Page 17 of Bad Luck Bride (Scandal at the Savoy #3)

Thankfully, all the guests laughed at that, except her mother, of course. Despite Magdelene’s appalled expression, however, the tension seemed to break, and Delia signaled for a waiter to begin serving vermouth, sherry, and other aperitifs.

“That seemed to go all right,” Jo murmured as the others moved away. “Better, at least, than I thought it would. Ooh, sherry!” she added, plucking a glass of sherry off the nearby waiter’s tray.

“All right?” Magdelene echoed, too upset by what had just happened to check the girl.

Kay pulled the glass out of Jo’s hand. “No spirits,” she said over her sister’s indignant protest, handing her a glass of lemonade from the tray instead. “You’re not really out until your debutante ball in May.”

“I’m practically out now. I’m here tonight, aren’t I? Besides, I should have been out two years ago. And, anyway, it’s only sherry. I’m always allowed to have wine with dinner.”

“A few sips of wine with each course at dinner,” Kay corrected. “This is not dinner, and a full glass is not a few sips.”

“This is so silly,” Jo muttered, rolling her eyes. “I’m not a baby. I’m three months from being twenty.”

“How can you say this went all right, Josephine?” Magdelene wailed, reverting to the former topic. “This is a disaster. What are Wilson and Westbourne thinking, to be associating with That Horrible Man?”

“It’s business, Mama, and I am marrying a man of business,” Kay said, a stern reminder to herself as well as her mother.

Taking a look around to be sure no one was watching her, Kay lifted the glass of sherry she’d taken from Jo to her lips and downed the entire contents in three gulps. God knows, she’d earned it.

“I don’t understand you, Kay. I really don’t. How can you stand to be in the same room with him after what he’s done? And how can you expect me to be civil after everything that’s happened—”

“Because nothing happened,” she cut in incisively, giving her parent a meaningful glance to remind her of the position they’d taken years ago.

“Remember? Therefore, Devlin’s presence here has no effect on us,” she added as her mother tossed her head with a huff.

“And it’s vital that we demonstrate the fact. ”

“I suppose so, but oh, how I’d love to give That Horrible Man a piece of my mind.”

“I daresay you would, Mama.” She had no doubt Magdelene had spent years inventing and rehearsing the scene in which they met Devlin again, one in which she would heap withering scorn and contempt upon the blackguard who had started those vicious rumors about her daughter and ruined her chances, and she was clearly displeased at being deprived of the opportunity by the prying eyes all around them.

But though Kay understood how tempting it was to dress Devlin down publicly, she knew it would never do.

“If you make a fuss, Mama, people will take it as proof that there’s something to that old business after all.

And,” she went on as Magdelene tossed her head with a grudging snort, “Wilson wouldn’t like it if we made any sort of a fuss.

There’s some sort of business deal involved here, and if we queer the pitch, he will be angry, and that is a complication to my life I can do without.

So pipe down, Mama, and at least try to be civil.

Now,” she added, glancing across the room, “there is one friend of ours I simply must talk to. If you will excuse me for a moment? And for heaven’s sake, don’t let Josephine have any wine until we sit down to supper.

She’s not used to spirits, and her getting tipsy is the last thing we need.

So, young lady,” she added, giving her sister a stern look, “no wine until we eat.”

“You never let me have any fun,” Jo grumbled as Kay turned away, plucked a second sherry off a nearby tray, and started across the room toward her hostess.

Noting her approach, Delia excused herself from the guests she was speaking with and met Kay halfway.

“You have a steely look in your eye that tells me I’m about to be raked over the coals,” she murmured, taking Kay’s elbow and propelling her into the adjoining dining room, away from prying eyes.

“But darling, I swear, I did not know Sharpe was coming.”

“I believe you, and if I’m looking grim, it’s not because of you. Still, I have to ask. What is he doing here?”

Delia gave a helpless shrug. “He and Simon are old friends. Simon saw him at the opera with Lady Pamela and her parents, and unbeknownst to me, he asked them to join us. He didn’t know I had invited you. As I told everyone, that man and I need to learn to communicate better.”

“Clearly,” Kay replied, a dry response that made Delia wince.

“But enough about that. There are other things we need to discuss. How is Devlin responsible for getting me the duke’s ballroom?

And what is this business deal and why did your fiancé drag mine and Devlin and the duke—of all the mad matches in the world—into it?

What was Calderon hoping to achieve with this? A more peaceful world?”

Delia smiled. “Well,” she began, but Kay forestalled her.

“How did Calderon ever persuade the other three to become involved? And why did no one bother to tell me about it? And why does Lady Pamela not seem to care a jot? She even wants us to be friends. Friends? What a joke.”

“Heavens, with that barrage of questions, where do I begin?” Delia laughed, but her laugh ended in a little cough when Kay did not laugh with her.

“As to how they all ended up in business together, it started when I got fired from the Savoy a few weeks ago and Simon resigned his position on the board. Rather at loose ends, he decided to start his own hotel venture, and he pulled in Devlin as the first investor, then Max. Simon was aware that my cousin is always looking for new investments. Any peers with sense always are, given the state of land rents nowadays. So Simon presented Max with this opportunity, and Max jumped on it.”

“Even though he knew Devlin was involved?”

“I think he decided that after fourteen years, it might be time to make peace. Simon feels much the same. They’re right, I suppose. You don’t mind, do you, darling? Surely not, not after all this time?”

She reminded herself that she had no right to mind. Who Westbourne and Calderon chose to do business with was not for her to say.

“What about Wilson?” she asked instead. “Did Calderon really have to pull in my fiancé as well? Not that I really mind, of course,” she added at once, trying to assume an air of nonchalance about it. “Business or not, we probably won’t see much of them.”

“More than you think, I’m afraid.”

Kay’s stomach lurched with sudden dismay. “Nonsense. Why should we?”

“There’s the season, for one thing.”

Kay shrugged, her sudden tension easing. “Oh, well, we can easily avoid each other there. It’s not as if anyone will be so ill-bred as to invite us to the same parties. At least not on purpose,” she added, giving Delia a meaningful glance.

Delia wrinkled up her nose in rueful fashion.

“As to that, I must warn you that all of you will be invited to my wedding. Devlin Sharpe is Simon’s best friend, so he’ll no doubt be best man, and whether it’s ill-bred or not, I’d like you to be my maid of honor.

Of course, if you don’t want to do it,” she added at once, “I’d understand. ”

“Stuff. I will adore being your maid of honor. Devlin Sharpe and I may hate each other, but I daresay we can both manage to be civil for one afternoon.”

Delia bit her lip in apologetic fashion, telling Kay there was worse to come. “It’ll be more than one afternoon, darling, I’m afraid. They’re all in business together, you know, and these ventures always involve masses of social obligations.”

Kay’s hand tightened around her glass, bracing herself. “Such as?”

“Dinner parties, hotel openings… that sort of thing. Wilson will no doubt expect you to attend at least some of these, even before you’re married.

Sharpe will expect the same of Lady Pamela.

Don’t worry, darling,” she added as Kay didn’t reply.

“It’s not as if the men will talk about you over the port.

I daresay even Sharpe wouldn’t be caddish enough to tell your fiancé the elopement really happened. ”

“You have more faith in Sharpe than I do,” Kay replied. “But he can say whatever he likes about the elopement. I already told Wilson the truth.”

“You did?”

“If you’re going to lecture me,” Kay replied with a sigh, “please don’t.

You should have heard my mother when she learned I had told him.

You’d have thought I was about to confess to murder.

But I felt it only right to give Wilson the true story.

And now, in light of what you’ve told me, I’m especially glad I did. ”

“I wouldn’t dream of lecturing you. I think you were quite right. And since Rycroft must have known about Devlin’s involvement when he bought shares in the new company, he clearly isn’t worried or jealous.”

“No,” Kay agreed, lowering her gaze to her sherry glass, staring meditatively into the amber depths. Somehow, given how he’d traveled all over the north of England last autumn in pursuit of her, she would have thought he would be jealous. It seemed odd that he wasn’t.

“Sorry, Kay,” she added, misinterpreting her silence. “Stings a bit, I suppose?”

“Not at all.” Kay lifted her head. “I am a bit surprised, that’s all. It doesn’t seem… quite in character for Wilson.”

“What do you mean?”

She thought of the things he’d said tonight as they’d left the Savoy, the implication of possessiveness in his voice.

Perhaps she’d imagined it. Or perhaps he welcomed the chance to flaunt her in Devlin’s face.

“Nothing,” she answered. “I’m actually relieved.

Besides, when I accepted Wilson’s proposal, I knew what I was getting. ”

“A man of business?”