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To his surprise, Lady Arlington muffled a snort of laughter into her handkerchief. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous.”
Henry bristled at the accuracy of her comment, but he couldn’t possibly admit to it. “Luckily, you do.”
She stared back at him with that calm impenetrable mask, then turned around and took her seat without a word.
He spent the rest of the performance staring at the back of her head, memorizing every gleaming bronze curl and counting the number of pearl-topped pins. Nearly thirty. God knew how much it cost, never mind the rest of her outfit.
That is why she rejected you once before.
And would do so again, if given the chance.
Henry slipped away just before the final curtain call and whispered his regrets to Reggie. Whatever message they had hoped to send tonight had been telegraphed to the entire room. He didn’t need to see any more.
Later, he would lay awake for hours in his utilitarian bed in his rented flat staring at the water-stained ceiling. For every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was her wordless stare. His relentless mind combed the image, looking for the smallest flicker of hurt in that sapphire gaze, the slightest twitch of her rose petal lips, something, anything that gave somehintof what she had been thinking, been feeling in that brief moment. But for once his appalling memory was of no help. Try as he might, Henry could not see into her soul.
It was close to dawn when Henry finally drifted off to sleep. This time he dreamed of nothing. Nothing at all.
***
“You are looking a bit peaky, my dear. I hope you don’t mind me saying so.”
“Of course not, Aunt Paloma,” Georgiana responded automatically before taking a sip of tea. She had come to Harrington House to pay her weekly visit to her godmother, who had effectively retired from society several years ago owing to poor health. But that did not absolve society from coming to her.
“It’s those hours you keep,” Aunt Paloma insisted, waggling a finger at her for emphasis. The afternoon light caught on the gold and ruby ring she wore on one swollen knuckle. A much-prized gift from her late husband. “You must give it up. You’ll never win Lord Pettigrew looking like that. And heaven knows the young man won’t tolerate a wife whoworks.”
Georgiana set her teacup down with a delicate clink. “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m not interested in winning him.”
Aunt Paloma gave her a shrewd look. She had never been a celebrated beauty, as her nose was a touch too long and her forehead too wide, but she possessed a low, rich voice and commanding presence that could be mesmerizing when you were the sole focus of her attentions, even now. Aunt Paloma always knew exactly what she wanted, and she rarely didn’t get it. “You say that now, but when you are my age you won’t want to be all alone. A man like that will be snapped up by some enterprising young lady if you wait too long. I only speak from a place of concern. You know that.”
Georgiana held back a sigh. “Yes, Aunt.”
She was all too familiar with her godmother’smanyconcerns about her. It was how she had ended up married to the viscount in the first place.
“And your dear mother would have wanted to see you settled again,” she pronounced with the innate confidence of a woman rarely denied anything. “You know I made a promise to her to see you wed.”
Aunt Paloma frequently claimed to know what the late Mrs. Fox would have wanted, as even the boundaries of the afterlife were no match for her.
Georgiana’s fingers tightened on the teacup. “And you fulfilled that promise eight years ago. I’d like to think that now she would wish for my happiness above all else,” she murmured.
Aunt Paloma’s eyebrows rose. No oneevercontradicted her. “Well, naturally,” she allowed after a long moment. But Georgiana barely had time to enjoy this little triumph. “I understand you were at the opera last night,” she continued. “With Captain Harris.”
Her godmother made no attempt to hide the disapproval in her voice. Georgiana should have known this would come up. The older woman may barely leave her house these days, but she still had plenty of eyes to keep her abreast of the latest gossip.
“He was there, yes,” Georgiana admitted. “But we were hardly alone. Lord Pettigrew even came by our box to meet him.”
While Georgiana had made a pathetic attempt to act like the captain’s presence hadn’t bothered her at all and failed quite miserably.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous.
Luckily, you do.
That cool rejoinder had kept her up most of the night.
Aunt Paloma’s faced screwed up in a frown. “Why? Because of that businessabroad?” Then she made a dismissive noise. “I don’t know why the papers have made such a fuss over him. It’s hardly impressive. My Tobias would never have been foolish enough to be captured.”
Georgiana bit her lip against the anger that had suddenly swelled inside her on the captain’s behalf. While Peregrine Harrington, now the current Earl of Belmont, was the very picture of a studious, responsible oldest son, Tobias was his mother’s pet. He was endlessly indulged and his bad behavior always excused. As far as Georgiana could tell, Tobias spent most of his time in gambling hells or at his club, and the only time he ever lifted a finger was to order another drink. The idea that he would ever risk his own life for someone else was patently absurd.
“But then his mother was a fool too,” Aunt Paloma continued with a dismissive wave of her heavily bejeweled hand, oblivious to Georgiana’s outrage. “Ran off with a naval officer of her own, and was never seen in London again.”
