AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Lord Vegas is, er, my personal guest,” Raikut said with an apologetic look. “He has agreed to be a sort of companion to me when I return to Jalpaiguri next week.”
Francis gaped at the man, unable to decide whether he was more shocked that his father had been hired as a companion for a raja—which must have been the case—or that they were planning to return to India within days.
He glanced to Priya once more, suddenly understanding the look she had given him when she first arrived. That panic was still there in her large, dark eyes. He knew that the time was now. He would not let Priya leave his house that night. To do so would be to lose her forever.
But all he could think of to say was to ask his father, “You would leave England for India? At such a time?”
His father narrowed his eyes, both at Francis and at Lady Vegas. “You’ve ensured that there is nothing left for me here,” he said in a barely audible growl. “The raja has offered me luxurious accommodations and a place in his court. I would be mad not to go.”
The strange thing was, Lord Vegas was absolutely correct. Raikut was offering him a way out of the hole he’d dug for himself. He could sail halfway around the world, where no one knew what sins he’d committed in England, and where he could enjoy the sort of life he’d made damned certain his family could no longer afford. The devil was getting the thick end of the wedge after all.
“I wish you luck in your travels,” Francis said, trying not to sound resentful. At least the man would be out of his hair. “Now, go away.”
Lord Vegas huffed and stiffened his back, sneering at Francis as though he were a worm. But that show of indignation ended as swiftly as it had started when the man spotted something behind Francis’s shoulder.
When Francis turned, he found Prince Petrus and Miss Sloane approaching.
“Priya!” Miss Sloane called out. “You look magnificent. Come, you must join me in greeting Mrs. Pankhurst. Can you believe she actually accepted Lady Vegas’s invitation?”
“I—” Priya appealed to Francis, then seemed to change her mind and glanced to her father.
“You will not associate with Miss Sloane,” Narayan warned her in an undertone.
Priya then did the most wonderful, bravest thing Francis had ever seen a woman do. She stepped away from the wall of her protectors and grasped Miss Sloane’s hand.
“Are you going to stop me from visiting with my friend?” she asked her father, her chin tilted up in defiance. “In front of all these people? In front of Lady Vegas, Lady Dorrington, Mlle. D’Argent, and Mrs. Rathborne-Paxton?”
Indeed, Francis’s female relations had stopped greeting guests to become witnesses to the confrontation. And in the spirit of true female camaraderie, they all stared at Narayan, as if informing him they would support his daughter over him until the end of time.
Narayan was beat and he knew it. He cleared his throat, shifted furiously, then said, “I will have you in my sight at all times, beti.”
Priya nodded, then walked off with Miss Sloane. She sent Francis a look as she did. It was a glorious moment, and it made Francis smile, but separating the two of them only made his mission for the evening more of a challenge.
Not only that, he was left with the sudden, raging awkwardness of Prince Petrus, his father, and his horrified mother all standing in a relatively tight circle. Lord Vegas stared at Petrus in shock.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his face coloring. He snapped a glance to Lady Vegas. “I told you not to come anywhere near this house.”
Petrus looked more embarrassed than ever. “Your son invited me,” he explained, looking as though he would rather be anywhere else. “We have become friends.”
“You have become—” Lord Vegas balled his hands into fists, visibly shaking. He then did the most outlandish thing the man had ever done. He leaned toward the prince and hissed, “When I asked you to come here, it was because I needed money. You were not to reveal yourself to my sons. You swore you would never reveal yourself or I would—”
He stopped suddenly, likely because he saw the realization dawn in Francis’s expression. Francis stared hard at Petrus, seeing things in him that he hadn’t let himself see until then. His new friend resembled Joseph more than the rest of them, but he had the same eyes that Francis and Sam had, and a nose that was shaped a bit like Dean’s.
“My God, Father,” Francis hissed. “Why did you never tell us?”
“Because I forbid him to,” Francis’s mother said in a quiet, steady voice. “And I continue to forbid any of you to say a word about this. We have a house filled with guests. There is a greater purpose in this evening. I forbid any of you to take this matter any further.”
Francis tore his eyes away from…from his half-brother and gaped at his mother. “You knew?”
“From the time the affair with that Aegirian princess started, yes,” she explained quickly. “Do not ask me another thing about the matter. The dancing needs to be opened, and Mrs. Pankhurst needs to begin her speech so that her people might collect funds. Go!”
Everyone in the cluster by the door jumped at Lady Vegas’s order, even Narayan and Raikut. Narayan frowned in confusion, but Raikut looked as though he were having the time of his life. Francis would have taken the man to task for enjoying the dramatic turn his family had just taken, but having his attention drawn to the two men reminded him that Priya had managed to extract herself from their grasp. His chance to rescue her had come.
“Gentleman,” he said, using the single word and a quick bow to take his leave of everyone from Narayan to Petrus—no wonder he’d taken to his new friend so swiftly, they were blood—then turning to march off into the room.
His heart pounded and his mind turned every sort of somersault imaginable. Of all the times for him to learn that his father had another son, it had to be when he was on the verge of either winning or losing the only woman he could ever love.
The best tool at his disposal to do so was to open the dancing. He moved to the corner where the musicians he’d hired were tuning and asked them to play a waltz to begin the evening. As they prepared to do that, he crossed the room to where Priya and Miss Sloane were conversing with Mrs. Pankhurst and her friends.
“Ladies,” he greeted them with a short bow. He would have smiled and attempted to be affable under normal circumstances, but too much was at stake. “Mrs. Pankhurst, if you will allow me to open the dancing and for our guests to enjoy a waltz, I will then call for everyone’s attention so that I might introduce you. Are you amenable to that?”
“Certainly, Lord Cathraiche,” Mrs. Pankhurst said. She eyed Francis suspiciously, but Francis was not at all surprised by that. He was certain the evening was not what she was used to. Little did she know, it was not what any of them were used to.
“Miss Narayan.” He turned to Priya, offering his hand. “Would you do me the honor of dancing this first waltz with me?”
Priya let out a breath of relief, as though reinforcements had finally arrived. “I would love to, Lord Cathraiche.”
As the orchestra began the first waltz and the guests cleared the center of the ballroom to allow for dancing, Francis walked Priya away from her friends, then took her in his arms. He was acutely aware of Narayan jerking as if he would march in to intercept them, and of Raikut grasping his arm and holding him back. As Francis moved Priya into the first steps of the waltz, Raikut leaned in to say something to Narayan.
“I’m not letting you leave here tonight,” Francis told Priya as they danced. “I don’t care what your father says. You belong with me, not with Raikut.”
“He has plans for us all to depart England within days,” Priya said, her voice shaking. “Francis.”
Francis had been glaring at Narayan as he danced, but at the fear and pleading in Priya’s voice, he focused on her. Immediately, as soon as he saw the flush on her cheeks and the pain in her eyes, he knew he could never focus on anyone ever again.
“I have no wish to leave you,” Priya went on. “But I love my father. And my brother. And the rest of my family in Koch Bihar. Please. Please can this be done without dividing me from them forever?”
Resolve stiffened Francis’s back and gave him courage. “I will do everything I can to win you fairly,” he said. “I will gain your father’s consent tonight if it is the last thing I do.”
“Then I will do whatever necessary to add my voice to your argument,” Priya said, smiling up at him.
