I couldn’t feel my fingers. I took a breath. Then another.
After a moment, I slapped myself to awaken, to make words happen. “Then, congratulations.”
The duke smirked. “That’s how you react to the woman you love marrying someone else. You did better with the painting.”
I coughed and filled my empty chest with air. “How am I supposed to act?”
“You could ask how your supposed friend would marry the woman you love.”
I looked at Torrance and wanted to hit him. I wanted to drive my fist through his big nose. But what could I say to a woman who deserved everything, that I could give nothing? “I think the words would be congratulations. She’ll make an excellent duchess. Give her her heart’s desire.”
“What of your heart’s desire? Or are you still in love with what’s not there?”
I lifted from the pianoforte again. “Is this a test of some sort? Is that why you brought the Kenwood portrait here?”
“Well, I like the portrait. But I need to know if you’ll forever engage in fantasy as opposed to the true world where a man goes after and protects what is his.”
Torrance talked in platitudes while a hole consumed my gut. “Did she say yes?”
He went to the side and straightened a portrait that hung behind the pianoforte. “Your father will think Miss Wilcox is after a title, even a courtesy one at that, if you were to propose.”
“She doesn’t care about that.”
“Prahmn will say she’s after money.”
I went around the pianoforte and stood within punching distance. “That’s not Georgie.”
“Georgie? Oh, Sebastian, you’ve become quite familiar with my friend.”
“You know her, Torrance. If she said yes to you, then it’s because she actually loves you.”
Torrance smiled as he blocked my fist. I’d aimed for his nose. “Miss Wilcox basically said nyet. She refused to accept my title and money. She’s a special woman.”
I think I started breathing again. “How can that be? She knows I could never give her the things that you could.”
“I don’t believe she asked for the things I could buy. She’s concerned about a composer finishing his sonata.”
“Georgie said that? Georgina Wilcox would wait for me?”
He tweaked the frame again, leveling it. Then, the duke stepped back and admired his handiwork. “This Wilcox woman is idealistic. And she already said you were a great man whether you finished the sonata or not.”
He led me to Dido. “This beautiful woman, who does favor Georgina, was an asset to Lord Mansfield. I like to think that his love for his niece made him work to legally eradicate enslavement. He did what he could for her, but he couldn’t change the world fast enough for her.”
“What are you saying, Torrance?”
“I brought Dido to give you a choice: a fantasy where a woman will wait forever for you to act like her champion, or the real woman who needs a champion now. What will you choose, Sebastian?”
“My future is determined by the Harlbert’s Prize. I should have my piece finished in time for the competition. Established as a composer, I can have the music and Miss Wilcox too . . . if she’ll wait for me.”
“Like the gods, women can be fickle. I mean, a lady who doesn’t wish to be a duchess might not gamble her future on a man who thinks he has an infinite amount of time to write the perfect song.”
“Just a few more weeks, Torrance.”
“So you will be done. And at my ball, you will propose. That will end the scandal. The newspapers can say no more.”
“I have to win or score very well. Then, it will prove we have a future.”
“Funny, I sort of think she believes you have one now.”
