It took Lady Willington a few days to recover, but once she did, she and Gabriel were once again seen attending the best parties the ton had to offer.
He hadn’t realized how eager he was to see Lady Emilie until he got his grandmother settled in a little gilt chair surrounded by her admirers and friends. She shooed him off, and he was more than happy to go in search of the young lady.
And then he stopped midway across the ballroom.
He’d suddenly remembered their wager. He couldn’t go see her! He couldn’t speak with her! If he did, she was going to do her best to make him laugh, and he would surely have a hard time not doing so. He always wanted to laugh when he was around Lady Emilie. She simply made him happy and lighthearted—how could he not?
Even though he could now see her standing by the potted plants with two of her friends, he heaved a sigh. She was looking especially beautiful this evening. He didn’t know what it was, but her cheeks were pink, her gown was of the palest green making her beautiful green eyes stand out so he could even see them from this distance, and she was laughing, which always brought him joy.
But no, if he wanted to win this bet—and he most certainly did—he would have to avoid Lady Emilie for a week at least. Surely, she would forget about the silly wager by then. But just seeing her standing there and knowing he couldn’t approach, made him feel like a boy confined to his room on a sunny summer day.
This was probably going to be the hardest week of his life.
Wondering what he might do instead of speaking to Lady Emilie, he looked around for Ox and Miss Ellison. They were present at nearly every party he attended and, being so tall, they were easy to spot. Oddly enough, they didn’t seem to be here this evening.
With a sigh, Gabriel turned and headed into the card room. There seemed to be only one spot open at a table near the windows. He headed for it before anyone else could claim the seat.
“Evening gentlemen,” he said, placing a hand on the empty chair. “Mind if I join in?”
The three men already there glanced up at him, then the one holding the deck of cards said, “No, not at all. Actually, we’d be happy for a fourth. Then we can play whist. Any objections?” He looked about the table. A chorus of “don’t mind” and “excellent idea” had Gabriel taking a seat.
He and his partner across the table had just won their second hand when Gabriel felt a hand clap down onto his shoulder. He looked up. “Ah, Tremelling, good to see you.”
“I’m sorry I cannot reciprocate the feeling,” Lady Emilie’s older brother said.
“Oh?”
“Why are you not dancing with my sister? Have you tired of her already?” Tremelling asked, his eyes narrowing.
“No! Not at all. I just—”
“Good then let me escort you to her,” Tremelling said. It wasn’t a question, it was a command, and Gabriel knew if he truly wanted to court Lady Emilie, he would have to do as her brother said.
He excused himself from the game and followed Tremelling out into the ballroom. About halfway across the room, Gabriel began to wonder if he might be able to avoid speaking with Lady Emilie—maybe not entirely as he was heading over to her just now, but that didn’t mean he had to have an extended conversation with her. If he didn’t ask her to dance, then they would have to talk and then he might very well be in trouble of losing his reputation and their wager. Yes, dancing would be better—much more difficult to hold a conversation while dancing.
Tremelling clearly noticed Gabriel’s slowing walk as he was thinking this through. He, once again, put a guiding hand on Gabriel’s shoulder, and this time he kept it there until they reached Lady Emilie’s side.
“Look who I found lurking in the card room, Em,” Tremelling said as they approached her.
She cocked her head a little to the side. “Avoiding me, my lord?”
“Er… not exactly…” he hedged.
“Why would you avoid her?” Tremelling asked, frowning at Gabriel.
“I wasn’t!” Gabriel defended himself despite the fact that it was a flat-out lie.
“You are not good at telling falsehoods, my lord,” Lady Emilie said with a laugh.
Gabriel’s lips quirked up, but he immediately straightened them, so it could not be seen that he might have found her comment amusing.
She turned to her brother. “We have a wager going. If I can make him laugh in public, he’s going to allow me to drive his phaeton in the park. If I can’t, then he gets to escort me to parties for a week.”
Tremelling gave a little chuckle. “Doesn’t seem like a fair wager to me. Good job, Em, in either case you win.”
She quickly put a finger to her lips. “Sh! Don’t tell him that!”
Gabriel nearly had to slap a hand to his mouth to stop himself from laughing. He took in a deep breath and then schooled his features into an expression of ennui. Goodness, this was a lot more difficult than he thought it would be! He cleared his throat. He had to get them off this topic, and there was only one way to do so.
Holding out his hand, he asked, “Lady Emilie, would you honor me with this dance?”
She gave a little snort of laughter. “Oh, you think I won’t be able to make you laugh if we are dancing?”
He gave a short nod of his head. “It’s much more difficult, if not sometimes impossible, to converse while dancing. And I do believe it is a country dance that is forming just now, so we will be separated almost more than we will be together.”
Lady Emilie giggled. “Very clever, my lord.” She put her hand into his and allowed him to lead her onto the dance floor. He nodded to Tremelling as he did so. The infernal man was outright laughing at him.
Emilie found her brother already sitting at the breakfast table the following morning. “Good morning, Evan.”
He didn’t even look up from his paper. “Good morning.”
Emilie helped herself to some toast and a boiled egg before seating herself at the table. She ate in silence for a few minutes but then couldn’t help but blurt out what was on her mind. “Why did you bring Lord Willington over to me last night?”
Evan slowly lowered his paper. His eyebrows were slightly raised as he turned to look at her. “Should I not have?”
“I would have thought if he’d wanted to dance with me he could have very well come over to me himself. He didn’t need your prodding.”
“Well, considering your silly little wager, I imagine he was avoiding you.”
“Quite possibly, but what’s that to you? If I remember correctly, you were absolutely set against him at first,” she pointed out.
“Yes, but then he and I spoke, and I changed my mind.”
Emilie nodded. The thing was, it would be so very much easier for her to carry out her plan if her brother didn’t get involved. “This is a good thing, but I would still rather if you left things up to me and didn’t push him at me—or me at him.”
“I would be more than happy to leave things up to you, but I’m not certain you would be able to manage—” He didn’t finish the thought as their mother entered the breakfast room just then. Evan rose to greet her.
“Good morning, Mama,” Emilie said.
“Good morning to you both. Do I sense a whiff of tension in the air?” She looked from Emilie to Evan and back again.
“I was just requesting my brother leave—” Emilie started.
“She thinks she is able to manage—” Evan started at the same time.
Lady Tremelling held up a hand and stopped them both. “Does this have to do with Lord Willington?”
“Yes,” Emilie answered.
“It does,” her brother said.
“In that case, Tremelling, you will please allow your sister to handle the situation,” their mother said.
Emilie had to catch her mouth from dropping open in surprise.
“But—” Evan started.
“She has been doing a very good job of it so far, and I don’t want you disturbing all that she’s done so far by sticking your nose into something which doesn’t concern you. Do you understand?” she said, taking a firm tone just as she did when they were children.
Evan opened his mouth but shut it again without saying anything. With a bit of a huff, he sat back down and lifted his paper once more.
“Thank you, Mama,” Emilie said, also retaking her seat.
“Do not make me regret this,” Lady Tremelling said.
Emilie nodded, but she was grateful for the vote of confidence her mother had just given her. She’d also, unwittingly, just helped Emilie with her plan. She wondered, as she continued to nibble on her toast, if she should ask Eliza to have a word with Evan as well just to make sure he didn’t try to “help” her again. She might just do that.
Gabriel wasn’t certain, but he had a feeling Lady Emilie had gone easy on him a few evenings ago when her brother had intervened and forced the two of them together. Tonight, he wasn’t sure how he was going to avoid seeing Lady Emilie, but he’d had no choice but to escort his grandmother to Lady Ayres’s soiree this evening.
“Where have you been, old boy?” He was greeted by Ox soon after seeing his grandmother settled.
“Here and there, but mostly there, looking after my grandmother,” Gabriel responded, happy to see his friend after more than a week.
“You’re a good man,” Ox said, nodding his head. Then he gave Gabriel a little half smile. “I am supposed to be fetching refreshments. In fact, why don’t you come with me, and you can pay your respects to my lovely fiancée?”
“I would be happy to!” Gabriel said, falling into step with Ox as he headed toward the refreshments room.
“I have to admit when I didn’t see you around I figured it was because of the gossip going around. Thought it rather clever of you, to be honest, even though it is more detrimental to Lady Emilie than yourself,” Ox said as he waited to pick up a couple of glasses of lemonade.
Gabriel frowned. “Gossip? About Lady Emilie?”
Ox turned to him. “Have you not heard? But then, if you’ve just been at home caring for your Gran…”
“I haven’t heard anything, and I did attend Lady Meriton’s ball the other night.”
Ox turned to pick up the glasses. “Don’t know how you haven’t heard, then.” He turned around with the lemonade to face Gabriel and sighed. “I really hate to be the one to tell you this, but you should know.”
“Out with it, Ox.” Gabriel hated it when people told you they had something important to impart and then hemmed and hawed their way to telling you.
His friend moved away from the refreshments table, allowing others to get their own drinks and to give them the illusion of privacy in the crowded dining room. “It’s being said Lady Emilie is throwing herself at you in an attempt to bring you up to scratch. Everyone knows you’re looking for a marriage of convenience—one to match your reputation as someone who abhors the softer emotions. People are wondering why you are giving her any attention at all and are beginning to wonder if you might be in financial straits or have some other problem, making it imperative that you court the girl.” He paused and then frowned as Gabriel took in all he’d said. “There’s something going about the clubs…” He screwed up his face as he tried to remember. “Something involving Lady Emilie, Tremelling, and you when you and Tremelling were at school together?”
Gabriel ground his teeth together, deliberately holding his mouth shut so his scream of rage would burst from his throat.
“Er… take deep breaths, my friend. Deep breaths,” Ox advised.
Gabriel managed a nod and did as his friend recommended. He focused on simply breathing in and out. It would not do to make a scene. It would help nobody, especially not Lady Emilie. In and out. In and out.
“There’s a good lad. Calming down a bit?”
“Thank you, Ox, for sharing this with me,” Gabriel managed to say after unclenching his jaw. His voice sounded a great deal calmer than he would have thought.
“I, er, am sorry.”
“No. It is none of your doing.”
“Do rather have to wonder whose doing it is, though,” Ox said, shifting his eyes toward the drawing room as if the person responsible would be standing there ready to admit to spreading the rumors.