“You knew that?” Michael blinked, his mind struggling to process a single thought. “How did you know that?”
The sympathetic smile turned almost pitying. “Everybody knows that, Sandford. It’s the most well-known secret about you that exists.”
Responding to such a revelation was almost impossible.
Almost.
“Do people know that I meant it?” Michael countered in disbelief.
Hugh’s eyes widened, and, while his lips remained pressed together, his jaw clearly went slack.
Michael nodded once. “I’ll take that as a no. Good.”
“I don’t know that we are close enough friends to have this discussion,” Hugh managed, scratching at the back of his head, averting his eyes.
“I haven’t had any quality male friends in ages.” Michael sat up and folded his hands across the tabletop. “None that come to mind, as it happens.”
Hugh fully gaped at Michael now. “What the devil have you been doing when you aren’t with Charlotte?”
Michael’s hands parted just enough to feign a shrug. “That would be the question I wrestle with now. Had I the answer to that, I would be much better off.” He sighed and barely avoided dropping his head to the table. “I haven’t had friends. I haven’t had interests. I haven’t done anything of note. I don’t even know what I enjoy anymore. I’ve just gone and done things because Charlotte was going and doing them.”
“You lost yourself chasing her?”
“So it seems.” Michael shook his head, frowning at the thought. “I haven’t even been chasing her, Sterling. I’ve been revolving around her in a near-constant pattern because I didn’t want to do anything else. Pathetic, isn’t it?”
“Tragic, I think,” came the low reply.
Michael only shook his head again. “I’ve wasted so much time. Time I mean to get back now.”
Hugh’s brow furrowed. “How’s that?”
“You.”
A bark of incredulous laughter erupted from his companion, but a plan began to form in Michael’s mind that made the situation anything but comical.
His lack of reaction stifled Hugh’s laughter creditably.
“You’re not serious,” Hugh protested, remnants of amusement lingering in his features.
“And yet…” Michael grinned easily, which surprised him to no end.
Hugh sat forward, creases forming in his brow. “I am quite possibly the most unlikely candidate for your efforts, Sandford.”
Michael held up a finger, his grin turning crooked. “You were the most unlikely candidate. Previously, not presently. You are a changed man, are you not?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“And you do feel that the change is permanent, yes?” Michael went on.
“Of course I do, however…”
“Then I see no reason why you should not be my new friend of the male persuasion while I try to distance myself from Charlotte.” He cocked a brow and folded his arms, daring Hugh to find a reason to protest further.
Hugh’s eyes narrowed. “I am not saying I will do whatever it is you are thinking about, but I would like to know… What, exactly, are you thinking about?”
Michael parted his hands again. “Think of me as… as a lad fresh out of his education. Imagine that I know absolutely nothing about moving in Society. That I am in need of a mentor to guide me through its navigation so I may be a success.”
“Forget being a lad,” Hugh muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You’re naught but the male illustration of a young miss in her very first Season. Shall I find you a string of beaux as well? Arrange for your first dance to be with the most eligible partner? Purchase new trimmings to display you at your very best for all to see? Or perhaps you might wish to attend every ball, musicale, assembly, and spend every third day at the theater, all to see and be seen, and spread your name about?”
Slowly, heat seeped into Michael’s cheeks as the mockery sank heavily into the pit of his stomach.
Every word Hugh said was exactly what Michael needed. Oh, he wasn’t so very like a young miss, but as for the rest… It was precisely what Michael would require in order to break off the bindings that years of being Charlotte’s lackey had wrapped him in.
The recreation of Michael Sandford. Gads, it was the stuff of nightmares, wasn’t it?
“The fact that you look resigned instead of horrified has me scared witless.”
“I’m not so comfortable at the moment, either.” Michael glanced up at Hugh limply. “I think we may have to do exactly what you said. Though a line of… I’m not sure how I feel about courting.”
Hugh blinked once, then cleared his throat, his brow snapping down. “Right… Well, unfortunately, that is the main objective of anyone in Society that isn’t independently wealthy, driven to rise among its ranks, or scheming to bring the whole thing down. So despite the lack of general interest, you ought to at least pretend to be pursuing it.”
“Why? I don’t want to compete with Charlotte for who can get married first.” The entire idea was distasteful, and his throat tightened at the thought of someone taking her place in his affections, in his life.
“Because you will undoubtedly be pursued once you become more visible.” Hugh flagged down a footman for a drink, which was quickly brought. “And you will find yourself married in spite of yourself when the right one crosses your path.”
The idea soured further. The right one had always been Charlotte. How could he ever imagine anyone else?
“There are worse things, you know,” Hugh told him softly. “And if you are distancing yourself from Charlotte, who has vowed to marry, you will eventually need to do so yourself.”
“I know.”
He did know that. He’d known that from the moment Charlotte had announced her plan. He hadn’t admitted it, hadn’t exactly thought out each word in turn, but he’d known. But doing something towards that effect seemed wrong, somehow.
“You might as well start practicing for when you are ready for it. What’s the harm?”
The harm was that there wasn’t any harm. There was absolutely nothing wrong with making it known that he was an eligible bachelor who would be willing to marry the right young lady. It
