His smile was wolfish in the dark. “What better man to help you find a husband than a Duke?”
ChapterEleven
George didn’t know what the Hell had possessed him to offer to help Sybil find a husband. She was going to be a hard sell for most traditional families, given her background, and a pretty face wasn’t going to overcome the inherent issues regarding her birth and eligibility.
Yet something about her had made him want to throw aside all his inhibitions and commit himself to helping her escape her situation. Marriage with him, considering the scandal that was attached to his name as well as hers, was out of the question. He was a known rake, and his habit of taking mistresses and lovers—of, indeed, satisfying himself with a variety of pretty birds—and gambling his immense fortune away at card tables was too much. He could not bring her into his life. She had been tarnished enough already.
Besides, he didn’twanta wife at present. It sounded nothing but inconvenient, and he had little time for inconveniences at present when his mother was proving herself to be rather more than a small inconvenience herself.
“You are a disgrace,” his mother said, pacing up and down the sunroom. George, shaking out his newspaper, ignored her. “You have forever blackened our family name.”
“So you have said before.”
“Are you listening to me?”
“I have little choice,” he muttered. Raising his voice, he said, “If you have come here merely to insult me, you may leave.”
“I want to know what you intend with Lady Sybil,” she said. “You danced with her last night.”
“Astute of you.”
“Are you going to ally yourself with her? Truly?”
“I told you, Mother, you have provided me with the only lady whom I would consider courting.” He watched as her expression flattened. She wanted to humiliate him; she wanted him to prove himself unworthy so she could claim she had always been right not to love him as her son—so she could claim he was unsuitable for the role of Duke. But, the title was a consequential one, and he knew she wasn’t certain she wanted him to tarnish it utterly. A conundrum he had no intention of helping her with.
He turned the page of his newspaper. “You introduced me to her, did you not?”
“And she is a worthy match for you,” his mother finally said through her teeth. He almost smiled. A worthy match for him, but not for the Duke of Danver. What predicament she found herself in.
That alone was worth him courting her, if her personal charms did not make the prospect pleasing. “Then you must be pleased to know I am following your instruction. Her family knows of my intentions.”
“Can you care for her?”
“What does that matter?” he asked pleasantly. “She suits me in all things, according to you. Aworthy match. It seems there is little to argue with in that.”
She scowled at him, brows drawing down over her eyes. She was entirely fairer than him, which made the proof of his father’s indiscretion even more evident, not just to her but to the world. Her hair was mostly gray now, but it had been blonde in youth, and her skin was several shades lighter than his as was his father.
His mother, whomever she had been, was a dark beauty; the lady before him, the one he had been taught to call ‘mother’, was utterly fair. Odd, really, that he should find Sybil’s flaxen curls so very appealing, but so it was.
“You seek to humiliate me,” she said after a long moment.
“No, Mother, it is you who seeks to humiliate.” He gave her a cold smile, knowing precisely the way the expression sat on his face; how it chilled his eyes and gave him more the impression of a dark and cruel master than a young duke. “But fear not—as you are already aware, I am too depraved to feel the effects of your humiliation attempts.”
She sniffed and stalked from the room, and he laid his newspaper down with a sigh. Courting Sybil was one thing, and one he fully intended to do, but finding her a husband was entirely another.
And he had little idea how he would achieve such a feat.
* * *
Sybil had little expectation of the Duke of Danver keeping his promise of trying to help her. However, he called the next day to invite her to Vauxhall Gardens to see the fireworks.
“They’re quite spectacular,” he said politely to Scarlet and her. “I would be more than happy to include your party with mine.”
Sybil stared at him, trying to determine his intentions, but he just sent her the shadow of a wink, and she flushed.
Her mother fluttered, finding her fan and cooling her bosom more than was seemly. No doubt to attract attention to it, which in Sybil’s opinion was unnecessary, given the fact so much of it was on display, and her dress was one deep breath away from splitting entirely.
The Duke glanced at her, amusement in his eyes as though he could sense her thoughts, and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knee. “Of course, if you had other plans that evening, I would be happy to accompany Lady Sybil. My cousin will be in attendance and I’m sure she’d love to make Lady Sybil’s acquaintance.”
