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Inwardly, I now refer to her, always, asmyLily, Gabriel admitted to himself.
Thankfully, he was easily able to divert Chloe into talking about her plans for the rest of the day rather than continuing to pursue the subject of Lily Tremayne.
Meanwhile, it was Gabriel’s hope, now that Chloe had suggested it, that he might forgo the boxing salon as well as practicing with sword and rapier in order to use the excuse of organizing Chloe’s birthday surprise to be with Lily again.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“His Grace, the Duke of St. Albans,” the Truros’ butler announced before ushering Gabriel into a salon where the furnishings and fabrics were decorated primarily in a pale blue and white.
They were not colors that complemented the dark coloring and green gown of the youngest of the two ladies present, both having risen to their feet when he entered the room.
A glance in Lily’s direction showed him her hands were tightly clasped in front of her as she stood near the window but did not speak.
“How very kind it is of you to call upon us, Your Grace.” Lily’s mother, the second lady present, felt no such inhibition as she gushed her greeting at the same time as she curtseyed low.
Allowing Gabriel to realize that the décor in the room was a much kinder background to that lady’s fair coloring, blue eyes, and blue gown.
“I assume you have come here so that you might talk to Lily again regarding the surprise gift for your daughter’s birthday?” the countess prompted lightly.
Gabriel was rendered speechless by the realization that Lily must have chosen to use the very same excuse to her mother as he had to Chloe as a way of explaining away their private conversation together the previous evening.
A sign, perhaps?
That the two of them thought alike.
Although that affinity was not echoed in the alarm he now saw in Lily’s pleading gaze. No doubt a plea for him to endorse that explanation.
“It really was very naughty of you to compromise Lily that way at yesterday’s ball, simply so that you might discuss her assisting you in the choice of your daughter’s new gown,” the countess added coyly. “I am sure that many of the other guests will have thought—”
“I was not compromised, Mama,” Lily said as she stepped forward, no doubt in the hope of preventing her mother from adding to that embarrassing comment. “My acquaintance with the duke is only that of his being the father of one of my closest friends. Which, as Chloe is my peer, must mean the duke is old enough to bemyfather.”
“Not unless he was very precocious in his youth,” the countess reproved her daughter.
There was a flirtatious smile upon the older woman’s lips to accompany the rebuke. But Gabriel didn’t see any warmth evident in her hard blue eyes.
Gabriel had given an inner wince at hearing his age and, in turn, his eligibility, in Lily’s eyes, being dealt with so dismissively by the young woman he couldn’t stop thinking about and in whose presence his cock had once again hardened to an aching throb the minute he entered the room and saw her again.
Confirming, in case he had ever thought it might be otherwise, that his desire for Lily was as strong as ever.
“I believe I was a very precocious youth, ma’am,” he drawled in answer to the older woman. “But in order for me to be Lily’s father, the two of us would have needed to have been intimately acquainted twenty-one years ago, and I do not believe that to have been the case.”
The countess gave a coy and girlish giggle, much like the one Chloe, almost thirty years her junior, had given at the breakfast table this morning.
“No, I do not believe we were,” she confirmed. “I am, of course, slightly older than you, but I am sure I would have remembered if we had met when we were both young and single,” she added with a coquettish smile.
Gabriel maintained his outer expression of polite interest. But, inwardly, he was horrified at the thought that, even as a youth, he might ever have flirted with this obnoxious woman.
Not that he thought it was possible. He had married Mariah when he was eighteen, and Chloe had been born a year later. At the time, the countess already had three young children in the nursery, two boys and a girl, that baby girl being Lily. Which meant the countess was at least ten years his senior, and not the year or two she was now trying to imply.
Gabriel had met the countess several times twenty years ago, usually when he accompanied Mariah to a social event she had voiced a wish to attend. But even then, he had never particularly cared for the older woman’s obviously avaricious and emptyheaded behavior. A trait her daughter had not inherited, but which seemed to have intensified in the countess if her current flirtatious manner toward him was any indication.
Oh, the countess was still pretty enough. But those hard blue eyes and the lines of dissatisfaction visible beside her eyes and mouth revealed her true nature. As well as making her appear much older than the possible late forties Gabriel guessed to be her true age.
“As would I,” he now answered her politely before straightening. “I trust, as your daughter is to be of assistance to me in the choosing of Chloe’s new gown, that you and Truro will give me permission to also purchase a new gown for Lily—”
“No!”
“Oh, I do not think—”