“Not going out again tonight?” the amused voice drifted into Hugo’s sphere of consciousness, as he flipped absently through the pages of the day’s newspaper.
He glanced up to find his sister, Octavia, standing at the drawing room door, looking the very picture of mischief.
“No, no, this evening I have a most pressing engagement with Nemo, and I simply cannot postpone it again,” he replied with a grin as he set down his paper and patted the settee.
It took her a second to realize what he meant. “You have a pressing engagement with ‘no one’ or do you truly have a friend with such an unfortunate name?”
“The former, but now I rather wish I had a dog that I could call Nemo. If anyone asked what I was doing, I would tell them that I was taking a walk with Nemo, napping in the drawing room with Nemo, hunting pheasants with Nemo, and, if they knew their Latin, they might think me quite mad.” He chuckled at the amusing thought.
It would certainly give him a few extra excuses to use to get out of the next few excursions with Miss Parsons. But alas, he did not currently have the time to take care of a dog, much as he would have liked the companionship.
“Speaking of hounds, I hear that you and your temporary owner made quite the handsome couple at the opera last night,” Octavia said, coming to sit beside her brother.
Hugo nodded along. “Yes, Roger did a fine job of standing in for me. No one was any the wiser. EvenIwas surprised to learn how well they looked together.”
“It wasnotRoger!” Octavia laughed, smacking her brother playfully in the arm.
‘Roger’ was a creation that Hugo had fabricated since childhood to take the blame for anything he had done wrong, a mysterious friend who had not gotten Hugo out of nearly enough trouble as he had hoped for. Still, tales of Roger had always amused Octavia, to the point whereshehad believed he was real until she was at least fifteen.
“What possessed you to do it, Hugo?” Octavia asked in a more serious voice. “I realize that Mama is pestering you to marry, but you are notquiteso old or unpopular that you need to sell yourself.”
Hugo feigned a gasp. “Scoundrel. I shall have you know that I am extremely popular, or I would not have fetched the grand sum of three hundred pounds.”
“So you did it to be charitable?”
“To be charitable and so that Cousin Dominic would not box my ears for ruining his wife’s evening,” he replied. “Indeed, so that Frances herself would not box my ears. I rather like them unbruised.”
Octavia sat back. “Did you enjoy her company?”
“Frances’? Of course. I adore her.”
“Hugo!” Octavia half laughed, exasperation in her voice. “The lady who won the auction. Did you enjoy her company? I wouldhave asked you sooner, but you have been particularly evasive today.”
Hugo twisted in his seat. “Evasive? Me? Never.”
“You arestillbeing evasive,” she pointed out with a chuckle. “It cannot have been so awful.”
He exhaled a weary breath, for he was in no mood to discuss the events of last night… and it was not even Miss Parsons that bothered him so much. He still did not understand why she had bid on him, but that was secondary to the bold remarks and unwelcome advice of Lady Evelyn.Shehad not left his mind for a moment since leaving the Opera House.
“It was… the opera,” he said with a shrug.
“When are you seeing her next?” Octavia asked, with a familiar note of hope in her voice; the kind he had heard so very often in his mother’s voice, closely followed by disappointment.
He pretended to yawn. “Tomorrow, I believe. A promenade through Hyde Park, where all and sundry will watch us intently. Truly, it is the most unoriginal idea for an excursion I have ever heard. A walk in Hyde Park? What an adventure.” Putting an arm around his sister, he pulled her into his side. “Now, tell me about you. What have you done today?”
It was a sneaky trick, he knew that, but it never failed to work when he wished for Octavia to cease with a subject that he had no desire to discuss.
As she duly began to regale him with her tales of drama at the modiste and the worst cake she had ever eaten in her life afterwards at the tea rooms, Hugo’s mind drifted back to that disarming woman in the midnight blue dress. The young lady who thought she could teachhimhow to win the affection of a woman.
I shall show her, and I shall do it my way.
CHAPTER FIVE
Evelyn raced across the landing, the ribbons of her bonnet not yet tied, her heart thundering in her chest. She had gone to her bedchamber to read, but the events of the past few days must have caught up to her, because she had fallen asleep and if she did not hurry, she would miss the beginning of Selina’s outing with Hugo.
Will she promenade with him if I am not there? Will she simply leave?
It was too awful to consider, after everything it had cost her to pair Selina and the duke together.
