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“It’s close enough to six.” Randall frowned. “Sounds like you’d better get a move on. I know your mother will look for someone who’s perfect for you in terms of social status, but it could end with you being with a woman who is horrific as a person. Forget about having children after that.”
“Randall!”
“What? I’m just making an observation. Being told to do your duty for the family is not as simple as people think.”
Derrick had to concede that. He didn’t want to think about going to bed with a woman he didn’t care for, or even like. True, he had played around with women, and he had taken many women to bed, but that was by choice, and he had liked them enough to want to bed them. Could he do that with an arranged wife? He doubted it.
That was something else his mother was pestering him about—having an heir to pass on the title. If he didn’t, it went to his cousin George, who was living in Ireland with his family. His cousin was a good person and they got along, but Derrick’s mother was adamant that her nephew wouldn’t get the title.
“There are times when I wish I was simply a gentleman like you, Randall,” Derrick grumbled. “I would have less to worry about when it comes to the future of the title I possess.”
“You think I haven’t got anything to worry about? I have three businesses I need to keep going, and they do require a bit of attention.”
“But they’re doing well, aren’t they? You don’t need to do much.”
“I still need to be sure that my supervisors are doing what they’re supposed to be doing and things are not slacking, including the glass factory Father founded.” Randall shook his head. “It’s not as simple as you think.”
“I don’t know about that. I think it would be better than being an earl.”
“Do you think you could handle it?”
“I think I could.”
Derrick had a feeling he would be better at running a business or two than running his estate and trying to keep his mother happy. He loved his mother, but Lady Northampton was a strict woman, very fixated on what everyone of their position should be doing. And she had been going on and on about how she wasn’t getting any younger at the age of fifty. It was getting draining.
Anything was better than having to perform a duty that Derrick didn’t like the sound of. He wanted to go back to his hedonistic lifestyle; it had been a lot more fun. But if he did that, the dowager countess would be more than a little furious, and Derrick could do without her temper flaring at him.
“Whoa, slow down,” Randall murmured, holding out an arm to stop Derrick in his tracks.
“Why? What is it?”
Randall nodded towards the gate that framed the entrance to the park. A plush-looking carriage had pulled up, and a gentleman with white hair was getting out, helping a young woman with raven hair alight. Derrick stiffened. Even from the distance they were at, he recognised the woman immediately.
Catherine Saxton was here. And she was with her husband.
“Do you think we can go in a different direction?” he asked. “If she sees us…”
“Let’s just wait a moment.” Randall beckoned him to follow. “Over here.”
Derrick followed him behind a tree, hovering just out of sight as Catherine and her elderly husband entered the park. The husband was saying something that made Catherine laugh, the throaty sound reaching Derrick’s ears. It stirred memories in his chest, reminding him of their intimate times together.
God, he felt like a fool hiding away from a former lover, but Derrick didn’t want to cross paths with her. Especially when she was with the man she had married only a few months ago. On the day after they last spent their night together.
When Derrick had heard about that, he’d felt like he had been tricked. Catherine had said nothing about it, and then she’d dropped it on him as she was getting dressed the next morning. If he had known she was engaged, Derrick wouldn’t have seduced her again. But she didn’t seem to care, and from her attitude, she clearly thought that they were going to carry on after she got married.
He had purposefully avoided her as a result. That was easy enough as he and her husband, Lord Saxton, didn’t run in the same circles, but there were going to be moments, much like now, where they would end up being in the same place.
Derrick felt a pang of sympathy for Saxton. He was a good person, a friendly individual. He deserved someone with better morals than Catherine.
“Derrick?” Randall waved a hand in front of his face. “Are you with me?”
“What? Oh, right.” Derrick shook himself. “Apologies, Randall. I—”
“I know.” Randall sighed. “Look, I know you’re still hurting after what happened the last time, but you can’t keep running away and hiding every time you see her. It’s going to get awkward.”
“It’s already awkward, Randall!” Derrick snapped. “She didn’t tell me she was getting married, and then she just dropped it on me. Now I feel like I’ve betrayed her husband.”
“Has she given any indication that she wants to carry on the affair since the marriage?” Randall queried. “Or is that what you’re going on from what she said that day?”
