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“Vanity, perhaps.” He shrugged. “I want you to ask her to dance and see if she still harbors a grudge.”
Griffin shook his head. “That doesn’t signify. Why would you even want to after all this time? Don’t you despise her for what she did?”
“I do... I did.” He waved a hand to dismiss the question. “It matters not. However, if she doesn’t hold a grudge, perhaps I’ll talk to her, show her what she missed out on by throwing me over.” He tugged at the hem of his waistcoat. “Besides, it’s not like there are any other beauties here tonight.”
It was his twin’s turn to roll his eyes. “You’re a cad.”
“I won’t deny it, but now you’re engaged and in love, I’m feeling... left out, perhaps lonely.” He couldn’t believe he admitted that, but he and his twin were close, and he didn’t want to lose that friendship to a woman. “Please, as a last favor to me before you’re wed.”
For long moments, Griffin held his gaze. Anxiety and fondness warred for dominance in his eyes. Finally, he nodded. “I understand how you’re feeling.” But he heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Just this once, and this is the last time we engage in such a lark.”
“Agreed.” Once Griffin crossed the room and approached Lynette, Stephen watched their interaction intently. She hadn’t aged much in their time apart. Her dark brown hair was still as lustrous as it once was, and tonight she wore it in a topknot that descended into long ropes of curls. Her pert little nose that turned up ever so slightly at the end gave way to what he remembered as the deepest darkest of brown eyes. Did the tiny gold flecks still float in the irises when she labored under high emotion? Widowhood as well as motherhood had changed her once slender frame into a woman’s body with delectable curves, and he could help the groan of approval that escaped his throat.
Thwap!
The sound of flesh connecting with flesh echoed through the crowded room and interrupted the soft din of laughter and conversation, for Lynette had slapped Griffin’s face quite soundly. When she stormed out of the room, trailed by her mother in widow’s weeds that were long past expired, the heat of mortification sank into Stephen’s chest.
“Well, damn.” No doubt she still harbored a grudge. Well... fine. Perhaps he did too. After all, he was the one wronged during that whole affair, not her.
Griffin soon returned, and there was no mistaking the red outline of her fingers on his cheek. Though his eyes flashed with annoyance, the faint grin twisting his lips spoke of amusement. “By the by, the lady said you should rot in hell and that you weren’t forgiven for what you’d done. Not for a second did she believe I was you.” He lifted an eyebrow in question. “She also said I was to deliver the slap to you but doing such a thing in mixed company is outside of enough, even if you are my twin and probably deserve it.”
“Forgiven for what I’ve done?” He gawked at his brother as tendrils of heated anger coursed down his spine. “Has she forgotten that this whole mess lies squarely on her shoulders?”
Thanks to his mother’s quick thinking, she explained to the room at large that Lynette suffered from a horrible megrim that clouded her thinking and needed to lie down but might come down if she felt better. Everyone should return to merrymaking, but the stormy look of annoyance she directed Stephen’s way sent a chill into his chest. He’d catch her censure later, make no mistake.
“Somehow, knowing you, I rather doubt she was the only one at fault, and since you’ve never properly told me what happened that day, I’m withholding judgment.” Griffin rubbed a gloved hand along his cheek. When Nora looked a question at him from across the room, he merely waved and shook his head. No doubt he’d tell her the whole sordid tale later. Damn his eyes. “Because I’m curious, and now you owe me for the slap, what did you do to her?”
Oh, la, now he wished to know. Heat crept up his neck and into his ears, for he’d been rather horrid. He affected a shrug of nonchalance and hoped it appeared he didn’t care. “I vowed I’d make her life a living hell for breaking our engagement a week before we were to be wed. I also might have put forth a few rumors into well-bugged ears that she’d tried to cuckhold me.” He pressed his lips together, for that wasn’t the worst of it. “And that she was of loose morals.”
The unfortunate thing about rumors was they went through the ton like fire to dry tinder. He could have left things alone, for her breaking the engagement was enough to see her reputation in tatters without him saying a thing, but he’d been hurt and angry and young.
Griffin’s eyes widened. “God, you’re a bounder. I had no idea.”
“I know, but I’ve matured since then.” His chest tightened, both from his actions as a younger man and still feeling something for Lynette all these years later. “I was deeply wounded by her rejection and lashed out. I wanted to make her hurt as I was.”
For long moments his brother stared at him. “Are you interested in her as a woman now? You’ve never married and she’s a widow. For whatever reason, she’s attending this house party, which is oddly convenient for you.”
“Yes, quite,” Stephen murmured. But then, she’d grown up in the area and it was the Christmastide season. It figured she might wish to visit her mother, and only natural an invitation had been proffered from his mother due to their status and connections to the ton. “I’m not certain what I feel for her is of a romantic nature. Perhaps regret or the basest of interests? Lynette is quite attractive though.”
“Well, widowhood doesn’t render a woman ugly, you nodcock.” He rolled his eyes. “Besides, there is more to a relationship than looks. You need to stop being so superficial.”
The words carried more than a grain of truth. “I... I don’t know how.” Why the devil was he in a confessional mood this evening? “Becoming close to anyone terrifies me now. In many ways, her defection broke something in me.”
“Why?”
“I could get hurt.” He met his brother’s gaze as a wave of vulnerability swept over him. “I don’t want to feel that way again.”
Griffin frowned. “Why again? What about her breaking your engagement sent you into a spiral other than wanting to save face?”
Apparently tonight was the time for admissions. “She left me no choice in the matter, no opportunity for conversation, no closure, without a note.” The words felt dragged from a tight throat and were graveled with emotions he hadn’t let himself truly explore over the years. “Why wasn’t I enough for her, Griff?” To his horror, moisture sprang into his eyes. He quickly blinked away the tears. “Was I such a horrible bounder back then?”
“I have no idea, but you’ve always been a rogue.” Griffin dropped a hand on Stephen’s shoulder in comfort and solidarity, mirroring what Stephen had done to him earlier in the evening. “However, just now Lynette did say you were the biggest scoundrel she’d ever known and if she never saw you again it would be too soon. So whatever happened must have hurt her deeper than you thought.”
Damnation, that’s harsh.Yes, part of the issue was his. “My heart had been wounded but back then I scarcely knew myself.”
“Not an excuse. Had you argued with her before the split?”
“Not an argument, per se, but a discussion that went wrong. I said I’d hoped we could start a family on our wedding trip, that I wanted a handful of children, but she indicated she’d rather wait a few years to enjoy our time alone together before we did that. Said she didn’t know if having a brood was wise and that she didn’t wish to spend the bulk of her life increasing.”
