Instead, she picked up another glass of champagne and another tartlet and sauntered toward the two-story bird enclosure on the other side of the garden.
***
JAMES KNEW HIS FRIENDwas going to make a comment.
“Miss Talbot is a rum mort if I ever saw one,” Payton remarked as soon as she was out of earshot. “Are you going to add the minx to your list of your amorous conquests?”
James followed her with his eyes, making sure Dodd was nowhere near, but he answered.
“I am not.” He hoped his tone put an end to the discussion of Miss Talbot.
“Whyever not? I’ve seen you with her on two occasions. Has she rejected your advances?”
“No, it’s not that.”Why had he kissed her again that evening?He hated to think it was merely because he had the opportunity, simply because she’d been standing in his foyer looking so lovely. After all, he didn’t want to take up with her, so why was he tormenting himself.Moreover, why was he teasing her?
And again, he couldn’t help wondering why she didn’t rebuff him when her fiancé was on his merry way. In his gut, James feared it was because she was willing to cuckold the poor fellow.
“I’m watching over her as instructed by Prinny. The more I can obey our regent, the sooner I get home.”
“Is that really all it is?” Payton asked.
James nodded.
“Then you don’t mind if I dance with her and perhaps keep a little company with such a beautiful woman?” Payton asked.
“She’s engaged,” James reminded him, wanting to warn Payton off as much as he had Leilton or Cumberry and now Dodd, too. “You don’t wish to get in the middle of that, do you?”
“No,” his friend said. Nonetheless, he was looking where Glynnis was foolishly sticking a finger into the aviary.
She would be lucky if it wasn’t pecked off. And James hadn’t found her to be the luckiest person he’d ever met.
“Look at her,” he said. “Like a child. I bet she would stick her hand out to pet a lion at the Paris menagerie, too.” He took a step forward, but Payton put a hand on his arm.
“I’ll go. I know what some of the birds are. Prinny told me in the spring when he appropriated them. That aviary is almost as nice for the feathered members of the royal household as the stables are for the equines.”
With that, James was left alone while Payton strode off toward Glynnis.
His gut twisted uncomfortably, and it wasn’t from the fish tart. He hated to admit it but he was already feeling horn mad over Glynnis’s fiancé, and the man wasn’t even around. And now he was going to have to deal with Payton making advances upon her.
In the end, however, she was not truly his responsibility. Thus, if she welcomed Payton, so be it. James snatched up another glass of champagne and downed it.
Luckily, Prinny had made sure to invite the same band of Cyprians, and James was soon talking to the blonde who’d caught his eye previously. Of course, there were other single ladies there besides Glynnis, but courtesans we far easier to deal with. They didn’t manage to worm their way into one’s head and heart, nor did they evoke protective feelings. The only thing he wanted to do with this rouge-cheeked woman was swive her soundly.
Except he would rather be talking to Glynnis.
Each time he glanced around the vast garden, she was chatting and laughing with the Prince Regent or with Payton or some other man — never with a woman.
What a flirt!James felt sorry for Aberavon.
When the dancing started, Glynnis partnered with Payton for the long opening cotillion. James didn’t bother approaching her for the second dance. After all, in the end, she would be going home upon his arm at one or two in the morning.
As the evening progressed, he realized he was drinking too much, and enjoyed himself while doing so. He had finally decided to let go of the worry over the art and accept the far-fetched notion that all would be plummy in the end.
What choice did he have?He might as well stop fighting and enjoy Brighton for the time remaining. He would attend the horse-races and then Prinny’s birthday party, and after that, one way or the other, he would get home to London.
Accepting another glass of wine from a passing servant, he made note of where Glynnis was, and then downed another. By the last dance, when he finally partnered with her, he thought the floor was moving like a ship’s deck.
“You have had fun tonight,” he said as they moved down the row between the other couples.
