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Lucas acknowledged her challenge with a raised brow of his own. “I would not miss it for tea with Prinny.”
Inwardly, he seethed as he bid them farewell and closed the gate between their gardens. After his impetuous decision to call her bluff, he’d gone straight to Harrow to prove he meant business. It had been…uncomfortable, to say the least. But he’d done it, and not without finesse. The man’s reaction to his attentions had been…well, in truth he didn’t know whether or not he’d succeeded in his ploy now that Westing had been invited along to join their Tuesday party.
Westing. Of all the people Harrow could have invited, Westing was the last he’d have chosen. And he knew she’d had something to do with it.
I should never have left her alone with him.
Not only had he experienced an unpleasant twinge of envy at seeing how easily his closest friend had ingratiated himself with Diana, but he was worried for another reason. Westing had never been known for being particularly tight-lipped, and his temptress of a neighbor had doubtless spent the better part of an hour wheedling from him all sorts of information Lucas would rather she not know.
A sinking sensation gathered in his gut. He could have initiated his plan to “pursue” Harrow another day, but he’d been impatient. And look where it had gotten him—now Westing would be there on Tuesday, making it all but impossible to achieve any progress.
Unless…
He could tell Westie, bring him in on the plan, and perhaps even obtain his assistance.
Lucas trusted his best friend with his life, but he wasn’t certain he could trust him with this insanity.
The jokes would be unending. Westie would give him absolute hell. For years to come.
And what about keeping the secret? His best friend’s greatest fault was that he was a friendly, talkative drunk who loved to tell wild stories of friends’ exploits whenever there was plenty of alcohol and an enthusiastic audience. Whether or not Lucas succeeded in achieving his goal, this little escapade would provide infinite fodder for such storytelling.
He’d make Westie swear on his beloved grandmother’s grave and threaten to reveal his humiliation at the hands of Miss Evangeline Worley if he spoke of it to anyone before all was said and done. Lucas hated using that intimate knowledge against his friend, but if he was going to enlist Westie’s help, it was necessary.
Now that he’d made a decision, the tension within him eased. It would be good to have a friend on his side. But first, he needed at least a few days’ respite to finalize his hastily made plan of attack and then figure out how best to tell him and exactly how much to reveal.
…
“You’re going to what?”
Lucas, having anticipated Westie’s outburst, maintained an expression of utter calm. “None of it will be real, you understand. I’ll only be pretending interest in him in order to appease her. They have this agreement never to bed anyone they don’t both desire.”
Lucas had elected not to tell him about the music teacher. Westing need never know, as his sole purpose in this would be to help him keep her from sabotaging his efforts.
“You’re completely out of your head,” murmured Westie, his eyes like saucers. “You know what they do to people who—”
“I can assure you I won’t be doing anything to earn myself a hemp cravat,” he drawled. “My end goal is her, not—”
“And I warned you of Harrow’s views on poaching,” his friend cut in, his look changing from one of outrage to trepidation. “Going after her in itself is dangerous enough, but God forbid he should realize you’re cozening him only to get to her. You’ll get no quick bullet to the brain when he calls you out, but a slow, painful death. No woman is worth that.”
But Lucas knew better. Harrow may have earned a deadly reputation, but he wouldn’t be foolish enough to actually risk his life challenging someone equally as skilled as himself. Because Harrow wasn’t actually in love with Diana. She was his societal shield—who happened to also be sharing his lover. And therein lay Lucas’s advantage. Harrow might consider her a friend, but surely he wouldn’t mind it if her affections were willingly transferred to someone else, leaving the music teacher solely to him?
But Westing didn’t know any of this. “You’re asking for a bad end,” the man ranted. “If you truly wish to die, I can suggest a hundred less painful ways.”
Lucas knew he wasn’t going to be convinced unless he told him the truth. Or part of it, anyway. “Harrow has another lover.” He didn’t have to reveal he knew who it was.
Westing’s eyes bulged even more. “Of course he does, you blithering idiot! All of London knows they had an overnight ‘guest’ only a couple of nights ago.”
“No, I mean there is an established third, and it’s not Lady Harrow. It’s another man.”
Boggle-eyed silence greeted this statement for several heartbeats.
“You’re even madder than I thought,” said Westing at last. “You propose to intrude where you well and truly ought not. If the pair of them are sharing a mutual longstanding lover, that’s a whole different game, my friend. A much more complex one.”
“I know it, and there’s more. Harrow and Lady Diana both desire the same man, but not each other.”
His friend’s gaze narrowed. “How can you know this?”
“I just know,” Lucas replied, his face warming.
