I ascended the steep front steps and knocked briskly against the door. The sound echoed in the quiet darkness, but then a hint of light flickered in the nearest window. The door swung open and Colin stood behind it, candle in hand. Even at this hour, his cravat was still tied, his boots gleaming. Candlelight snapped across his serious features, and he stepped aside to welcome me into the entrance hall.
I embraced my brother quickly, giving him a swift pat on the back of the shoulder. We were not usually affectionate, but I hadn’t seen him in months. The strain between us had grown heavier over the past three years. The weight of the debt I owed him haunted me every so often. I tried not to think of it, and I certainly didn’t plan to remind him. I had been working hard to create a living for myself—one of my own making—and to leave the past where it belonged. Colin and I had once been inseparable, but the awkwardness between us now felt tangible. We may have looked nearly identical, but we were shockingly different in every other way.
Colin led me inside, and my gaze caught on the array of portraits on the wall. One in particular captured my attention. It was small, framed in gold, and it depicted Colin and me as children. I stared at it for a long moment until his voice interrupted my study. “How was the journey?”
“Uncomfortable.” I removed my hat and jacket, my legs shifting restlessly beneath me. I felt the sudden urge to run up and down the nearby staircase. I had been sitting for hours on end. “Did you go out this evening?”
Colin nodded, his lips curling into a grimace. “Yes, though I wish I hadn’t.”
I laughed. “Are the residents of Bath so disagreeable?”
“Not all of them.” Colin sighed, rubbing one side of his forehead. “But I confess I am moments away from retreating back to Derbyshire.”
“In the midst of the season?” I raised my eyebrows. “Think of all the poor young ladies and their mothers. They’ll be in utter despair.”
Colin didn’t say a word, but the furrow in his brow deepened. “The batch I’ve encountered this season is unlike any other.”
I scoffed. “Batch?”
He threw out his hand in dismissal. “Assortment. Array. The collection of eligible young ladies here in town has unmatched audacity. I have never encountered anything like it.” He shook his head with a look of disgust.
I grinned in sudden amusement. I rarely saw Colin pay any mind to the behavior of eligible young ladies. “Tell me more.”
He walked to the open door of his study, and I followed. Ledgers lay open on the surface of his desk, and a few candles had burned down to stumps of wax beside them. With a sigh, he settled into a brown armchair near the fireplace, and I sat across from him. He stared at the low flames for a long moment before an exasperated groan escaped him. “You won’t believe it if I tell you. The matter was so preposterous.”
“You must tell me now. I’m far too curious.” I crossed my arms, leaning forward in my chair. I was ashamed to admit how pleased it made me to see Colin unsettled by something that didn’t involve me or my mistakes. In most cases, he was untouchable by society and its ways.
“There is a young lady here in Bath,” he began. “Miss Arabella Sharp.” He spat out her name with enough distaste to make a laugh burst out of my chest.
“What on earth did she do to you?”
Colin’s narrowed eyes slid in my direction briefly, then back to the fireplace. “She has been following me around town for weeks. She seems to…materializeeverywhere I turn. At the Pump Room, the assembly rooms, Sydney Gardens, the library, and tonight—at a dinner party in the Royal Crescent. At each gathering, she makes a point of approaching me with her fluttering eyelashes and ridiculous commentary.” His jaw tightened. “It has reached a point where I’m anxious to round a corner on the street for fear of seeing her strutting about with her parasol, towing her chaperone along at her side, and sniffing the air for a fortune like a hound on the scent of a fox.” He finally exhaled, his posture slackening.
My shoulders shook as I suppressed my laughter. “She sounds positively terrifying.”
Colin shot me a glare. “You have never been hunted like this.”
“It sounds entertaining. I think I would enjoy it thoroughly.”
He sat forward, rubbing his forehead. “I tried to deter her in a gentle manner, but she was not willing to accept defeat until this evening. When I finally made my lack of interest clear, she admitted, with no shame, that she has been hoping to obtain my fortune. And then, without a moment of hesitation, she turned her attention to the next wealthiest man at the party.”
I chuckled. “She truly said that aloud? That she wanted your money?”
“Yes. And she was not ashamed at all.” Colin’s nose wrinkled in dismay. “I am vexed.”
“Well, that is nothing unusual.” My chuckling didn’t seem to help his mood.
“You don’t understand how it feels,” Colin snapped. “There will never be a woman who doesn’t see me solely for my possessions. I will never know for certain what any woman’s intentions are.”
“That isn’t true,” I quipped. “It would seem that Miss Sharp expressed her intentions quite clearly.”
“Women like Miss Sharp are selfish, vain, and trifling. And now I feel that it’s my duty to protect my acquaintances from her. A man at the party—Sir William—was her next target, and I had to watch her flirt unabashedly with him over dinner. She will stop at nothing to secure what she wants at the expense of any unsuspecting man.”
Fortunately I had given up on my own fortune-hunting pursuits, but I couldn’t blame thisMiss Sharpfor trying to secure a comfortable future for herself. What else was a woman to do if she didn’t have a large dowry bestowed upon her? I would be the first to congratulate my sisters if they managed to secure a man with a fortune like Colin’s. My actions toward Miss Merrick three years before had been much like Miss Sharp’s toward my brother, thoughIhad already learned my lesson.
It seemed Miss Sharp hadn’t.
Colin’s gaze drifted toward my face, and I sensed what was going through his head before he spoke a word. It was quite eerie, but there were moments when he seemed to read my mind. It might have been because we were twins, or simply because Colin was far too observant. “I think I should intervene,” he said in a faint voice.
