“Well, that was a complete failure,” Lady Willington said after they’d said their goodnights to Lady Preston. They had seen her off in her own coach and now watched as their own pulled up next to them. “On the other hand, I do see her point about you and Lady Emilie having a connection. If you hadn’t, presumably you wouldn’t have kissed her all those years ago.”
“Gran, if you please, can we not talk about Lady Emilie just now? I think I’d like to simply put the girl out of my mind for a little while,” Gabriel said, opening the door and assisting his grandmother inside. “In fact, I believe I’m going to drop you at home and go to my club to unwind.”
“You will get some dinner there?” she asked. He couldn’t see her in the dark, but he heard the concern in her voice.
“Yes. And I’m sure the cook will be able to put something together for you.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about me.”
After they left, Emilie, Evan, and their mother sat down to eat the excellent meal that had been prepared, rather than see it all go to waste.
Emilie found she didn’t have much of an appetite, and judging by the way her brother was just moving the food around on his plate, he didn’t either. Only Lady Tremelling consumed an ordinary amount.
“You aren’t really going to go out for a drive with him,” Evan finally burst out after pudding had been served.
“I don’t know. I have no idea if I’ll even be able to bear sitting so close to him,” Emilie replied, finishing the wine in her glass. She wasn’t certain she should have another glass. She’d already drunk a great deal more than usual.
“He kissed you!” Evan reminded her unnecessarily.
“How do you know this?” her mother asked.
“I caught them,” he told her.
“Emilie?” Lady Tremelling looked to her daughter.
“He kissed me,” she agreed with a deliberately negligent lift of her shoulders.
“And did you try to stop him? Did he force himself upon you?” her mother asked, looking worried.
Emilie swallowed down her shame. “No,” she whispered. “I… I welcomed it.” She glanced at her brother who was staring at her incredulously. “He is handsome and kind!” she nearly shouted.
“And four years older than you, and should have known better,” he snapped.
“Only four?” Lady Tremelling asked. When both Emilie and her brother looked at her, she said, “Your father was six years my senior.”
“Willington clearly took advantage of a girl too young to know her own mind,” Evan stated. “He was nineteen, and she was fifteen. Fifteen, Mother!”
“That is entirely too young to even be thinking of boys, I agree,” Lady Tremelling conceded. “Emilie, why did you not stop him?”
Emilie opened her mouth to answer but her brother spoke first. “She didn’t know any better, clearly.”
“Thank you, Evan, but I did know better. I wanted to kiss him, which is why it hurt so very much when he never wrote to me after you both left. He didn’t even say goodbye!” All the hurt from those weeks after her brother and his friend had returned to school so precipitously came back, filling her throat. “Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to bed. It’s been an extremely difficult evening.” She left the dining room before anyone could object.
Gabriel bypassed the glass and went straight to the bottle, ordering it the moment he’d crossed Powell’s threshold.
“Very good, my lord, I shall see one is delivered to you in…?” the footman asked, as he took Gabriel’s hat and gloves.
“In the reading room,” Gabriel said, giving the man a nod and a coin from his pocket.
“Thank you, my lord,” the man said to Gabriel’s retreating back.
One of the only empty chairs was just across from the door. Gabriel wasn’t thrilled with the location, but Powell’s had become increasingly popular. Perhaps Wickford should be more discriminating who he allowed to join, Gabriel thought, looking around the room. There was, naturally, only the most reputable gentlemen, but maybe he shouldn’t have allowed quite so many to become members. Gabriel’s bottle of rum was delivered to him, the footman pouring his first glass.
“Ha! Willington!” a voice said just as he was taking his first sip. Ox threw his enormous bulk into the chair next to Gabriel. “So—”
“If you are here to discuss Lady Preston, matchmaking, or how extremely happy you are with your fiancée, you can get yourself right up again, Ox,” Gabriel growled.
The jovial fellow immediately lost his smile. “Oh dear, did you—”
“I do not want to talk about it!” Gabriel interrupted him again. “That is why I am here—to not talk about it.”
Ox nodded. “Understood.” He took in a deep breath and then said, “So, what do you think of Warwick’s latest proposal in Lords?”
That Gabriel would discuss. The Duke of Warwick was an intelligent man, and Gabriel generally agreed with him, but this time he was proposing something even too radical for Gabriel’s way of thinking. He spent a very pleasant hour with Ox debating the topic and even branching off into the economic implications of Warwick’s proposal, which of course led to discussing the economy in general.
Gabriel was truly enjoying himself and his opinion of Ox had grown immeasurably when they were interrupted by Lord Tremelling. Without even a word of apology or a proper greeting, he stopped directly in front of Ox. “I need to have a word with Willington.”
Gabriel’s new friend looked at him in askance. Gabriel had the greatest desire to tell Tremelling to go away and leave him alone, but he was certain that would be a bad idea. He gave a slight nod to Ox who shrugged and got up. “We’ll talk again later.”
“Do you want to take this with you?” he asked, picking up the now mostly empty bottle of rum. He meant it as a peace offering and clearly Ox saw this.
He gave Gabriel a little half smile. “No, mate, I have a feeling you’re going to need that.” He took his glass and wandered off with only a nod of acknowledgement to Tremelling.
His lordship took the chair Ox had been in, but he just sat and looked at Gabriel for a long minute. Gabriel was not going to fidget like a schoolboy if that’s what Tremelling was waiting for. Finally, Gabriel said, “I can assure you that it wasn’t my idea. In fact, I had as much knowledge as to who the lady had chosen for me as you and your sister did.”
“You knew the moment you entered the door, possibly even before.”
“As soon as my grandmother and I got down from the coach, but there was nothing I could do at that point, and Gran was already marching up to the door. You may not know it, but the woman is impossible to stop once she’s got something in her head.”
Tremelling nodded. “Emilie is the same way. Stubborn.”
“Yes, well…”
“Why did you ask to take my sister out for a drive? You know very well how I feel—”
“Evan, it’s been six years. We’ve all grown up since then,” Gabriel said in exasperation. He certainly wasn’t going to let on that, the moment he saw her again, all he wanted to do was explore her lovely mouth, those sweet, full lips, run his hands down—Gabriel sat forward in his chair to hide his growing interest in the girl. And yet, despite his physical attraction to her and his absolute knowledge that he should not be feeling this way, it was Emilie herself with whom he wanted so much to become reacquainted. It was her quick wit, her endearing sense of humor, her intelligence that had attracted his nineteen-year-old self to her as much as her beauty had. And it was what he wanted, even now, to have an opportunity to experience once more. “Can you not let the past—”
“You kissed my sister!” Tremelling growled.
“Yes, and she kissed me back,” Gabriel said, working hard to keep his voice down when really he wanted to shout.
Tremelling’s face turned an unpleasant pink making Gabriel think he’d just said the absolute wrong thing. “Listen, I know you were angry with me then, and you had every right to be. I was nineteen, your sister fifteen. I should not have taken advantage of her. I agree completely. I let my passions take control, and I am sorry, but I’ve done as you asked. I stayed away from her. You heard her this evening—I never contacted her, never wrote, nothing. I have kept my distance despite the fact that it hurt her.” Hurt me, he thought, but didn’t say. He shoved aside the feeling. It was irrelevant.
“Better to be hurt that way than…”
“Yes, well, I wouldn’t have hurt her in any manner if I’d had a choice.”
“You didn’t and you don’t. Leave her alone.”
“I cannot. Lady Preston is going to continue pushing us together no matter what. You saw her this evening. She is convinced Lady Emilie and I are soulmates.” Immediately, Gabriel held up a hand to stop Evan from interrupting, as he looked ready to do. “Don’t say it. I agree completely. It’s ridiculous. I don’t believe in this nonsense any more than you.”
“I do believe in soulmates, but in this case, I think Lady Preston has it wrong,” Tremelling said, surprising Gabriel. “My parents were especially close. I could see the love they shared. My eldest sister, on the other hand—while I’m sure she likes her husband well-enough and he likes her, I can see the difference in their relationship. They were probably not meant to be together.”
Gabriel just blinked at him for a moment. “Then how do you know Lady Emilie and I are not destined to be together? We did have rather an instant connection all those years ago.”
Tremelling blew out an exasperated breath and looked away. “I don’t,” he said softly after a moment. He looked down at his hands clasped in his lap and then back up at Gabriel. “Six years ago, I beat you to a bloody pulp for touching Emilie.”
“I remember it well, I assure you,” Gabriel acknowledged.
“You were bigger than I was.”
“I was a year older,” Gabriel pointed out.
“You’re still bigger than me, although I may have more muscle—I go to Gentleman Jackson’s regularly. But that’s not the point. The point is you let me beat you. Why?”
“Because you had the right to do so,” Gabriel answered simply. “I should never have kissed your sister—not good form.”
Evan nodded. “I figured as much. But if you knew you shouldn’t have done so, why did you?”
Gabriel gave a little shrug. “I was nineteen and couldn’t help myself. She was beautiful, funny—”
“Do you still feel that way?” Evan asked, interrupting him.
“I should hope I have more self-control now, but yes.”
“For your sake, I should hope so as well. With your current reputation, can I assume you learned from that experience?”
“I have.”
“So, tell me, why should I allow you to court my sister now?” Evan’s eyes bore into Gabriel’s.
Gabriel didn’t hesitate for a moment. “Because those feelings I had for her then have not diminished over the years, no matter how hard I’ve tried to rid myself of them. She is still a beautiful woman—quite possibly even more lovely now. And I would like to discover if she is still as clever and charming as she was then.”
“Even more so,” Evan said. “But she’s… quieter now, I believe. I mean, she’s always stood in Amelia’s shadow, but… I worry she doesn’t have the confidence she should, especially when it comes to finding a husband.” He paused and then sighed. “I want to see her happy and to be honest, I think the last time I saw her truly happy was those few weeks you stayed with us six years ago.”
They were both silent for a minute digesting this, then it occurred to Gabriel just what Evan was saying. “Then I have your permission to court Lady Emilie?”
“If I allow this, promise me one thing,” he paused, and Gabriel nodded for him to go on. “Don’t tell her that it was because of me that you never contacted her. She would… she would probably never forgive me.”
“So, you’d rather she continue to think me a horrible person?” Gabriel asked incredulously.
“You are a horrible person.” And with that, Tremelling got up and walked away.
Gabriel could only laugh as he watched him go.