’m not interfering with anyone’s engagement, so how would my risk be the same?” he asked.
Simon ignored the barb. “There will still be a part of you that you put on the line. You’re good at that in some ways. But never this one.”
Robert glared at him. He hated to admit that Simon’s words had struck upon the very fear that gripped him when he thought of taking a leap with Katherine. That the risk would not pay off. That both of them would be destroyed by love, just as he’d seen his mother destroyed.
He didn’t want that pain. He didn’t want to be responsible for what it would do to her. But what did that mean? Would it be best now to walk away from her? To end this affair and go back to what he was before?
Was that even possible?
“Robert?” Simon said softly.
“I’ve already risked something,” he admitted slowly. “I didn’t know I was doing it, but I did. And here I am. With all of you lot making eyes at me and asking me about Katherine three times a day.”
Simon nodded. “So what will you do?”
“Dance with her,” Robert said with a sigh.
“Dance?” Simon repeated.
He cast a side glance at his friend. “Ask your wife—I’m sure she remembers what it is to dance.”
“You know that’s not what I’m saying. You’re just going to dance with her. Make no other decision?”
Robert looked at her across the room again. She was on her feet now, the whist game over. Charlotte had moved across to the pianoforte, settling in with Ewan at her side to play a duet so the couples could dance.
He knew nothing more except what he’d admitted to Simon already. When he looked at Katherine he saw desire and beauty, he saw connection that he didn’t fully understand. He saw terror and hope, wound into one woman.
And right now all he wanted to do was dance with her. Let the rest fall away, be determined later.
“Dancing is a decision,” he said softly. “Six months ago, I would have just run.”
He met Simon’s eyes evenly, and his friend nodded. “Then go dance.”
He strode away toward her. She looked at him as he approached. There was that combination of happiness and anxiety that always mixed on her face when he came near her. He wondered what his own expression looked like.
But she didn’t run, just as he hadn’t. She shifted in her place beside her aunt and waited for him.
“My lady,” he said as he reached them. “And Mrs. Sambrook. How lovely you both look tonight.”
Mrs. Sambrook inclined her head. He could see the uneasy examination she was making. Just like his friends, it was clear she was aware of the circling he and Katherine were doing. Aware of how badly it could all end.
“You did not play cards,” Mrs. Sambrook said at last.
He smiled, forcing himself back into his mask of charisma and flirtation. His most Roseford of looks, rather than Robert. He was beginning to feel they were different people now, when once they’d been the same.
