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A brief quiet fell, and Seb concentrated on driving. He was grateful that there was so much traffic so that he could be occupied with something besides stewing over what he should or shouldn’t say to her.
“I should have asked at the beginning,” Grace said after a moment. “If you had a . . .” She cleared her throat, and when he glanced at her, he saw hectic color in her cheeks. “A lover. I didn’t think to ask, and if I’d be stealing your company from anyone.”
“There’s no one,” he said gruffly. He didn’t want to explain his prior arrangement with the widow Mary, or how long it had been since he’d taken a woman to bed. To speak of it—with her—made him burn with a strange mortification.
“No one at present?”
“No. One,” he gritted.
“Ah.” Was it relief he heard in her voice? And why, if that was the case, did that make him feel exultant? “That was a prime display of how to charm a lady’s mother, what you did at my home.”
He fought the impulse to puff his chest, but, by God, he had done quite well with the countess. Considering how, not but a fortnight ago, he would have preferred to drag himself across a stable floor rather than talk with Grace’s mother, he could acknowledge that he’d made some progress.
“It’s not difficult,” he said, “when it’s clear that she’s a good person. Her love and care for you is unmistakable. While you were up in your room, she interrogated me about the company I keep, and if my intentions toward you were nefarious.”
“Oh, God.” Her cheeks turned bright pink. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not. Hers were all excellent, relevant questions. I assured her that Rotherby didn’t associate with anyone of suspect character, and that my interest in you was strictly proper. Then I provided some distraction by telling her an amusing anecdote about my time at Eton. Well, it wasn’t amusing at the time it happened, but years later I can find the humor in it.”
He maneuvered the horses around a tipped-over wagon, silently thanking Rotherby for what had been an exhausting day of learning to drive a curricle.
“Don’t leave me ignorant,” Grace said avidly. “You must tell me.”
“Rotherby and I were in the same house at Eton, but we’d no real interaction with each other. Not until he and I and three other boys received a special punishment for various misbehaviors.” He fought a grin, remembering that long-ago day when his life had taken an unexpected turn.
She leaned back, regarding him with a furrowed brow. “I can hardly believe that you committed any transgression.”
“Therein was the amusing anecdote I told your mother.” His lips quirked at the youthful folly of his past self. “I was punished because . . .”
“Fighting?”
“No.”
“Sneaking off to the village to meet girls?”
“I wrote angry, contradictory statements in the margins of school library books.”
“What? Oh, no!” She covered her mouth with her hand.
He gave a rueful chuckle. “It’s true. I felt that the authors of those books were being inaccurate and biased, particularly in their assessment of the difference between the sexes, so I contributed my own refuting statements. The headmaster and house captain both disagreed with my approach, and so I was disciplined for defacing school property.”
She laughed. “How exceptionally you, Sebastian.”
“Everyone’s capable of change,” he said, shaking his head, “or so I hope, but in my case, I haven’t undergone that considerable a metamorphosis.”
“What did the duke do to warrant his punishment?”
“I’ll let him tell you. However,” he went on, “we needn’t waste time discussing me, Rotherby, or our ridiculous crimes. It’s precisely the opposite of my intention.”
He clicked his tongue at the overcrowded traffic surrounding Manchester Square, but couldn’t resent it overmuch. The slower it took to reach Rotten Row, the more time he had with Grace.
They reached Park Lane, and continued southward, passing grand residences that fronted Hyde Park. Despite the congestion on the street and sheer number of vehicles, pedestrians’ heads turned to watch Seb and Grace in the elegant curricle. For the first time, he drew notice not for who he was, but for what everyone believed he owned. It wasn’t entirely pleasant.
