“Whether or not I like him is by the by, but seeing as you have asked, I shall admit that I have always thought that you could do better. To be honest, I never viewed Lord Dorchester as a serious suitor from the outset. He always felt like a make-do, convenient, safe sort of acquaintance to me while your heart and your pride got over Lord Argyll.” Vee had to turn away at the mention of his name because Minerva had always read her like a book, and that was a chapter that, frankly, deserved burning. “I never imagined for one moment you would develop real feelings for him despite all your valiant attempts to conjure some, and I knew you would soon tire of his pomposity given time—which you plainly have of late. Or am I wrong?”
“He is, I’ll concede, perhaps more an acquaintance than a suitor.”
“Then why, exactly, did you invite him when by your own admission you aren’t that keen?”
“Well… I…” How to cover up for the pathetic fact that she had needed Dorchester for her pride’s sake? The artful deception necessary to convince I-haven’t-got-the-time-or-the-inclination-for-courtship Galahad that he hadn’t thoroughly broken her heart in Brighton. “When we collided at Lady Belhus’s the other day, he hinted most strongly that he felt aggrieved that he had not been invited to dine with us, so I panicked and mentioned an invitation was imminent.” At best, it was a hollow lie.
“I see.” The mattress shifted as her sister sat beside her. “I suppose in that respect, Olivia likely did you a favor in forgetting to send him an invitation.”
“She did not forget. She did it on purpose. Olivia doeseverythingon purpose—mostly for her own amusement—but tonight, frankly, the joke wasn’t funny.”
Her sister twisted to stroke her hair like she used to do when Veewas little. “Don’t you remember how mercilessly she teased Diana over Giles? How we all did? We all enjoyed having fun at their expense, especially as Diana took it all so badly. You were as guilty of that as Olivia was. As I was. As weallwere.”
“That was different. It was obvious Giles and Diana were fighting the attraction that we could all see as plain as day shimmering between them.”
Minerva was silent for a moment. “Is this any different?”
“Well of course it is!” Vee exploded from her prone position like a firework. “Galahad and I…”
“Seem to be behaving in much the same way as Diana and Giles did. At least to my eyes, Vee.” At her sharp intake of outraged breath, Minerva caught her hand and tugged her back to sit before she stormed off. “I see the way that you look at him, Vee. The way he looks at you. When we last all dined together, I cannot deny that I noticed something different happening between you. A change I saw as a positive, because I have always liked Galahad.”
“Of course you have! Because everyone, bar me, seems to be smitten with that charming devil. But I can assure you there is nothing whatsoever happening between us.” He had killed whatever it might have been stone-dead. So ruthlessly, she feared she would never get over it.
“After he marched into Lady Brightlingsea’s ballroom the other week, looking all windswept and wretched, determined to speak to you—after that passionate waltz you shared with him before that at the Rokebys’—I cannot help thinking that something…elsehappened in Brighton before he bought that contentious building from Lord Mallory.”
“He bought that buildingbeforeBrighton!” That flagrant duplicity seemed to have slipped everyone’s mind. “That is why it issocontentious. He bought it and hid the sale from me, and then did everything in his power to butter me up before he confessed to it!”
Although now, with some distance, she realized that the real bone of contention was not so much that he had been the one to buy thebuilding; it was more what that sale meant. It was yet another stark reminder of how stupid she was. How desperate she was for love and acceptance. That once again, she had fallen head over heels for a man who put his selfish needs first and foremost. He hadn’t been honest, even when she had lowered her defenses and bared her soft heart to him, and that was unforgivable. More than anything, it cut her to the quick that that stupid building had meant more to him than her. That it obviously still did. When for a while—for a very short while—she had dared to think that Galahad might be different.
Minerva studied her expression and sighed. “Did something else happen in Brighton, Vee?”
“Of course not!” Her cheeks heated at the lie while her lips burned with the memory of his kiss.
“That would explain why you are so furious at him. Why you throw yourself at Lord Dorchester again whenever Galahad is around to witness it.”
Vee scoffed at that despite knowing it was true. “Lord Dorchester is still my friend…”
“Lord Dorchester is a convenient decoy nowadays to convince Galahad that you aren’t pining for him. Or are you going to deny the irritation that always crosses your expression whenever one of the viscount’s ostentatious bouquets arrives? Deny that you haven’t sent a single thank-you note to Dorchester or accepted his copious invitations to promenade with him on Rotten Row. Or why you have ceased attending his mother’s reading salon, or that you have as good as ignored him at every entertainment we have been to since the Rokebys’ apart from the one ball where Galahad turned up the day you got home from Brighton?” Minerva regarded her with pity but still squeezed her hand in support.
“We live in the same house, Vee, and I know you better than anyone, remember?” Although thankfully, not even the intuitive Minerva knew all of her shame. “When you requested Lord Dorchester’s presence here last week, out of the blue, we all knew there had to be a reason you suddenly wanted a suitor—any suitor—in attendance thatwent beyond a sudden change of heart. It was obvious to all of us that the reason had something to do with Galahad.” All truths she wanted to deny but couldn’t. Not to the woman who had always been more mother to her than sister. “So what really happened between you and him in Brighton?”
“Nothing…”
“Absolutely nothing or nothingserious?”
“Absolutely nothing!” Except a kiss she couldn’t stop thinking about and yet another male betrayal that made her shattered heart bleed and her soul wither in shame. “Because I am not that naive idiot any longer who stupidly believes the flowery nonsense that spouts from a man’s mouth when he wants something.”
Minerva’s expression was instantly curious, but not particularly surprised. “Hediddeclare his interest then?”
“Except his interest wasn’t in me, Minerva. Not really. He pretended that it was, and he would have happily attempted to completely seduce me into believing it was if it meant he got to open his stupid club without any annoying obstacles or objections.” She shrugged off that cutting detail as if it was no matter. “But since Papa showed his true colors, and thanks to every lecherous or socially ambitious gentleman who has disappointed me since—and most especially since I was made a fool of by Lord Argyll—” Just his name on her lips made her feel wretched. “—I have become quite adept at spotting charming liars.” Although not that adept or she wouldn’t have fallen for Galahad. She blamed her inappropriate body entirely for that. It enjoyed the touch of a man too much. Especially his. “Therefore, and thankfully, my heart is blissfully unaffected by Galahad’s feeble and transparent attempts at wooing it.” Perhaps if Vee kept telling herself that lie, her foolish, wounded heart would stop hurting.
“Which begs the question: Seeing as there are now no obstacles nor objections bar yours to prevent Galahad from opening that club, why does he keep looking at you with quite so much longing, Vee?”
Does he?
“The poor thing couldn’t take his eyes off you over dinner, even when he tried his hardest.” As if she knew that pathetic hope had made her heart leap, Vee’s big sister wrapped an arm around her. “And for what it’s worth, and all Olivia’s clumsy matchmaking aside, he has always looked at you in a covetous way, but more so of late. Enough that I am increasingly convinced he is thoroughly besotted with you. He might even be a little bit in love with you—exactly as Olivia suspects.”
Instantly, her foolish heart soared higher at that unlikely prospect—until she remembered how good he was at playing a role, and how eagerly she had allowed him to take advantage. Self-loathing descended like a fog.
