Page 7 of Miss Kimble Bites Back

“It’s not fair to you to put your life on hold,” Esme said, wincing.

“I am not complaining about the lack of permanent lovers in my life. Especially not when my last mistress insisted that slipping Cordelia laudanum would keep her calm and out of my way. I ended our relationship in the very next breath, I might add. No, it is better to keep things the way they are now.”

“I still say you need someone to help you. Someone to confide in. Not just a physician or the distraction of a lover, but a true companion who you can talk to about these problems, someone who understands what you are faced with each and every day.”

“Esme,” he growled softly, but then the door to an adjoining room opened and her husband strode in, grinning from ear to ear.

“Mamble, I’ve come to save you from my wife’s machination. Drink?”

Windermere was merely teasing his wife, but he wasn’t wrong. Esme wanted to help but there wasn’t much she could do besides suggest he get more help. She would prefer he take a wife, while Sebastian had good reasons for not agreeing with her suggestion. “Yes, please,” he said with a heavy sigh.

Esme stood with a smile. “Well, I’ve spoken my mind again and I’ll leave you two alone now to recover. Give my love to Cordelia in the morning,” she said and then gave her husband a warm smile. “Windermere, do something to make him smile, but try to remember we’re hosting a ball, and they are your friends out there as well.”

The pair kissed before Esme hurried out the door to oversee her party.

Sebastian scowled as the door closed behind her. “You know, sometimes, I’m not sure I forgive you for marrying that woman and bringing her deeper into our circle.”

“Best decision I ever made,” Windermere promised with a laugh. “She’s usually not wrong when she gives me advice. Of course, I don’t always act on it as fast as she cares for.”

“Well, she’s hell-bent on seeing me leg-shackled this season,” Sebastian grumbled to his oldest friend.

“It’s not all bad, you know. Being married. There are worse fates for a man than having a wife to wake up with,” Windermere promised with his usual smug and satisfied smile that always appeared when he spoke of his beloved Esme.

“Yes, syphilis springs to mind,” Sebastian suggested.

“At least you still possess a sense of humor,” Windermere said, laughing as he sat himself down finally. “Get married in your own good time, Mamble. You’ll suffer no matchmaking efforts from me now or ever in the future.”

“Then I guess we will remain friends, despite your marriage to a woman determined to make me a match,” Sebastian conceded.

He did like Esme as a friend. She had offered sound advice on many occasions. Windermere was also a good man as well and deserved to be happily married. He’d been a valued confidant for many years. Of course, now, Windermere admitted freely, Esme was his first concern. But adjustments had to be made when good friends finally settled down.

And that future was ahead for him, too, one day, but not now.

Sebastian might tell others he would not marry, but the truth was that until Cordelia either improved or her living situation changed, his solitary path was carved in stone. He would not bring a wife home only to have her demand the removal of his sister, because Cordelia was highly unsocial and prone to bouts of sadness. He would not treat his sister as meanly as his parents had done by locking her up, either. They were the reason why Cordelia was the way she was now.

Cordelia panicked around his guests, was unwilling to leave the town house, and was determined never to let anyone stand close to her. She was unfit for the delights of the London season entirely. Many a family had carted such a problematic daughter off to Bedlam without a qualm. But their father had already tried that and made Cordelia ten times worse.

When Sebastian had inherited the dukedom, his first action was to fetch Cordelia home again and promise she never had to go anywhere she didn’t want to go. And she didn’t. She had kept to her room for that entire first month, refusing to see anyone—sometimes even him.

Everyone whispered that he kept Cordelia a prisoner. The truth was, she’d made herself her own prisoner. And there was nothing he could do about her or the gossip that labeled him cruel.

A few trusted confidants knew the truth. Friends like the Windermeres, who were patient and forgiving of Cordelia’s fleeting their company when they called on him at home.

He and Windermere talked and made plans to meet the next day at the club, but Windermere could not stay long in the library. He hurried out to support his wife and mingle with his other guests, leaving Sebastian alone…away from the whispers and accusing stares.

He should never have come. Ten minutes circulating the ballroom had excited the whispering again.

Rumor claimed that he had also banished his younger sister to the countryside. In Rosalind’s case, she’d gone off to marry her secret childhood sweetheart—with Sebastian’s blessing. Father, of course, had forbid the match to the softly spoken and poor gardener. But Sebastian had known separating them would solve nothing. Rosalind might have married far beneath her status, but she was loved and in love, and that was all that ever mattered to Sebastian, especially after learning what Cordelia had been put through.

He should have been with Cordelia when his older sister had had her disastrous first season. If he’d been the duke, he could have prevented so much misery. But he’d been in school still, oblivious and enjoying himself far too much with his friends. He’d come home to find her gone, and when he found her again, she was completely changed. Almost unrecognizable.

Sebastian burst to his feet, annoyed that his one night away from Cordelia still hadn’t emptied his mind of regret and worry about her situation. He set his glass aside, largely untouched, and stood looking down at the fire for a moment. Sitting about in Windermeres library had only made him maudlin. He ought to rejoin the party and at least try to enjoy himself while he could.

He strolled from the library and into the ballroom again, braced to ignore the whispers and stares that followed him everywhere, but his eyes fell immediately on Gabby Kimble…and the whispers suddenly dimmed in their importance.

The little woman was staring forlornly at Lord Brookes, and obviously so.

Sebastian groaned and easily guessed the viscount had not noticed Gabby or asked her to dance.