Brandon waved him off. “I can show them before we head to our rooms. You’ve been marvelous as usual, Cutty.”
When they were up the stairs a little way, Adam leaned over to Brandon. “So when I asked you to get an invitation . . .”
“It wasn’t quite the hardship I made it out to be.”
“You’re in very good standing with the staff.”
“Sullen beggars go hungry,” Brandon answered, leading them left when they reached the top of the stairs. “When living off the pleasure of one’s company, it’s important that company actually be pleasurable.”
It was a fair point.
They dropped the women off at their room, promising to come back for them in half an hour.
“Why did I expect Lady Cavendish to be older?”
“Because Lord Cavendish is seventy-three. Lovely man—we play bridge sometimes if he’s here when I visit. But he’s long since quit trying to keep up with Lydia.”
And once again, Adam was reminded of how much he preferred the simpler colonial social structure. He didn’t know who to frown over harder—Lord Cavendish for marrying a woman fifty years his junior, Lady Cavendish for being unfaithful to him, Brandon for helping her, or nobody, since they all seemed to be perfectly happy with the arrangement.
• • •
Eugenia’s maid came to help them dress for dinner. Once she’d pinned both their hair and left, Eugenia started pacing and fidgeting. It wasn’t the sort of behavior Jane was used to from her friend.
“What’s the matter?”
“I’ve never been to a house party,” Eugenia said. “What if everyone wishes I hadn’t come?”
“Well.” Jane grabbed her hand, dragging Eugenia down to sit next to her on the bed. “There can’t be that many people here, and Adam and Brandon and I won’t wish that, so your ratio is already pretty good.”
“Interesting.”
“And Adam’s brother, Mr. Clairborne, is here. He’s been enjoying your company lately. That’s one more.”
Eugenia took a deep breath. “You’re right. Mathematically, an acceptable portion of the party is predisposed to like me.”
Jane tried to apply the same rule to herself. Adam and Brandon and Eugenia would be kind to her no matter what. Sebastian would likely be as well. Everyone else . . . She would just have to wait and see. And for every unpleasant experience, she would resolve to make an enjoyable one with later with Adam.
As if summoned by the thought, a knock sounded on their door.
“Ready?” Jane asked Eugenia.
She nodded. Jane opened the door.
Lord Quincy was standing on the other side. He appeared as surprised to see her as she was to see him. “I—isn’t this supposed to be Ginny’s room?”
“We’re sharing.”
“Oh.”
Eugenia looked around from behind her. “Teddy? What are you doing here?”
“I . . . Your mother asked me to look in on you and make sure you hadn’t managed to offend anyone.”
“Not yet.”
“Well, good. Is someone taking you down, or—”
Adam and Lord Brandon arrived behind him.
“Oh. Good evening, Lord Wesley. Lord Brandon.” The latter was said with slightly less friendliness—not that Quincy had ever been accused of joviality.
Jane chose to let Eugenia sort that out for herself. She stepped out, taking Adam’s arm. “Shall we?”
“We shall.”
They walked off while an argument broke out between Eugenia and Quincy on the purpose of escorts in the first place. Thankfully, Lord Brandon was plenty capable of fending for himself, and no doubt knew a number of alternate routes to get downstairs if they trapped him in the hallway.
Jane leaned in, letting more of her body brush against Adam than was technically proper. “I’ve made a decision.”
“Have you?”
“For every awful experience I have this week, you will owe me one extremely pleasant one.”
His posture shifted. “Have I told you how horrible that dress looks on you?”
Jane laughed.
“Absolutely appalling. I’ll probably be forced to spill soup on it later just to save you from yourself.”
“If you don’t I will.”
Adam’s face grew serious. “Jane. I’ve been meaning to talk to you—”
“You cannot be serious.” Sebastian had just stepped out of his room and was staring at the two of them.
• • •
Damn. Adam had been about to make sure he and Jane were still of the same mind about their arrangement. Solving his difficulty with Sebastian took precedence, though, since it was the main reason they were there.
“I need to talk to you, Sebastian.”
“Well, I don’t have anything to say to you.” There was still a shadow of a bruise around his mouth.
“You don’t have to say anything—just listen.”
Shaking his head in disgust, Sebastian stormed off down the hallway.
He looked at Jane. “Are you—”
“Go. Brandon can take me down.”
Adam took off after his brother. He took the stairs two at a time and caught up to him before he could reach the rest of the party.
“Don’t even—”
Adam opened a door and shoved him through it. It looked to be a sewing room of some kind. It didn’t matter. He pushed his brother against the wall, forcing him to stand still and listen.
“Ten years ago, I was young and I was naive and I was in love with Regina. I won’t apologize for that. She’s a wonderful woman.”
Glaring hatred, Sebastian kept his mouth clamped shut. If he meant to keep to his insistence that he had nothing to say, all the better.
“I refused to let it go, and I refused to marry someone else that I didn’t love, so our father sent me to the colonies. And then I grew up. That’s it. That’s the whole story. Nothing outside the boundaries of propriety ever happened.”
“Then why did she pay for your flat?” Sebastian blurted. “You thought I didn’t know about that, but I do. Pembroke said—”
“I knew it! You want to know why Regina paid for my flat? Because she’s covering my expenses in exchange for looking after you. Because you’re a great bloody idiot, running around worshipping worthless rubbish like Pembroke.”
“He’s not worthless. He’s my friend!” Sebastian shouted.
“He’s not your friend. He’s not anybody’s friend. He’s an egotistical coward,” Adam spat.
“Oh!” Sebastian shoved him. “Like you’re any better.”
“I am better. In every way.”
“You call him a coward, but you just ran away to the colonies and never came back. Never mind your responsibilities. Never mind your family. Never mind the—”
“Gentlemen!”
They both turned.
Lady Cavendish was standing in the doorway flanked by two footmen. “Finally. I didn’t even know I could shout that loud.”
Behind her, a number of houseguests were trying to discreetly peer through the doorway.
“While I am sure this is extremely cathartic, this room is not—in fact—very good at containing sound.” Lady Cavendish smiled an apology. “So before anything else is said that makes dinner any more awkward than it’s already destined to be, why don’t you come into the parlor and have a drink?”
Adam removed his hands from the lapels of Sebastian’s dinner jacket.
His brother pushed him away, brushing out the wrinkles.
Lady Cavendish let him pass without comment, but she stopped Adam with a hand on his chest. “Am I going to have tell you to play nice while you’re here? Lord Geoffrey is also one of my guests this week.”
“You can tell me. I can’t promise I will.”
She assessed him through narrowed eyes. Eventually she removed her hand with a sigh. “You’re fortunate you’re so pleasant to look at—especially when you’re angry. And that Brandon is an irreplaceable lover.”
Chapter 17
Drinks were an awkward affair. The dinner wouldn’t be so bad with everyone positioned around the dining table, but in the parlor there was nothing keeping anyone from mingling with anyone else . . . Nothing except the battle lines that had clearly been chosen in the wake of the shouting match the entire house had heard.
Jane knew which side she was on. It wasn’t surprising for Eugenia to stand with them, either; she was both a loyal friend of Jane’s and unclear what all the fuss was about. After all, everything Adam had said was true. Nor was Lord Brandon’s choice to align himself with Adam a shock, but it did cause a somewhat sticky situation for the rest of the party.
Lady Cavendish was determined to spend her birthday week fawning over Brandon. Brandon was staying firmly within Adam’s sphere. Sebastian, Geoffrey, and Drusilla were staying firmly out of Adam’s sphere. Everyone else was caught somewhere in the middle. For those who didn’t know Geoffrey, it was just a matter of paying attention to their hostess without appearing to condone the vulgar earl who’d behaved badly. For those who did, it was more complicated.
“I thought you said Miss Davenport would be the offensive one,” Lady Cavendish murmured to Brandon as a young gentleman froze in the space between the two groups, weighing his decision.
Jane brushed her fingers against Adam’s in the space behind her skirts where no one could see. His fingers brushed back. She knew he was still shaken from the argument, but he was maintaining his composure. Fortunately, Lady Cavendish decided to rush the socializing and get to the meal as quickly as possible.
By chance—or perhaps not, with the looks their hostess kept giving her—Jane ended up seated next to Sebastian. She could tell he wanted to freeze her out, but in the end he was too polite. One was expected to make conversation with one’s dinner companion.
“Did you have a pleasant journey from London, Miss Bailey?”
“I did.” She wasn’t about to waste this opportunity. “Are you all right?”
“Of course.” He did not look all right. He looked upset.
“I imagine Adam can be very frightening when he’s shouting. I’ve never seen it, but it sounded rather violent.”
Sebastian set his fork down very carefully. “I don’t understand how someone as kind and gentle as you are can stand to be in his company.”
“Well.” Jane sipped her wine and made sure to keep her tone conversational. “With Adam there’s no artifice. If he’s upset he shows it—to you, to me, to everyone.”
“It’s vulgar.”
“It’s refreshing.” Her next step was a gamble, but she had to try, for Adam. “When Geoffrey and I went to dinners like this one, he would smile and talk to the people around us. And all the while he would be dislocating one of my fingers under the table.”
Sebastian’s mouth dropped open in horror.
“Even your brother doesn’t know that. If he did, I think he would have a difficult time sharing a dinner table with him.” Jane took another sip of wine. “Mind your face, or someone will think I’ve said something shocking.”
His mouth snapped closed. He looked around.
“Adam is a rougher sort. Not smooth like Geoff. But he’s never hurt me, and he goes out of his way to make sure I don’t feel afraid. That’s how I can stand to be around him.” She took a bite of her fish. “Delicious! Have you tried yours?”
• • •
Adam was desperate to know what they were talking about. He was shamelessly using the deductive reasoning of his own dinner partner—Miss Davenport—to try to interpret it from six seats down.
“She just sipped her wine. What do you think that means?”
“That she’s thirsty?”
“Think, Eugenia. Your mother has been training you for these subtle social interactions your whole life.”
“And I have yet to understand any of them.”
“Don’t bother. Ginny is rubbish at this stuff.” Lord Quincy leaned over from her other side. “Miss Bailey is definitely talking about something disturbing, and Clairborne doesn’t want anyone to know.”
“What do you mean?” Adam abandoned Miss Davenport in favor of his new, unexpected ally.
“Well, you see how her face is perfectly smooth?”
Adam looked. Jane’s face was often smooth, except when she was coming apart at the seams.
Quincy pointed. “But Clairborne keeps looking around nervously. He’s worried someone will hear what she’s saying.”
What could she possibly be talking about? Jane was generally the soul of propriety.
“Miss Bailey is better at playing the game than he is. Oh! And now she’s just pointed it out to him. See how he just dropped all expression?”
Adam looked at Eugenia. “Are you following any of this?”
She bit into a green bean. “Pretty much never.”
If there was just a way he could get closer and hear what they were saying . . .
“That’s not a good idea,” Quincy said, making Adam suspect he could read minds. “See the way he looks conflicted? Whatever she’s saying is making him reconsider something. Since you two are at odds, I’m guessing that’s in your best interest.”
The footman came and took away the course he’d barely touched.
Jane lifted her napkin to her mouth.
“What about that?” he asked Quincy.
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“How can you tell?”
“Because everyone else with manners just did it, too.”
Eugenia gave a small smile to her plate. “He usually only says things like that to me.”
“He must be starting to like me,” Adam murmured to her.
If Jane was working to advance his cause, the least he could do was advance hers. She seemed determined that there was something between Quincy and Miss Davenport.
Miss Davenport frowned, looking over at Quincy. “Theodore, people keep saying—”
“Miss Davenport,” Adam interrupted. “Are you familiar with the intricacies of tobacco farming?”
“No. Although I’ve read many books on farming in general.”
“None of which anyone has any interest in hearing about,” Lord Quincy added.
Adam disagreed, especially because Jane would be furious with him if he let her friend ask Lord Quincy if he liked her point-blank. “I’m very interested.”
“He’s lying.”
“I’m not.”
“She’ll go on about it for hours. It won’t just be the interesting highlights—if there is such a thing with farming. It will be every word of every book.” Quincy was trying to sound insulting, but he just ended up sounding vaguely proud. “She remembers them all.”
“Is that true?” Adam asked.
“That I remember every word or that I will recite each one?”
“The former.”
“Yes, that’s true.” Miss Davenport investigated the greenish jelly on her plate with suspicion.
“That’s wonderful.”
“My mother says it’s freakish.”
“I don’t think your mother is considering how incredibly useful that is.”
Miss Davenport sighed. “She never does.”
• • •
After dinner, Lady Cavendish made the exceedingly wise decision not to separate the gentlemen and the ladies for port. Instead, she declared that it had been a long day of traveling and that she had an early surprise planned for them after breakfast tomorrow so everyone ought to go straight to bed. Jane suspected she was mostly trying to avoid bloodshed.
Adam found his way to her side for the walk
upstairs. “You and my brother had quite a bit to say to each other.”
“Yes, we did.”
“Was it fruitful?”
“We’ll have to wait and see, but I think it might be.”
Adam sighed. “You’re amazing, do you know that?”
“I don’t,” Jane said with mock surprise. “Perhaps you should tell me how to get to your room so you can explain how you came to that conclusion.”
His fingers brushed hers, gently. “Right at the top of the stairs. Left at the dead end. Last door on the right.”
Jane hummed her approval.
“But Jane?”
“Yes.”
“Before we try out any plans, we have to talk.” He sounded uncomfortable.
Jane didn’t particularly want to talk. She wanted to try out plans, but if that was what he wanted, she could talk first. “All right.”
He dropped her off at her door, and she went inside. Eugenia hadn’t come up yet, so the silent maid helped her undress first. Eugenia came in not too long after, grinning from ear to ear.
“Did you have a good time?” Jane asked her.
She nodded. “Lord Wesley tried to guess what you and Mr. Clairborne were talking about—he’s just as bad at it as I am—and then we talked about some of the books I’ve read.”
Jane moved aside so the maid could help Eugenia take down her hair.
“Lord Wesley thinks Quincy likes me, too. I tried to ask Theodore about it, but then we started talking about farming books and I forgot.”
Well done, Adam. Jane could practically imagine how the entire evening had played out.
Once they were both dressed for bed, Jane had to lay in the dark and pretend she wasn’t dying to tiptoe down the hall into Adam’s room. One of Mathilda’s warnings passed through her mind. As long as they didn’t do that she had nothing to worry about. But apparently there was a great deal other than that to do with a man. Jane intended to find out about all of it.
Eugenia’s breathing turned into a light snore. Jane crept out of bed, moving an inch at a time to avoid waking up her bedmate. At the door, the snoring stopped.
Jane froze.
There was a rustling of covers, and then a low, nonsense mumble. The snoring started again. Jane’s heart started beating again. She eased the door open and slipped outside.
A Ballroom Temptation Page 19
