Page 45 of A Daring Desire

Kilbane rolled his eyes. “Pillock.”

“Thank you,” Cat said to her brother, accepting the glass of champagne he offered her.

“And so you should, thank me. I barely escaped with my life,” Thomas remarked, taking a moment to arrange his waistcoat and smooth his lapels.

“Harriet’s affairs are always a crush,” Cat said with a sigh. It made it very difficult to see who was here, though if her husband made an appearance, she’d know it soon enough. Her heart did a little flip in her chest. The ton would be agog to see the mysterious and wicked Marquess of Kilbane among polite society in any circumstances, but if his long-abandoned wife was also at that same event, they’d expect nothing less than fireworks. No, she amended with a grimace, they’d probably expect it to rain frogs or locusts or some such nonsense.

“You think Kilbane’s going to come.”

It wasn’t a question, and Cat glanced back at her brother, noting the worry in his eyes. He was an extraordinarily handsome man, the image of her father, though unlike her eldest brother, his hair was more gold than white blond. Dressed in his evening black, he cut a dramatic figure and was drawing the eye of every young lady in the room.

“Perhaps,” she admitted.

Thomas sighed, and Cat reached out, laying a hand on his sleeve. “Please, Thomas. You promised me you would be civil, for my sake.”

“Yes, possibly, in some distant future, when the bastard had been a model husband for a decade,” he said darkly.

“Keep your voice down,” she scolded him. “Please, Thorn. I’m not a fool.”

Thomas folded his arms. “You are where he is concerned.”

“Thomas, please,” she begged him.

He rolled his eyes heavenward and gave a sigh. “Fine. I’ll be civil and I won’t cause a scene, but if our father makes it tonight, and he’s here—”

Cat swallowed, her stomach tying itself into a knot. “I’ll face that when it arises,” she said faintly.

Thomas’ lips quirked into a smile. “You always do,” he said with something resembling pride. “Damn me if you’re not the bravest of us all.”

Cat grinned at him and reached up to press a kiss to his cheek. “Best of brothers,” she said with approval.

“You’d say the exact same thing to Pip,” he reproached her.

“Indeed I would, for you are both the best brothers a girl could have.”

“There’s no need to turn me up sweet,” he said, regarding her with amusement and then noting the country dance in progress was ending. “Right, that’s my cue. I said I’d dance with Rose, if I can find her, that is. Where is Mama?”

“Just there,” Cat nodded to where her mother was deep in conversation with Lady Helena. “I’ll be fine.”

Thomas nodded and hurried off to find Rose, while Cat turned to walk back to her mother and came face to face with Ashton Anson.

“Ashton!” she said, with real pleasure, for he was a dear friend, if one she did not see as often as she would like. “Oh, it’s been an age. Where have you been, you dreadful creature?”

“Oh, here and there, my pretty one,” he said airily, his blue eyes twinkling irrepressibly. “Take a turn with me?”

“I’d be delighted to, if you can find us a path,” she said sceptically, taking his arm.

They walked the edges of the ballroom for a while, stopping now and then to exchange a word of greeting with a friend or acquaintance, but she felt his desire to speak and looked up at him with amusement. “It’s not like you to hold your tongue. Out with it.”

His lips quirked with chagrin. “I’ve never been good at subtlety,” he admitted.

“No, only look at that waistcoat,” she said with a quirk of her eyebrow.

“Oh, this thing,” he said with a sigh. “I deplore the way men’s fashion is becoming increasingly grim. It’s all black and black and navy and dark green. No colour at all,” he lamented.

Cat regarded his sapphire blue waistcoat with a questioning gaze. “Oh?”

“I am above such trifling concerns as the prevailing fashion,” he said loftily. “A little, at least,” he added with a shrug.