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Mayfair, London

Major Felix Kourier pinched the bridge of his nose, for a megrim was brewing, and all he wanted for his life in this moment was to be left alone. Unfortunately, that was not to be, for his butler had just announced that his sister had come by for a visit, and that she would be up imminently.

What part about being retired does Felicity not understand?

Not wishing to waste time entertaining his only sibling, he moved from the windows across the room with the aid of his cane to sit in one of the chairs near the fireplace where low flames danced behind a plain, metal grate.

Though it was mid-April and spring was underway, there was a decided chill in the air, and his bones were cold.

When she swept into the room, he gave her a nod. “Good afternoon, Felicity. ”

“Why so somber, brother dear?”

Where he was taciturn and oftentimes grouchy, his sister was bubbly and optimistic. They both shared the same hue of blond hair and deep brown eyes, but where he had a sharp jaw and a bit of a cleft in his chin, his sister had a rounder face and a dimple in one cheek.

“Because I’m retired, and you are intruding upon that status.” He gave her a frown. “Where are the boys?” She had two small sons, ages seven and five.

“They are playing a game of tag in the square with their nanny, but I told them once I join them that we would go walking about.”

“Ah.” Not that it mattered. As long as the destructive little dears weren’t inside his house tearing through his rooms like twin typhoons, he didn’t care where they were.

“Well, I do enjoy this neighborhood due to its proximity to the British Museum.” To say nothing about a few other parks, as well as a couple of his friends… whom he didn’t see on a regular basis.

Or at all if he was being honest, but he did write. Because when keeping up with people through correspondence, one didn’t need to be seen. Or attentive. Or even pretend one was having a lovely time.

“How have you been keeping yourself, Felix? You rarely call, and the children have been asking after you.” One of her eyebrows rose in question. “Ever since you retired from Bow Street, you have more or less disappeared from all corners of society.”

“I managed to entertain myself these days, so don’t worry about me.

” Though, that might have been a lie, for most days, he sat in this very room and brooded; the injury that stole his left leg and gave him a prosthetic instead, also ended his career with Bow Street.

Now he had too much time on his hands and absolutely nothing to occupy his mind, unless one counted the elderly neighbor next door who had the appalling habit of misplacing her robe each morning.

“Oh, but I do. You haven’t been yourself for far too long.”

At the last second, he stopped himself from pointing his gaze to the ceiling.

Instead, he huffed out a breath of frustration.

“Perhaps it’s the unrelenting bloody rain just now.

” Did the sun hate England? Had it run away, then?

“Why are you really here, Felicity? You never drop by merely to check on my well-being.”

His sister was his junior by five years, making her six and thirty.

She’d married directly out of finishing school, for she’d been taken under their aunt’s wing.

That outspoken woman had married a viscount ages ago, and for his family, she was the foremost authority on all things society driven.

That sponsorship had helped Felicity land the third son of a baron for her first husband.

They’d had two daughters: one fifteen and one thirteen.

Then her husband had died unexpectedly. Not two years later, Felicity had remarried, this time to one of Felix’s friends in the military, a Jonathan Ingleside.

That was about eight years ago, then she went on to have two sons.

One would think with such a busy personal life, she wouldn’t have the time to mess with his, but here they were.

“Don’t be like that, Felix. I wished to see how you fared, of course.

” Though she offered him a smile, the look in her eyes suggested she did, indeed, have an ulterior motive.

“You insist on living in London even though it’s expensive, regardless of your military pension and any monies you may have saved from working with Bow Street.

” Then she sat on a low sofa near his location.

“I don’t understand why you even wish to remain in Town, for you rarely go out into society and you haven’t a mistress to entertain or impress. ”

With his existence so briefly categorized, there was nothing to recommend him. Apparently. “Yes, it is expensive.” Which was why hardly any of his fellow ex-soldiers lived here. “I needed to be close while I worked for Bow Street.”

“Yet your injury made certain you don’t any longer.”

“Yes, I am quite aware.” He lightly tapped his left leg with his hand.

Dash it all, but he’d given the military six years, and he’d come through that commission without a severe injury.

When he’d come home, he’d quickly landed a position with Bow Street solving crimes for just as long, but that career came to a halt when a criminal shot him in the kneecap, shattering it beyond fixing.

Left him with a prosthetic leg in its place.

“During my recovery, I had copious amounts of time to think. I haven’t forgotten any of it. ”

His sister frowned. “You’ve been retired from Bow Street for nearly three years. It’s time to find something else to fill your life, else you’ll grow stale from boredom.”

“Stale?” One of his eyebrows rose. “Is that what you think I am?”

“Perhaps.” She shrugged and shot him a grin. “Or fat.”

“Hardly.” Felix snorted. “I’m still in good form.

” Though he feared he’d go to flab soon, and he didn’t need his sister pointing that out.

There was only so much walking through the various parks one could do in Mayfair without going out of his mind.

It was that very mind that needed exercise as well, and ever since Bow Street let him go, he hadn’t solved a case, hadn’t met with anything that challenged him.

I can’t stand this any longer.

Felicity met his gaze, and her smile slowly grew larger. “Then why don’t you marry? ”

“What?” The audacity of such a suggestion! He couldn’t help but scoff. “Absolutely not. I had my heart broken once—almost twice. That is quite enough. I don’t plan to throw myself as sacrifice on the altar of marriage merely because I’m bored.”

“Oh, do stop. Why is it that men can drag out something that happened long ago into the future and hide behind it?” She shook her head, and her expression clearly suggested he was a nodcock.

“That was years and years ago. You were on the march. That woman wasn’t worthy of you, and you know it.

That doesn’t mean all women will be like her. ”

“Perhaps, but men don’t tend to wish to repeat such rejection, so the risk is high.” He shrugged. “And the second time was after I lost my leg.” But he couldn’t remember if he’d told her about that.

And now, those unsavory times in his history swam up from his memories to lodge fully in his brain.

The first one had come at some point during his military career.

He’d courted and given a promise to a specific young lady.

On his next bit of leave, he attended a rout with said woman, hoping to deepen their relationship, but he’d caught her in an unused room, sucking off another man’s length.

The humiliation, rage, and shock had been all-consuming, and he wasn’t one to linger after someone had wronged him.

As soon as the woman scrambled to her feet with an apology on her lips, he’d promptly severed their connection, but she said she’d written him a letter saying she couldn’t marry a military man or go through the uncertainty of it.

Had he read said letter? No, he had not. In fact, it had finally reached him three months later. Not that it mattered now. The damage had been done.

“It doesn’t mean you’re broken or unlovable.”

“I never assumed it was.”

“And from all accounts, the break was mutual… Er rather it would have been, eventually, but it’s well in the past. You need to move on.

There are plenty of eligible women in London, and many of them wish to settle down.

” Her grin was rueful. “And you know Mama keeps asking about you, wondering when you’ll start your own nursery. ”

Oh, dear God, make it stop.

The megrim made itself known harder, and no amount of pinching the bridge of his nose could stave off that pain. “Is that why you’re here, Felicity? You have the ridiculous notion that you’ll matchmake for me?” Because if that were true, he would object.

Quite strenuously.

“No.” Slowly, she shook her head. “It actually is not.” In some agitation, she left the sofa to stroll to the window, which she peered out of, no doubt checking on the location of her sons.

“Then why?”

“Well, since it’s not as if you have pressing business, I was thinking…

” To date, Felicity was the only one in this world who could tease him so much that he flew into the boughs.

Was this one of those times? With a sigh, she turned about and found his gaze with hers.

“I want you to come to a house party in Kent with me. It’s for the May Day celebrations; one of my friends is throwing it to usher in her youngest’s Come Out year.

” As he sputtered while trying to form a protest, she rushed onward.

“I’m taking Helena with me to ease her into bits of society before I send her to finishing school next year. ”

Dear God, what the devil is happening?

“What about me makes you believe I would ever agree to such a thing?” He shoved a hand through his hair. “It sounds horrible, regardless of the reasons.”