"Which isn't very honorable."
Alexandra shook her head. "Seeing to Lord Lincolnshire's happiness is the epitome of honor."
"It's lying," Griffin disagreed.
Now Corinna shook her head. "It's only failing to reveal the truth."
Semantics. It was all semantics. And it was wrong.
Griffin was opening his mouth to say so when a footman stepped into the dining room. "A caller, my lord. A Mr. Sean Delaney."
"What a coincidence," Griffin said. "Show him in."
No sooner had the servant left than Corinna snorted. "It's not a coincidence."
"I sent a message to Lincolnshire House," Juliana explained. "I told Mr. Delaney that you're aware of his true identity and there's something we need to discuss."
"So that's what you were doing when you went off." Tristan nodded contemplatively. "I wondered."
James spread his hands. "I thought she was visiting the water closet."
"We should have guessed," Griffin muttered. "She always has been the family meddler."
When Mr. Delaney walked in, Corinna motioned to a footman to fetch him a chair, then scooted over so the servant could fit it in beside her own.
A tall man, Delaney looked like he spent all his free hours in Gentleman Jackson's boxing salon. Griffin wouldn't care to challenge him to a match. And he was even more certain they weren't acquainted. "Had we already met?" he asked him. "Before Lady Partridge's ball?"
Delaney gave a little bow before he sat. "Not that I recall, my lord."
The man had a distinct Irish accent, and Griffin hadn't ever met very many Irishmen. "Yet your name seems familiar."
"Is it?" Although he took the glass of wine Corinna handed him, Delaney didn't drink from it as he seemed to consider. "I think I may have bought a piece of property from you. Last year, through your solicitor, which explains why we never met."
"Ah, yes." Now Griffin remembered seeing the name on the contract. "A tumbledown boardinghouse near Lincoln's Inn Fields, if I recall aright. Cannot imagine why my father and brother held on to it for so long. I was pleased to get rid of it."
"I take it you haven't been by there of late." A corner of Delaney's mouth twitched as though he wanted to grin. "That tumbledown boardinghouse is now a sound four-story building with sixteen tenants. Shops and offices on the ground floor, residential above." He looked to Corinna. "I received your note. What is it you feel we need to discuss?"
"It was my note," Juliana said. "And you've been summoned in order to persuade both you and my brother that your posing as John Hamilton is the very best thing."
Which she proceeded to do, of course, with the help of her sisters.
Though Griffin didn't know Delaney, he judged him a man with a quick mind and sound business sense. Together they put up a good fight. In the end, however, they both reluctantly agreed to preserve Lincolnshire's happiness for his final few days.
It was inevitable, Griffin supposed.
Three Chase females against two hapless men was nowhere near a fair match.
TWENTY-TWO
"VERY HANDSOME gentleman," Juliana commented as Corinna came off the Billingsgates' dance floor Saturday night. "Who is he? Did you kiss him?"
"I cannot remember his name. Lord Stonehurst, or maybe Lord Brickhaven. Something to do with building materials." Corinna watched the man walk away, expecting Griffin to bring another one by at any moment. "And no, I didn't kiss him," she added under her breath. "I just met him, for heaven's sake."
"Tonight?" Juliana's smile was a tad too innocent. "Then I expect you'll make him wait a week?"
"At least," Corinna confirmed, tilting her chin up into the air. She'd once told her sister she never let gentlemen kiss her right after meeting them; she made them wait at least a week. But the truth was that since her first kiss with Sean, she hadn't wanted to kiss anyone else.
Unfortunately, she'd received no kisses in the last three days. Lord Lincolnshire was so anxious to see his portrait finished before he passed on that he'd been ready and waiting when she arrived each morning at nine, making it impossible to sneak a kiss. And although the earl tired easily and went up to bed every afternoon, Sean never returned before it was time for Corinna to go home.
Lord Lincolnshire had taken his rest extra early today, because he was bringing Sean and Deirdre here tonight. He'd told Corinna he wanted to see his nephew "dance with his lovely wife." Corinna was very much looking forward to their arrival, not least because she hoped to get Sean alone for a kiss or two.
The lack of kisses certainly hadn't made her want to kiss another man instead. It seemed she belonged to Sean in a sense, or he to her. Or both. It was a very mild relationship, and a very innocent one, but it was also wonderful, thrilling, and just illicit enough to make her feel like a true, free-spirited artist. Yet it was disconcerting, too. She felt like Pamela had when she'd bemoaned, I shall never be able to think of anybody in the world but him!
And she couldn't marry him. Or could she? She was no longer sure. She still knew very little about him, really. But yesterday she'd casually asked Griffin what he thought of Sean—well, she'd called him Mr. Delaney, of course—and he'd said he was impressed with the man's business sense and was hoping to buttonhole him sometime soon to ask him for advice regarding property management.
In other words, he hadn't sounded at all disapproving.
Thinking of her brother made her realize he seemed to have abandoned the Billingsgate ballroom. For now, at least, he wasn't shoving another man at her. She relaxed a little bit. "Do you know where Griffin went off to?"
"I don't. Who is that woman?" Juliana indicated the direction with a flick of her dark blond head. "The one who just came in with Lord Lincolnshire and Mr. Del—um…Mr. Hamilton."
They were here!
