She seemed to consider this and, to his surprise, she nodded. “You are probably right.”
“What?”
Picking up her glass, she set the rim to her lips and drank. “I see no point in pursuing a hopeless topic.” Returning the glass to the table, she suddenly smiled. “Let us discuss Lady Amelia instead, shall we?”
His entire body revolted against the idea. “Why?”
“Well, we are responsible for her until her brother’s return.”
“You must not forget about Lady Juliette,” he said in the hope of avoiding a lengthy discussion on Lady Amelia alone. With the state he was in, he might not survive it.
“Of course not. But she is not our main concern. She will have at least another year in which to prepare herself for courtship while Lady Amelia must make an attachment as soon as possible.” She expelled a breath. “Lady Everly agrees that Mr. Burton and Mr. Lowell both make excellent suitors for her. What I wish to know is your opinion.”
He tightened his hold on his glass and made an effort not to bare his teeth when he spoke to her next. “Mr. Burton is a bore—an amicable bore, I will grant you, but a bore nonetheless. Certainly, she may enjoy his kind gentility at first, but after a year or so she will begin to feel trapped. The man simply hasn’t a passionate bone in his body. Unless he is speaking of sheep, that is.”
“Well.” His mother stared at him from behind a pair of wide blue eyes. “You have given that quite a bit of thought, I must say.”
Wincing, he tried to dismiss her implication. “It is something that became glaringly obvious to me earlier today when I encountered him in the park. He was out walking with Lady Amelia.”
“Ah.” She nodded as if this were the solution to every puzzle that had ever existed.
He clenched his jaw. “What does that mean?Ah?”
She gave a little shrug. “Nothing. Tell me your thoughts on Mr. Lowell.”
Hesitating, Thomas wondered briefly about her quick dismissal of his question. It felt as though she was trying to distract him from something, though he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what. So he pushed his wariness aside and formed a response.
“He is handsomer than Burton, but his reputation isn’t nearly as clean. That being said, I do believe he will be faithful to the woman he chooses to marry and... given his rakish streak and his academic interests, he will definitely prove to be a more interesting companion.”
“You have no concern about his club?”
“Its exclusivity, and the fact that even the king enjoys a membership there, prevents me from being critical of it. Certainly, there are no doubt those who find it scandalous, but such is life, Mama. One cannot please everyone.”
“So then you would recommend Lowell? He is your preferred match for Lady Amelia?”
His entire body seemed to strain against the idea. It repelled him to think of her wrapped in another man’s arms when he...Damn!He hadn’t even kissed her, so what claim could he possibly think of having? None. That was what. And this whole possessive streak he was on—this itch to shout at someone or hit something—was getting out of hand.
“Yes,” he managed to say while his throat closed around the word, strangling it as he pushed it past his lips.
His mother studied him. “You look like you did when your father and I denied you that rifle you wanted when you were a child.”
He blinked. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you remember?” Her eyes had taken on a faraway look. “You saw it in a shop window when we walked to church one Sunday morning. It was a splendid thing, I have to admit, but you were much too young—only ten, if I recall.” She shook her head as if trying to clear her mind. “In any case, you were very displeased to be denied it, and your face... it bore the same petulant expression it does now.”
“Don’t be absurd.” Averting his gaze, he focused all his attention on trying to rid himself of the panic creeping into his bones.
“Perhaps your grumpiness this past week is not only because of Lord Liverpool’s lack of cooperation.”
Don’t say it.
He clasped the armrest while she continued. “Perhaps Lady Amelia is partly to blame, as well?”
His head snapped around to face her. “That is ludicrous, Mama. She is Huntley’s sister—a woman whom I have been charged to protect no matter how bloody difficult she likes to make that task at times.”
“You certainly have a strong opinion on the matter,” his mother murmured. She tilted her head as if contemplating what to do with him.
“It would be impossible not to, all things considered. The task of protecting her reputation is not a simple one and you, if I may remind you, did not make it any easier when you decided to put her in that shocking gown at the Elmwood ball last week.”
