Page 9 of Counting on Love

Reginald snorted. It would be gratifying.

Jasper grinned. “Besides. I’d like you to be there tonight. I’ll support you if you support me.”

“Support you?”

“Yes, I’m throwing myself into the breach.”

Reginald raised an eyebrow. “Meaning?”

“Facing my responsibility.” He looked away, his smile gone. He even paced a few steps. This was no jest. His voice dropped low. “Father may be stable, but he has ceased improving. Mother is right.” He set his jaw and spoke as if chiding himself rather than explaining himself. “I’ve put this off for too long.”

“So you’re seeking your countess.” Well, it was time. He felt for Jasper. Who seemed sincerely attached to his own mistress. Idiot. He should have married her instead of giving her carte blanche. But it was complicated then and impossible now. A countess should be wellborn and must be morally beyond reproach.

“No need to seek. It seems I’ve found her.”

That made him jump. “Good Lord, Jasper! When did this happen?”

“Sunday night. At Mrs. Preston’s crush.”

“A debutante? Really?”

Well, why not? Crispin was the jaded one, not Jasper. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he heard the thud of the front door’s knocker and its echo. Had Jasper formed a party to go with tonight? Or had Mother? He’d paid no attention to the arrangements. Maybe he had become the jaded one.

“No,” Jasper said, running a hand through his hair and somehow not mussing it. He didn’t even bother to look in the mirror over the mantle to check. He wasn’t vain, for all he looked it. “This is her second Season, so Mother tells me.”

“Her second?” He pretended to reel. “What’s wrong with her?”

Jasper laughed. Reginald immediately felt bad for making a joke at the poor girl’s expense. Was Jasper serious about this? After one brief encounter?

Jasper said, “Word at White’s is she had sixteen offers last year. Sixteen! Can you imagine? I’ve never heard such a thing. Must be a record.”

She must be heiress to a substantial sum. But Jasper didn’t need money. This impetuousness worried Reginald. Sixteen offers and Jasper had already queued up to be the seventeenth? She must be a siren.

“Waiting for you, then, was she?”

“Maybe.” Jasper made a face at him, a gross imitation of the concern that had popped out on his own. Then he mused, “Actually, maybe. Mother thinks it’s a possibility.”

“Mother said that? Yet approves?” Odder by the moment. Usually, Mother frowned upon giggling girls who set their caps for Jasper. “Who is this paragon?”

“Come to the ball and see.”

He’d have to dress. And shave. And lose his train of thought in his book, a complex bit of philosophy he’d been following with some difficulty. Of course, that train was already lost.

“I promised Olivia I’d wait for her before jaunting about.”

“That would have been an unsolicited promise, serving yourself rather than Olivia.” Jasper’s brow clouded. It was a disconcerting sight, since his brother had the easiest disposition of any man Reginald knew. “Mother didn’t tell you then?”

“Tell me what?”

“About Olivia’s latest letter? Came this morning?” Seeing Reginald’s blank look, Jasper filled him in. “Olivia will not be arriving on Saturday. She has postponed coming to London for another fortnight.”

Reginald swallowed something sharp in his throat. Father must not be doing as well as they’d hoped. But Olivia must be brought out. And Jasper must…

He made himself sigh. “I suppose if I don’t go out in society for a fortnight, Plodgett’s crowing will become insupportable. I’d best go change my clothes.” He stood and dimmed the lamp he’d been using. “Give me a hint though, will you? So I don’t go soliciting a waltz with the wrong girl.”

Jasper laughed. “No chance of that. I’m leading her out for the first set. That will stake my claim. But to satisfy your curiosity, it’s Hovington’s girl. Lady Georgiana.”

He nodded gravely. “Acceptable birth.” An understatement that made Jasper’s grin widen. She would possess all a lady’s decorative accomplishments and all the training needed to run an earl’s household. “I suspect she’s tolerably pretty.”