Page 5 of An Earl Most Inconvenient (Regency Mishaps #2)
CHAPTER 5
“ I must confess that I am glad we are not at a ball tonight,” Tristan said, raising his glass to his lips then setting it down on the table in front of him with a soft thud.
Alistair chuckled. “But the season has only just started! Surely you are not tired of it already? You know what they say, my friend. When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”
The two young men were at the club where Alistair was a member, one of the most exclusive in London, and the gentle hubbub of noise around them was a comforting sound to Tristan.
“I am not tired of London, but it is nice to have an evening where one does not feel quite so under observation,” Tristan replied.
“Oh, do you feel the pressure of the society mamas, watching you and trying to work out if you are a suitable match for their precious daughters?”
Tristan laughed. “I suspect that many of them think I am far from suitable.”
“Well, you do have something of a reputation, Tristan,” Alistair said.
“And quite unjust it is too!” Tristan scoffed. He drained his glass, then waved to a passing waiter and motioned for more drinks. “They all say that I am a rake, and it is true that I enjoy the company of the fairer sex, and perhaps I like to make the more prim and proper ones blush from time to time, but I would never do anything truly outrageous.”
“I do wonder sometimes,” Alistair said. ”Perhaps you push things a little too far, my friend.”
“Nonsense!” Tristan protested. He waited a moment while the waiter set another decanter of whiskey on the table between them and poured two glasses out, then took his own glass, almost indecently quickly, and downed half of it in one go.
“Steady on!” Alistair warned.
“Can I not have a little fun?” Tristan demanded, finishing the drink with a flourish and pouring another. “I know that you have to behave yourself now that you are an old married man, but I still have my freedom, thank heavens.”
Alistair shook his head with a wry smile. “It is not like that at all, as well you know it. Your sister is a bit feisty, there is no doubt about that, but I do not feel as if my freedom has been curtailed.”
“I do not know how it is, not really,” Tristan said. He dropped his voice a little. Alistair was right, of course; he was being a little over the top, and he did not want to get them in trouble at the club. “Is it very pleasant to be married? Even to my sister?”
Alistair smiled again, more warmly this time. “I must say, Tristan, that I do highly recommend the state of matrimony. Since I met Cecilia, I have been the happiest of men. Yes, she is bold and outspoken, but I like that. In fact, I much prefer it to meekness. We have been lucky, perhaps, that we were a genuine love match, and I think we are thankful to be together after all that trouble.”
“It must be pleasant,” Alistair mused, lifting his glass and moving it so that the amber liquid swirled about inside, like a golden whirlpool.
“You seem to be thinking rather deeply about matrimony,” Alistair observed, taking a small sip of his own drink. “Do you think you are finally ready to settle down?”
Tristan laughed softly. “I do not think I will ever be ready,” he replied. “But I know my duty. All this talk of love, though, it’s not for me. I am glad that you and Cecilia are so happy together, and I pray that it might continue this way for you until you are old and grey, but I will never fall in love.”
“You never know, Tristan!” Alistair said with a grin. “Who knows what could be waiting around the corner for you.”
Tristan shook his head. “It is no use, Alistair. You cannot persuade me that falling in love is a realistic option for me.” He paused for a moment and looked at his friend. Yes, he seemed happy, but for how long? Something would happen, he thought. And if you truly allowed yourself to love someone, then their loss was even worse. It was not worth the pain, and he would never put himself through it.
“But you said that you know your duty,” Alistair probed. “So you will marry without love?” He sipped his drink thoughtfully. “You will notice that I will not press you on the love issue. You know your own mind, I am sure. I will not be the one to change your mind, I know that, but I think that the day will come when a young lady appears in your life who does change your mind.”
Tristan rolled his eyes. “You can think what you like, Alistair, but it will never happen. Trust me on that! I am delighted that you and Cecilia have found such happiness, but such a match does not lie in my future, I am sure of it.”
“Well, what do you see in your future?”
Tristan thought for a moment of his parents, and how happy they had been together. Their house had always been full of love. But everything had been snatched away from them when they had died suddenly in a carriage accident. Tristan knew he would never find a love like theirs. But he knew what was expected of him.
“I know my duty,” he repeated. “I am an earl and with that comes responsibility. Responsibility to marry and to sire and heir, and a spare too no doubt. So, I will get on with it. Get the whole thing over and done with.”
Alistair scoffed. “That is not a very romantic way of looking at it.”
“And that, my friend, is entirely the point,” Tristan replied. “It is a business transaction, nothing more, nothing less.”
“And you think that you will be able to find a young lady who is happy to agree to such a prosaic arrangement?” Alistair asked. “I fear you will have a difficult time of it. Most young ladies want to feel loved, and to imagine themselves in a fairy tale.”
“Well, I can play along with all that if I need to,” Tristan conceded “But the reality is, I think, is that many young women of our class recognize the reality of it all just as I do. Any young lady who marries me will have wealth and status, an elevated position in society, and a comfortable home. She will be a countess.”
“Indeed,” Alistair nodded, “but I do think that you will find that many young ladies are looking for something more than simply a marriage of convenience.”
Tristan shook his head. “Not the sensible ones. And the bare minimum that I am hoping for is a sensible wife! The whole thing is rather a tiresome necessity to me, but at least I can hope to share my life with someone rational and practical.”
Alistair laughed. “Well, you have set the bar rather low, in that case!”
“Not at all,” Tristan said, shaking his head. “I have found a young lady who fits the bill perfectly.”
“Oh, indeed?” Alistair said. “Well, I never thought that I would hear you say those words! And are you going to tell me who the lucky lady is? And does she even know yet?”
“Well, I went to call on her yesterday, so I suspect she has a reasonable idea of my intentions,” Tristan replied. “It was rather annoying, though, to see that a great many suitors had been there before me. The drawing room was filled with flowers and gifts!”
“Perhaps you will have to work a little harder, then, if there is competition!” Alistair chuckled.
“It will not be beyond me to charm her, I do not think,” Tristan said, with a grin.
“And who is she?” Alistair demanded. “I must know the future Countess of Silvermere’s name.”
“It is Lady Grace Kingsman,” Tristan said simply, thinking as he spoke of the very pretty young lady and how her eyes had sparkled as they had stood by the lake yesterday. Yes, she would do very well indeed as his countess. “She is the perfect young lady to satisfy my family’s expectations and allow me to continue on my lineage.”
“You do speak of it all in such a calculated manner,” Alistair said. “But I suppose that you will not be the first gentleman in your position to approach it in such a way. And I was the same, of course, until I met Cecilia.”
Tristan saw the glint in his friend’s eye at the mention of his wife, but chose to ignore it. “I will not be the first man to marry for practical reasons, no, and I am sure I will not be the last. And Lady Grace will learn to see the world the same way as I do, once she has outgrown her youthful ideals.”
“She is quite young, is she not?” Alistair asked. “I think she has only been out for a year. And of course, she has an older sister.”
“Well yes,” Tristan replied, feeling a little surge of something unfamiliar at the thought of Diana. “Lady Diana is a very interesting young lady.”
“Interesting?” Alistair queried. “I thought that you thought she was boring, when you met at Nathaniel’s wedding party all those years ago.”
“She is very interesting indeed,” Tristan conceded. He was not going to admit to Alistair that he had spent rather more time thinking of Lady Diana over the last couple of days than he had spent thinking about her sister. But it was simply because she was so infuriating, nothing more.
“It is a shame that she has ended up a spinster,” Alistair said, pouring them both another glass of whiskey. “Everyone wanted me to marry her, but there was nothing between us. It would not have been fair of me to pursue it. And then, of course, there was Cecilia.”
Tristan nodded. “You made the right choice,” he replied. “It would not have been the right thing to do for you to marry Diana.”
“But it would have been a marriage of convenience, just like the one you are proposing!” Alistair shot back. “Why should that suit you, but not me?”
Tristan laughed. “We are very different men, Alistair,” he said simply. He sat back in his chair and looked around the room, at the various groups of gentlemen sitting around the low tables, sharing drinks and dinner together. “It takes all sorts, you know, to make up this world.”
“Quite the philosopher you are tonight!” Alistair said. “Tell me, though. What do you mean when you say that Lady Diana is interesting? It seems a strange word to use to describe a woman.”
Tristan let out a sigh. “She is quite exasperating. She seems to harbor a genuine dislike for me, which is quite remarkable. I do not think anyone has ever disliked me before, or not as much as she seems to, anyway.”
Alistair raised an eyebrow. “You usually manage to charm everyone, especially the ladies. At least until their mamas come and drag them away from you,” he commented. “What can you have done to trigger the wrath of Lady Diana? It is indeed a rarity for anyone to hate you. I would go so far as to say that you are the most charming man in all of London.”
“Well, quite,” Tristan said with a wry smile. “I pride myself in being likable. But she stares at me as if she wishes I would disappear from the face of the planet.”
“You must have done something to annoy her,” Alistair said. “When I knew her, I thought her to be very sensible. She is a very proper lady, very practical. Almost too practical, in fact. I do wonder if that is one of the things that has put other suitors off her.”
Tristan was quiet for a moment, remembering the defiant flash of her eyes as she glared at him in her fury. It was a look that he would not forget, not for a long time.
“She does not approve of me,” Tristan conceded. “She thinks me a rake, and that I am not good enough for her sister.”
“Oh, so you will need to charm her, too, then, if you want to marry Lady Grace?” Alistair chuckled. “Perhaps you have met your match at last.”
“She is infuriating. I cannot stop thinking of ways to overcome her opposition..”
Alistair regarded his friend with a mixture of amusement and concern. “Tristan, you must tread carefully. It sounds rather as if Lady Diana has captured your attention. But if you wish to make Lady Grace your countess, then you cannot afford to be distracted by her sister, for whatever reason .”
“What is life without a little amusement, though?” Tristan said dismissively. He could see that Alistair suspected him of having some dishonorable motive with regards to Diana, but that was far from the truth. “It is very simple, really. She is always so poised and collected, and I confess that I am enjoying breaking her mask of perfection.”
“You must be careful, Tristan,” Alistair urged, his voice serious. “You do not want to ensnare yourself in a trap of your own making.”
Tristan waved off Alistair’s warning, though a flicker of uncertainty crossed his features. “Perhaps you are right, but I cannot help but admire her spirit. It is refreshing in a world so often filled with pretense.”
“But do not forget that your actions could have consequences,” Alistair warned. “I know that you are used to getting your own way, Tristan, but do not forget that society has its rules, and a young lady such as Diana will never break them.”
“And I would never dream of breaking them either,” Tristan declared. He refilled his glass and topped up Alistair’s; he could not help but notice that his friend was not drinking quite so quickly as he was.
“Just remember your duty,” Alistair said. “If you truly want to make Lady Grace your wife, then you must manage these thoughts about her sister, and cease to indulge in them. Marriage is a serious matter and you must not undermine it with your games.”
“I will do no such thing,” Tristan promised, and he meant what he said. He did not intend to do anything wrong, or scandalous. He would court Lady Grace in the traditional manner, and marry her, and then everything would go back to normal. And if he allowed himself to think of Lady Diana occasionally, and the furious flashes of her bright blue eyes, then who was to know?
Who ever would have thought that a spinster like her could be so intriguing?