Page 30 of Her Unsuitable Match

She took one step backward, her eyes still upon him. “I will not dance the supper dance, so we may go in together.”

What did it say about their relationship, that he had not expected that offer? “I look forward to the time in your company.” He bowed, the movement too slight for most to notice, but she granted him one last grateful smile before she turned and entered the crowd. He watched her go, keeping sight of her by the spray of white roses in her hair.

A snake emerged from the crowd, dressed in fine velvet and a white silk cravat. Lord Walter. The brazen fool met Myles’s gaze with a smirk.

“Ah. If it isn’t the fortunate bridegroom.” Lord Walter approached with confidence, and Myles stiffened in response. His perceived rival didn’t have the air of one defeated. Instead, the man had the audacity to position himself on Myles’s blind side.

“Lord Walter.” Myles snapped out the title without any enthusiasm in the greeting, grudging the respect he must show merely because the man was the son of a marquess.

“Mr. Cobbett. Congratulations on your nuptials.” Lord Walter’s overly smug tone made Myles grind his teeth. He couldn’t abide officers who lorded their position over the men they ought to command with a sense of responsibility rather than one of entitlement. Lord Walter was the same sort of man as they.

Myles acknowledged the comment with a nod.

“It’s quite interesting, isn’t it?” The lordling didn’t sound any less sure of himself as he spoke, amusement in his voice. “One would think when a woman’s name appears alongside one man in the paper that she wouldn’t even consider legally attaching herself to another. Especially when she is as notable a woman as Lady Philippa.”

The music had increased in volume again, and the conversation in the ballroom matched. A faint buzz began in Myles’s ears. “We are married, Lord Walter. Your business with my wife, though you never truly had any, is over. You needn’t concern yourself with Lady Philippa’s decisions.”

“Yet as a friend of the family, I feel I am obligated to warn you.” Now the serpent sounded positively giddy. “Lady Fredericka is on the other side of the room, along with her son the earl, and they are far from pleased with your inclusion in the family. In fact, I should not be surprised if their mood is infecting other guests.”

That Lady Philippa’s mother meant to punish her came as something of a surprise. Once Philippa and Myles exchanged wedding vows, and confronted her snarling eldest brother, things ought to have calmed. Whatever the upper echelons of Society thought about the matches made by its children, families always pulled together to save face and quell rumors. At least, that’s what they had always done before.

Though he had a suspicion he played into the enemy’s hand, Myles’s good eye swept the room in search of his wife. She might have need of him yet. “If you will excuse me, Lord Walter. I find I grow—” Hang being polite. “—irritated by your conversation. Good evening.” Myles offered the barest bow, barely more than a tip of his head, and walked forward into the throng of people, watching the dancers and gossiping behind their fans.

The noise swirled around him, as did the scents of bodies and fabrics, and heady perfumes that repelled rather than refreshed him with their scents. He spied the white rosebuds woven through his wife’s dark curls and focused only on getting to her. The narrowing of his thoughts sharpened his ears, and he picked out conversation he otherwise would not have heard as he angled through the press of bodies. His only thought was to provide reinforcement to whatever battle Philippa may find herself facing.

But what he heard made him scowl as he went.

“—married a commoner. There he is, there. Horrid—”

“Wouldn’t want to wake to that—”

“Do you suppose she does? I would sleep in another wing—”

“—no reading of the banns. Do you suppose—?”

“Her mother must be ashamed.”

“How dare they show their faces here?”

A snide giggle, then, “Especially his face.”

Myles doubted storming up to his wife would quell any of the lashing tongues. He slowed his pace as he neared her and forced his expression into one of neutrality. His wife stood among women near her own age, and they formed a semi-circle before her. There were four of them, all dressed in fine clothing and dripping with pearls and amber.

Philippa wore the same face he had seen her put on before Lady Darwimple. Her battle mask, he dubbed it then. She caught sight of him from the corner of one eye and startled, as though surprised, then her lips curled into a smile as she turned to welcome him.

“My friends,” she said, voice raised and light. “Allow me to introduce my husband. Perhaps this will ease your concern on my behalf. Mr. Cobbett, a servant to the crown and our country. Husband, these ladies came out the same year I made my debut. Of course, they married with greater haste than I did.” He couldn’t tell if that was another well-aimed thrust of her spear, but Myles stood next to his wife at attention. She gestured to each lady in turn. “Lady Bannfield, Lady Ian Crawford, and Mrs. Anthony Havenbrough.”

* * *

The women standing before Philippa had once invited her to their drawings rooms and salons to take tea. They had stood gossiping with her along crowded balconies, looking down into ballrooms like Lady Darwimple’s. All three had laughed with her about her mother’s ill-timed matchmaking efforts. But now, their eyes held a different sort of amusement.

They were laughing at Philippa rather than with her.

Philippa had no inclination of letting them win. After Myles bowed to the little group, she slid her arm through his and tipped her chin upward. Proudly. Her husband, though untitled and without large coffers of his own, had served king and country with honor. He had wed her with nothing but the best of intentions. Which was more than she could likely say for the spouses of the women before her.

“We have heard so much about you, Mr. Cobbett,” Lady Bannfield said, her green eyes snapping and her golden hair blazing like a flame. Her striking beauty had won her an earl for a husband. “Your acquaintance must now be exceedingly sought after, given your marriage into the earl’s family. Quite a boon for anyone, I should say.”

Given that the opposite had been on display for everyone in the ballroom that evening, Pippa felt the barb in those words keenly. Myles, however, kept a pleasantly reserved expression upon his face.