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“Good God, man,” Isaac huffed. “You have abandoned your bride, and the whole room is shocked by your disappearance after the ceremony. Are you displeased with how beautiful she is, perhaps?”

His tone was indifferent, but Seth felt an alarming sense of fierce possessiveness rise inside him.

The idea that his friends admired Alicia, or that any man might do so, made him want to smash his fist through the window.

“I am not allowed to be alone, then?” he asked.

“Not on your wedding day, Radcliffe, no,” Michael said woodenly. “And would you look at us when we are speaking with you; we are not strangers.”

There was hurt in his voice, and Seth held back a curse. This was why he did not spend time with them often. He had loved these men like brothers once, before they had lost everything together.

They had shared one another’s pain as the trial and the endless gossip of the ton rumbled on steadily for years. They had supported and protected one another in the darkest of times, and Seth knew that he owed them his life.

Seeing them brought all those unwelcome memories back. He avoided their company for precisely this reason—to forget them and try to move on with his life.

But you cannot shut them out. They will not let you, because they are as damnably loyal as you once claimed to be.

Reluctantly, he turned around, his stomach lurching at the sight of their familiar faces all lined up together.

For want of anything better to occupy himself, he sat back down at his desk.

“You are being very tiresome,” Isaac said, never one to hold back when he was annoyed by something. “We came here to congratulate you, and here you are, brooding and drinking.”

Lucas walked over to the little silver tray beside Seth’s armchair, picked up the glass he had been nursing, and took a healthy swallow, saluting him in the process.

Seth fought a smile.

Damn the man. He always knew how to make me laugh.

“Your bride is alone out there, old chap. It’s hardly good form to abandon her in a room full of guests,” Lucas cautioned. “Do you know any of them? They are all strangers to me, I am sure. Have you no new friends, perhaps? You did rather luck out with us.”

Seth’s resolve not to smile faltered, and his lips quirked up.

Michael and Isaac chuckled as Lucas clapped his hands together.

“Four minutes. Michael, I told you I could break his melancholy. What a sour puss you are, Radcliffe. Come, come, what is the matter with you? She is uncommonly pretty and seems to have a sensible head on her shoulders. Has she done something to displease you already?”

Seth fixed him with a brooding glare that he ignored, simply arching an eyebrow in response.

“Well?”

“You know I have no interest in matrimony,” Seth muttered.

“Oh yes, you only wanted to secure your future and your fortune, I remember. If you have no interest in marriage, could you not have picked someone less beautiful? Leave some for the rest of us, you selfish oaf.”

“You can keep your eyes off my wife,” Seth snapped, and then clenched his fists as his friends stared at him.

Lucas huffed a laugh. “I wasn’t planning to steal her on your wedding day, Radcliffe. But I thought you didn’t care. You certainly don’t seem to.”

Seth looked up at him, startled by his candid statement.

The words felt like needles in his skin. Hedidn’tcare; that had always been his intention. Yet having it pointed out filled him with a strange sense of guilt.

What if I go out there and the same desire overcomes me again? I need to tup a woman and get it out of my system before I spend any more time with my wife.

His wife.

“You know it would make your life much easier if your wife could stand to be in the same room as you,” Lucas continued. “I know of many marriages where both parties despise one another. It looks exhausting. I would not want that for you.”