Page 21 of A Match Made On Duchess Square

James nodded. “She’s fine.” Although this wasn’t true at all.

Robert glanced over at Jordan. “Can I get you something? Do you want more cake? Hot cocoa? Another pillow?”

Jordan smiled at his younger brother. “I’m good, Rob. Thank you for asking.”

Thank you? When had his boys ever been so polite to each other?

“Well, I’ll leave you both to your books. There’s work for me to finish before supper. How about we dine here in Jordan’s room tonight?”

“Yes!” they cried, smiles lighting up their faces.

“But must you attend to your work now?” Jordan asked, casting him a needy look that James found impossible to ignore.

“No, I don’t suppose I do.” He sat at the foot of Jordan’s bed and spent the next hour talking to his boys.

He was proving to be a disaster with women, but perhaps he was not so bad as a father. This was a small consolation.

They dined on mutton and roasted potatoes in Jordan’s room, then ended with lemon ices for all.

Afterward, when they were well satisfied and all talked out, James left them to their reading and headed to his study to attend to the work he had earlier put off. When the hour grew late, he set aside his papers and retired to the loneliness of his bedchamber.

He had been a widower for several years now, too caught up in his grief and worries about his sons to think much about bedroom activities. Even while Jessica was alive, they hadn’t been intimate for several years because she was too ill.

But he was suddenly feeling those manly urges again.

Spending an entire day in Gwendolyn’s company, even though it had been a rather difficult day, had revived something in him. He could not stop noticing the softness of her lips. Or the beauty of her eyes. The shapeliness of her bosom.

Her allure was not merely physical, although he would not deny it was an important part. She was also intelligent and compassionate toward him and his boys.

He undressed, set aside his clothes for his valet to attend in the morning, and fell into bed. His mind was still awhirl about Gwendolyn’s situation, and this concern kept him awake into the wee hours.

But he was now resolved on his course of action.

James rose early the following morning. To his surprise, his boys were still asleep. Yesterday’s mishap must have taken more out of them than he’d realized.

He left them undisturbed, knowing they would be kept busy throughout the day with their tutors. But he wrote a quick note for those tutors to go easy on his sons today. He then returned to his bedchamber to wash and dress for the day. Crawford, his valet, entered to assist him. “Good morning, my lord.”

“Morning,” James mumbled. “I’ll be out for much of the day, Crawford.”

“You have Lady Fielding’s soiree this evening,” the capable man remarked. “Shall I set out appropriate attire? Or do you prefer to choose it now?”

“You do it.”

Drat. He’d forgotten about Lady Fielding’s soiree. Gwendolyn said she would attend.

Which led him to another thought. Why had he not seen her at the various balls, dinner parties, musicales, and other ton affairs over the past few years?

Perhaps she had attended, only he hadn’t been looking.

Well, he was looking now.

Blast.

Even his dreams last night had been filled with her, and not in any proper way.

He could not stop thinking of her this morning, despite having much to get through before he stopped in at her home.

He first paid a call on his solicitors to sign some documents regarding a business venture he was undertaking with an investor group. As he perused the list of investors, he noticed Gideon Knight and John Bonham, two of the Duchess Square husbands, on there.