“Why, you might ask, are we sharing all this with you at once?”Belle asked.
Xander narrowed his eyes.He’d been correct; ithadbeen preplanned.“I might.”
“For two reasons.”She straightened away from her husband.“First, I hope you’ll understand that as a woman who worked hard to gain independence so she’d never have to rely on a man’s whim for her happiness—as did Cheltie’s wife, Slade’s wife, possibly even your mother—I had limited ways to influence my future.Something you did not have to worry about even before you were a duke.Think about the laws you’ve seen and how many of them even refer to women, much less address the rights of women.We are largely ignored by society and governed at the whim of men.”
Luke squeezed her shoulder, and she took a breath.“I apologize, for my fervency not my content.’Tis a subject near and dear to my heart.”
“Thank you for being so candid with me,” Xander murmured.“Dare I ask what the second reason is?”
Belle smiled.“To show you that not all Londoners are nobs, not all members of the Ton value only titles, and that even a pub manager duke can be happy here when his presence is needed in Town.”
Xander wondered how she’d gotten hold of that moniker.She was a formidable force, better to have as a friend than a foe.
Belle’s grin turned devilish.“By the way, we went to visit Evie yesterday.And by we, I mean Charlotte, myself, and your darling mother.And Evie added one event you neglected to mention—her declaration of love and apology.She said your reaction was to laugh in her face and slam a door.I’ll let you explain that one to your mother.Either way, I’d encourage you to think about the efforts other women have had to make to secure their future before deciding a well-intentioned lie is so terrible.”
With that, she walked away, leaving Luke to sip his cider and wait for Xander to recover.
* * * *
Xander spent the rest of the party in near silence watching the women, the men, and the men’s attendance on their women.
His mother said almost as little as he did.He wondered whether that was because she was always nervous in London or around anyone who was a lord this or lady that, or because she was waiting to talk to him about his reaction to Evie’s apology.He shuddered at the prospect of that.The lesson his mother harped on the most as he and Bruce grew up was to always treat women with respect.
Luke hung close, their previous time together in London giving them more than a passing relationship.He also had deeper insight into Xander’s experiences at the hands of titled lords.
North fetched his mother a plate and brought it to where she sat talking to Belle and Charlotte.His stepfather then leaned down to smooth her hair and kiss her temple, the act surprising Xander based on his experience with nobs.He’d seen them be affectionate at home, but no titled lords expressed such a thing in public.
Luke leaned in and said, “My father was never demonstrative with my mother like that.In fact, I’m not sure he was as attentive, although he loved her dearly and took years to get over her.My memories are vague, but I suspect she would have been the one making him a plate whilst he discussed politics or business.”
Xander narrowed his eyes at his stepbrother.Enough was enough.They all thought there was a way back to a relationship with Evie, but he couldn’t see it.“You don’t need to beat me over the head with it.I got your message and Belle’s.I’m not quite sure what to do with all that information, however.”
“I suppose it depends on whether you’re in love with her, too.The women seem to think you are, and they’re rarely wrong.”
Xander winced.His mother’s chastisement later would include that.“I thought I was.But trust is important to me.And she broke mine in the worst way she could have—lyingandbeing a titled nob.”
“Did she break your trust, or hurt your feelings?If her purposes were not nefarious, then it was a mistake in judgment on her part.A terrible one, as it was, given your dislike of us ‘nobs,’ but a mistake.And in order to succeed, any relationship has to include forgiveness.You’ll make mistakes.Hellfire, by the sound of it, you already have.”
Xander pressed his lips together when Luke laughed at his own joke.“So, what?I tell her I forgive her?Then what?”
Luke guffawed, bending over as though unable to catch his breath from laughing too hard.Not the reaction he’d hoped for, and not helpful in suggesting anything better.
Belle looked around but remained sitting.Apparently, she’d said her piece.
Evan wandered over, though, and asked, “Care to share, gentlemen?”
Luke took a deep breath, opened his mouth to talk and instead began laughing again.A quick jab of Xander’s elbow sobered him enough to spit out, “Xander here thinks that after laughing at Evie throwing herself on his mercy, he can just say he accepts her apology and all will be well.”
When Luke said it like that, it did sound rather naïve.
Evan looked pained.
“Right, then.How did each of you manage it?”Perhaps he could learn from their approaches.
“Manage to admit that we loved our women, and we were more wrong than they were, and we’d be forever grateful if they’d be gracious enough to allow us to serve them for the rest of our worthless lives?”Luke asked.
Evan grinned at Luke’s description.
Xander nodded.That certainly sounded more attractive for a woman to hear, even if it was a bit over the top.Having struggled so hard in the past and now with his past, Xander wasn’t sure he was uncomfortable with Luke’s choice of the word “serve.”Unbidden, the thought rose—For Evie, I’d serve forever.
