CHAPTER 25
“So, are you going to tell me where you disappeared to this afternoon?” Zachary asked with a smirk as he swirled his glass of whiskey.
“I do not know what you mean,” Philip replied, relaxing back into his armchair.
Zachary quirked an eyebrow. “One moment, you were playing cones, telling me you knew what to do about your jealousy; the next, you were gone.” He paused. “Others may not have noticed, but I could not help but notice that Lady Selina also left the game shortly after you did.”
He had been trying to get the story out of Philip for the past half an hour, after they had escaped the duties of after-dinner conversation and games in the drawing room. They had used the pretense of discussing wedding arrangements, so none of the other gentlemen would ask to join.
“Did she?” Philip smiled. “You would have to ask her where she went. I was right here, tending to some correspondence that I had neglected.”
“You would lie to your oldest friend so brazenly?” Zachary laughed.
“I would when he is prying,” Philip replied.
“So, youdidsteal a moment together?”
“This is tedious, Zachary.” Philip sipped his drink. “Are there no ladies here who have piqued your interest? You are so invested in what is going on with me; I should hate for you to neglect your own chances of a happy union.”
Zachary perked up. “A happy union? You really do like her, then?”
That, at least, Philip had no qualms about answering.
“I do.” He gazed into the amber liquid in his glass, surprised by how true those two words were. “She is… remarkable.”
She softens my rough edges. She brings me a sense of calm I didn’t think I would ever feel again.
He kept that to himself. Private thoughts that were not for sharing.
He had never thought of himself as particularly lucky. Some might have argued that the fact that he had survived countless battles made him very lucky indeed, but he couldn’t agree. He had been sent there by the misfortune of his birth, and though he had lived, he had watched good men die. Friends, comrades, brothers, men who had deserved to survive far more than he did.
Yet Selina made him feel lucky for the first time in his thirty years on this earth. He still did not know who to thank for sending her, but he was glad of the intervention.
“I confess, I have never seen you like this before,” Zachary said. “It suits you.”
Philip waved the remark away and concentrated on his drink and the gentle crackle of the fire.
He could have happily enjoyed the companionable quiet, but a knock at the door denied the gentlemen their mutual peace.
“Come in,” he said, praying it was not a guest from the house party come to request a sample of the good whiskey.
He nearly spilled his whiskey when Mary walked in.
“Apologies, Your Grace.” She bowed her head and half closed the door behind her. “I didn’t realize you had company.”
Philip narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing here? I thought I ordered you to leave.”
“You did, Your Grace, and Iamdeparting tomorrow,” Mary replied. “Your grandmother asked for my assistance at the dower house, and I have just finished my last duties. I won’t be bothering you again.”
A wary look raised Philip’s eyebrow. “So, you have come to say farewell?”
“In part,” she answered, her gaze lowered to the floor. Shyer than he had ever seen her.
“I would prefer to say this while you are alone, but no matter,” she continued. “I came to say that I harbor no anger or bitterness toward you. I understand why you had to send me away, and I am glad that my absence will bring Lady Selina greater comfort.”
Philip took a measured sip of his whiskey, wondering if he ought to send Zachary away after all. He did not want an interrogation from his friend afterward.
Then again, Zachary knew he was no saint.
