“Minerva suggested I decline the invitation.”
“Minerva can be wise at times.”
She strolled over to the window, which permitted the light to bathe her face. Her lips appeared very dark in that wash of illumination. Darker than the ones he had kissed in his imagination the last few days.
“I do not look forward to it, but putting it off will not make it any better. Eventually, they will each demand to see me and meet me, seeing as how me inheritance—my inheritance, made them poorer. Better all at once so I am well armored than introductions when I don’t expect it.”
“That is one way to see it.”
“Minerva and Chase will bring me, so I won’t be alone when I walk in.” She cocked her head. “Will you be there?”
“Of course. You will have three guards.”
“Minerva said that the duke will attend. She said he will not allow them to browbeat me. Will that help?”
“He may be younger than my aunts and one cousin, but he is Hollinburgh. That carries a lot of influence even in the family. Now, tell me about your journey.”
She sat on the divan, so he did too. “Lily was skeptical of my plan. She did not want to leave what she knew as her home. She did not like the school, and worried about the other girls laughing at her. I think before I left that she felt better, though.” She gave a little shrug, as if she really wasn’t sure. “She has grown up. Even since I saw her six months ago, she changed. She is very beautiful, too. I was a little envious of that.” She laughed lightly. “The dress helped her come around. She tried it on and she was the equal of any girl coming out this year, I’m sure.”
Not more beautiful than you. He had to swallow the words hard and resist the impulse to reach over and caress her face. Hell but he was being an ass today.
“And you?” she asked. “Were you busy with our enterprise these last days?”
“Of course.” A lie, that. He wasn’t really sure what he had done these last days besides think about her too much. “I’ll tell you about it after that party.”
“I will be glad to hear of any progress. Shall we say Friday? I’d like you to show me the invention then too.”
That smacked him out of his stupid, poetic pining. He looked at her. Still beautiful. Still desirable. But now, also still trouble. He had been a fool to allow all this friendliness to distract him from why he was being friendly.
“Oh, dear. You look stormy. You had to know I would want to see it eventually.”
“Of course. Friday.”
“Friday morning. Unless you need to sleep in because of a party, like the rest of Mayfair except me.”
“I doubt Aunt Agnes’s party will last that long.”
“Won’t you attend another after? I thought such as you went to three or four of a night.”
“Many do, but I don’t. Shall we say at ten o’clock? You seem to prefer uncivilized hours, and I don’t care.”
“That would suit me. Now, I must visit a cabinet maker to see about more furniture for the house, and a few pieces for my shop.”
She walked with him to the front entrance. “I will see you at the party. Be sure to bring your sword,” she said.
* * *
Kevin braced himself, then followed the butler into the drawing room. Two women waited in it, sitting on either end of a long divan. The garments and jewels they wore to receive visitors probably cost enough to make strong headwind in what he needed for that enhancement.
“Well, this is a shock,” Aunt Agnes said. She leaned her substantial form and ample bosom toward the other woman, who resembled her enough to prove they were sisters, but whose own bosom barely showed due to her extreme thinness. “Isn’t it a shock, Dolores?”
“Quite a shock.” Dolores’s throaty voice contrasted with Agnes’s shrill one. Despite their obvious differences, to Kevin’s mind they were two sides of a double-edged sword. Both tall, both dark of hair and eye, both spinsters, both annoying as hell. “It must be—how long has it been, Agnes? I never dared presume he would ever visit me at my little cottage, but you . . .”
Little cottage, hell. These two had bled Uncle Frederick for decades, feathering their nests with allowances and demands. Deciding it was their due, they sent bills aplenty to their brother for the duke’s accounts.
“Years. My goodness, I can’t remember how many.” Agnes speared Kevin with a sharp gaze. “Won’t you sit, Kevin? I’ll send for refreshments so we can celebrate this rare honor.”
He suffered her call for the servant and their chatter about some ball they anticipated attending. Finally, the coffee and cakes arrived.
“Have you come up to Town for the Season?” he asked Dolores.
“She brought enough trunks to say she did, even if she claims it is only a brief visit,” Agnes said. “I told her she would be more comfortable if she let her own house for the Season. Don’t you agree with me, Kevin?”
“It is wasteful to let a house for a fortnight, Sister. It isn’t as if Frederick left me the funds to squander that way.”
“I’ll be stunned if you leave after a fortnight. You are here for the duration. You can’t fool me, Sister. It was all I could do to get you to go home the last time, and I know your sly plan. I say she should stay with Hollinburgh at Whiteford House, Kevin. Don’t you agree? That is where she used to stay when Frederick was alive.”
“I’m not sure—”
“I would be imposing, Agnes. Nicholas needs to be attending to his own matters this Season. It is time for him to woo and win a wife.”
“You can advise him if you are there,” Agnes said seriously. “He will need your help. How much better if you were in the house
