“Mind your business. And I’ll mind mine,” he said.
His friend chuckled again. “I’ll mind it, but I’ll be on the watch for yours, too. And not only me, butThe Timesseems very interested in what the Bachelor Baron, recently returned from France, is up to.”
“I noticed.” It seemed someone was telling his every move. Before he had left for the Continent, he behaved similarly, enjoying willing widows and canary birds and occasionally an appealing married lady who begged for some companionship. Always discreet, he hadn’t been written about any more than any other buck. Now however, he was in the paper every week.
“They will be even more interested if they hear you’ve set your scurrilous sights upon that Diamond girl,” Quinn added. “Her elder sister snagged a viscount about a year ago. Just as pretty, but more given to laughter and merriment than the one currently circulating.”
Matthew took a long sip of brandy. Purity Diamond’s temperament had suited him fine, but he didn’t want her name associated with his inThe Times.For her sake!He didn’t give a damn what they printed about him, especially since it was mostly true. Hewasa beard-splitter, and why not?
What else was a man to do before marriage?
However, seeing how her name was Purity, he thought it a great shame if she were smeared merely to sell papers. Sadly, hehad no control — people tattled and whispered, and some even got paid for juicy stories.
“Don’t say anything,” he told Quinn, giving him a stern look.
Catching on instantly, his friend looked hurt. “As if I would. I shall leave it to you to keep me apprised of your fascinating love life.”
They’d almost always seen eye-to-eye on which females were the gimcrack ewes. Once or twice, they’d even gone after the same one, without hard feelings no matter who walked away with the coveted prize.
Matthew downed his brandy and rose from the table. “I’m off. Can’t stay out all night like the old days.”
“Certainly not if you get hitched to an earl’s prim daughter.” Quinn saluted him with his glass.
Matthew ignored him, turning to leave. More and more, he liked to be home before dawn to look in on his daughter, as he thought of Diana.
How could he not think of her that way?He had slept with her mother, after all.
He’d taken only a few steps when he was nearly knocked on his arse.
Chapter Two
Lord Varley, also a Cambridge man, had shouldered him so hard while walking past, Matthew had almost been dinged to the floor. They’d never been true friends, having been at different colleges, but mild acquaintances. He knew the viscount had been close to marriage a couple years ago. Alas, Varley had been given the mitten by an angry fiancée who’d caught him tipping the velvet with another woman in a closet. Since said closet had been under the stairs of the fiancée’s parents’ home during a dinner party, the denouncement and penalty had been swift and final.
In any case, it was nothing to do with Matthew. Thus, he was surprised by the brusque way the man knocked into him and continued walking.
“Here now!” he exclaimed.
Varley slowed his walk slightly, gave Matthew his profile, and lifted a hand before continuing into the next room.
Not exactly an apology, but it would have to do. He’d never had any trouble with the viscount, and Boodle’s was not the place to fight, even if he had been provoked.
“Blasted royster,” he muttered and departed into the dark night and thick, sooty air of London.
At the Fenwicks’ bi-annualdinner party for eligible unmarried persons, Matthew struck it lucky. In truth, luck had nothing to do with it.
Not happenstance, but snooping and questioning brought him to the same townhouse and the same drawing room as Lady Purity. He’d made it a point to ask about the Diamonds at Boodle’s. And while her father, the earl, was not a member, men knew of him and his fine family of four daughters and a son.
When he learned Lady Purity’s parents and even her father’s parents were long-time friends of Matthew’s neighbors, the elderly Lord and Lady Fenwick, he decided it was practically fate they be together. Consequently, when the Fenwicks held their twice-yearly dinner for single members of theton, Matthew was confident she would be there. Naturally, he had secured his own invitation.
Who more eligible than him?Matthew asked his reflection as he passed the mirror in the Fenwicks’ front hall. He could make fun of himself. Most would say, despite the man in the looking glass having a strong chin, straight teeth, and rather thick hair, that he wasnotthe best match for any young lady since he was a bit of a scapegrace.
But he had a good income from his barony. Combine it with an appearance that was more than satisfactory to most females, and the baser parts of his nature were often overlooked.
Before him, standing in a small circle with other ladies and a few gentlemen, was Lady Purity, as expected. Her dark hair was threaded with pale-pink pearls to match her pink satindress. And the sight of her, so petite and perfect, made his pulse quicken.
Tonight, he hoped to get her alone again, in the library or an empty bedroom, or even in the small back garden of the Fenwicks’ Belgrave Square home.
Since the lady had been breaking all rules of good sense and decorum by being alone in Lansdowne’s drawing room, despite Quinn’s warning of her as a primster, Matthew assumed she was the adventurous sort, up for a lark. She hadn’t fainted or had a fit when he’d kissed her. Rather, she’d handled herself as if she had some experience in such matters.
