Even the Davenports had been a little ashamed to own their friendship, in those days.
“You haven’t answered my question,” Rose pressed. “You must ask Miss Davenport to dance.”
“I shall,” he answered, hearing a touch of defensiveness in his own voice.
Stop it. You aren’t a petulant child, so don’t act like one.
Rose seemed satisfied with this and gave him a faint smile.
“Poor Amanda has had such a bad Season,” she added, sighing.
He frowned. “Really? I thought she was quite a success.”
“She was, but the Season is coming to an end, and still no betrothal. She’s quite downhearted. Not even an eligible proposal, from what I heard. It makes no sense, she’s such a pretty girl.”
“There’s always next year.”
Rose threw him an affectionate glance. “Youwouldsay that, Nathan. It’s different for ladies. Amanda isnineteenyears old, after all.”
“What an advanced age,” Nathan remarked wryly. “Being eight years older than her,Imust be positively ancient.”
“It’s different for men,” Rose said, as if that answered all of his questions and left nothing more to discuss. Nathan let the subject drop.
Anyhow, they were almost upon their destination.
***
Davenport House was huge, with cavernous ceilings and recently redecorated hallways. Every noise echoed. With the ballroom packed with people, music, and chatter, the noise was deafening.
Rose was immediately pounced upon by her little retinue of matrons, widows, and dowagers, and they all hustled away to sit by the wall and gossip. Nathan was left alone.
He prowled around the edges of the party, thinking about the paperwork waiting for him at home, and wondered how soon he could leave.
He spotted Lord Colin Beckett – or rather, Colin spotted him – and the man hurried towards him.
Colin was about twenty-five and betrothed to a very lovely girl. He was short and round, with a mop of tight red curls and a perpetual smile.
“I was surprised to see you here,” Colin remarked, falling into step beside his friend. “Did you mother force you out?”
“I think you know she did.”
“I’m surprised she hasn’t hustled you down the aisle so far this Season. Didn’t she want you to marry this year?”
Nathan sighed. “She did, indeed, but I think perhaps she’s finally understanding that I don’t wish to marry. Not yet, at any rate.”
“Well, you’re seven and twenty,” Colin pointed out. “Most men are married by your age or at least giving it serious consideration. Don’t you want to get married?”
Nathan clenched his jaw. “I have too much work to do. What woman wants to marry a man chained to his desk? Once our finances are a little more stable, then I…”
“How much more stable do you want them to get?” Colin interrupted. “There shall always be more work to do, friend.”
“It hardly matters. I have yet to encounter a lady whom I wish to take as my wife, and I have no intention of entering into matrimony merely to satisfy the desires of my mother for a daughter-in-law.”
Colin shrugged. “As you like. Personally, I thought that Miss Davenport had her eye on you.”
Nathan glanced sharply at him. “I beg your pardon?”
“You can’t tell me you didn’t notice, or that Lady Whitmore didn’t warn you.”
