Finn blinked and forced himself back to the conversation at hand. The marquess was leaving him an opening for exactly what he’d intended to do. “Ah, yes. There is much to do,” he said.
“What a coup for Lady Marianne. To land such a fine prospect after so long on the wall. I think most of Society must have given up on her, as well as you. Good that you didn’t have to waste resources trying to force a union through financial and other means.”
Finn felt every muscle in his body tense at that statement. It wasn’t that others hadn’t implied as much, that somehow his sister had lost her worth after years as a spinster. That she had become a burden on him. But few were willing to put it in such harsh terms.
He arched a brow. “She is a most beloved sister, my lord. I would have been pleased to support her in any way she lived her life, just as I support her in the wonderful future she will have with Ramsbury. It is a love match, it seems, and I am over the moon for her.”
Chilton looked as though he didn’t understand that concept. He shrugged. “It’s certainly all the talk of Town.”
“Yes,” Finn said. “The engagement ball is in just a few days, at my home here in London. The invitation is impossible to acquire, what with all the interest.”
Chilton’s lips thinned. “I suppose Ramsbury is making most of the invitation decisions. Never liked me much.”
Finn almost smiled. His friend had always had impeccable taste. “I don’t know about that. Either way, if you’d like to attend, I could arrange it. As you said, your uncle and I were once close, I see no reason why the Chilton name shouldn’t continue to be linked to mine.”
There was a light that entered Chilton’s eyes that immediately let Finn know that he had won his prize. How could this grasping man refuse, after all. A sought-after invitation? A way to get over on Ramsbury by showing up at his party? A continued relationship between two powerful titles?
It was everything a man like this could want.
“That would be very kind, yes,” Chilton said.
“Excellent. I’ll arrange it the moment I return home.” He made a show of pulling his pocket watch from his jacket and frowned. “Speaking of which, I have something to attend to. I’m glad I stopped by here today and we were able to speak. I see great things in the future, Chilton.”
They both rose and Chilton extended a hand again. They shook for the second time, a cold chill rolling up Finn’s arm with the touch. When he left the room, he rubbed his palm against his thigh, wishing he could erase the memory as much as he could erase the touch.
And yet he had discovered nothing yet that said the man was anything but a grasping dandy, concerned with appearances and wealth. No worse than dozens of others in his position. And he had no idea how Esme would react when he told her that upon his return to the estate.
CHAPTER 13
Esme had felt uncomfortable the first little while she waited in Finn’s house, but the feeling had faded when his butler had brought her some biscuits to go with her tea and had kindly left the door open when he left, almost like he was setting her free into Finn’s world.
She finished her second delicious biscuit, downed the last bit of tea in her cup and finally got up. She exited the room and went into the long hallway to her left. There were many doors to either side of her all the way to the end and most were open, once again making her feel that there would be no judgment if she gave herself a little tour. She peeked into a few parlors, each painted and decorated in a thematic color and all lovely.
Though another door down the hallway was a music room. She stepped inside and drew a deep breath. There was a gorgeous piano beside a large window, a harpsichord and a smaller lute harp. She hadn’t played any instrument in so long, but she found herself recalling nights where she and her father had played together. She wondered if Finn played or if he only observed while Lady Marianne did so.
She turned and crossed the hallway where she found a library. This time she fully entered the space and breathed in thedusty heaven of the books. It was a wonderful room, with high shelves lined with tome after tome, a large fireplace that was currently unlit, and two tall ladders so that a reader could reach even the highest shelves, both on rollers so they could be moved to any place needed.
She could easily imagine herself perched in the window seat on a rainy day, lost in some story or poem. She blinked. That wasn’t right. She had no place to imagine herself in this house. In this life. She’d left one very much like it and surrendered all claim she had to return. She and Finn were having an affair. There was nothing else to it.
She huffed out a breath and moved down the hallway again. It widened toward the end and was lined with a portrait gallery. She paused to look up at the endless faces of Delacourts past. Men and women who shared Finn’s dark eyes, his strong hands, the hint of his smile. The last portrait was of his immediate family and she stared up at it.
The previous Earl of Delacourt stood ramrod straight, the young Finn at his side. She couldn’t help but note how the earl’s hand rested heavily on his son’s shoulder, fingers slightly clenched as if he was pinching the boy. Lady Delacourt sat in a chair just in front of the two, holding a baby who had to be Lady Marianne. She was looking away from them, her expression taut and pained. Whoever had painted this had captured such a fractured moment. One laced with heartbreak that she knew Finn still carried.
And she ached for him. Both as the small boy in the painting and the man who had crashed into her world and blown her expectations to pieces.
She stared a few moments more and then let out a long sigh. Once more she was dipping her toes into waters where she certainly had no place. No matter how she kept reminding herself, it seemed impossible to keep that truth in mind. Shesaw Finn, thought of Finn, recalled Finn and…poof! All her best intentions and logical facts were gone.
“It cannot be that way.”
She marched herself forward, toward double doors at the end of the hallway. They were cracked and she heard some commotion inside. When she ducked her head in, she saw she’d found the ballroom. Servants were readying it in a bustle of activity. They laughed and joked with each other as they worked, occasionally spinning around the big ballroom floor together before they picked up their duties again. The room looked lovely as they hung pale blue bunting and prepared a raised platform for the orchestra that would play for the partygoers. It seemed Finn had spared no expense to celebrate his beloved sister’s future with his best friend.
She smiled slightly at that fact and the warmth it gave her. Lucky Marianne to never have to fear again.
“Miss Portsmith?”
She jumped at the sound of a voice behind her and turned to find Finn’s butler, Bentley, at her shoulder. He had a few items draped over his arm. It looked like more of the bunting.
“I’m dreadfully sorry,” she said, stepping back so she no longer blocked the door. “I was nosing around where I wasn’t needed.”
