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Harry wasn’t sure what to think about her actions tonight. Each kiss they shared in the past fortnight had only become more passionate. When he almost made love to her on the desk in his study, he’d thought she must be too innocent to know what he was doing. But tonight, she had been more seductress than a friend.
This was not the time for her to finally see him as more than a confidante. And yet, the thought of her fingers wrapped around him wouldn’t leave his mind. Perhaps he was going as mad as his father, for all he wanted was Louisa Drake.
“Harry?”
He blinked and focused on their conversation again. “Now Ainsley has come to town. He danced with her tonight.”
“Well, isn’t Ainsley a better candidate than Collingwood? He is an earl.”
“He’s a rake!”
“Rakes can change, Harry. You did.”
“I was never as bad as Ainsley. Father wouldn’t allow it.”
Simon chuckled. “Yes, our dear sainted father who never strayed from the moral path. Of course, that doesn’t explain my existence, now does it?”
“Shut up, Simon. Collingwood is a good man. I should be encouraging her to marry him.”
Simon shook his head before taking another sip of brandy. “You mean he’s a safe man. While Ainsley might have enough charm to make her fall in love with him.”
“That is not it at all.” How had Simon figured that out before he had? Harry closed his eyes and saw her dancing with Ainsley again. He saw how his friend looked at her with longing. How she smiled up at him and appeared to like the attention he gave her.
“Marry her, Harry. She may not have the best family, but you love her, and that’s more than most men get in life.” Simon sighed. “Or women for that matter.”
“She doesn’t wish to marry me.”
“What’s the real reason you won’t marry her? Because I am quite sure you can damn well convince her to marry you.”
“I couldn’t.” Harry stared down into his snifter of brandy. “I shouldn’t.”
“Whyever not?” Simon asked.
“After what Father did by murdering her sister’s husbands, I cannot. The gossip would be dreadful for everyone involved, especially her youngest sister.”
“And?”
“And I won’t do anything to hurt Louisa...or her family.” He added that last bit as more of an afterthought.
“How was any of that mess your fault?” Simon pressed before pouring them both more brandy.
Harry looked down into the dark recesses of his brandy, half-wishing the liquid would swallow him. “I should have been there. I might have seen the changes in him, Simon.”
Simon stared at him for a long moment. “But there’s more, isn’t there?”
Harry banged the snifter on the desk with such force the twisted stem broke. “Yes. After what I did to my wife, I don’t deserve a woman as sweet as Louisa. I don’t deserve anyone. And when I thought I could make it up to Sabita by bringing her here, a fortnight after we arrived, she was poisoned by my father.”
“What did you do, Harry?” Simon asked in a low tone.
Harry closed his eyes, trying to forget those days. Instead, he pictured the hurt in Sabita’s brown eyes. “I cannot talk about it.”
Simon released a long breath. “What happened here was your father’s fault, not yours. You could not have known how he would react.”
“I should have known,” he shouted as he rose from his seat and paced the room. “I knew how he treated his workers over there. I did my best to improve their conditions without causing Father to notice the expenditures. He hated them just because they were different. Their skin a shade darker than ours. That is why I convinced him to sell the damned place.”
“But you kept your daughter safe, Harry,” Simon said softly. “You did that by not telling your father about her. You kept her safe and gave her a new life.”
“A new life where people ridicule her because her skin isn’t pale enough. I must get out of town for a few days,” he said. “I need to think things through.”
