Page 77 of In the Prince's Bed

“You wouldn’t be happy with me now.” As angry as she was at Alec, as confused as he made her feel, she did know that Sydney wasn’t the right man for her.

He tensed. “It’shim,isn’t it? He’s turned you against me.”

“Not exactly—”

“Even if you don’t wish to havemeanymore,” Sydney said tightly, “at least choose someone better than Iversley to replace me.”

“He’s not as bad as you think.”

“He didn’t arrive to take you to the party, did he?”

“Mama told you—he was held up at his estate.”

Sydney snorted. “A likely tale. I doubt he would care enough about his estate to get held up there.”

She thought of the fervor with which Alec had described Edenmore and shook her head. “I think you’re wrong.”

“Why are you defending him?”

She blinked. “I don’t know.”

“He’s off somewhere doing God knows what and breaking his promise, yet you put up with it—”

“Oh, no, I shan’t put up with it, believe me.” There would be no more evasions, no more inconsiderate behavior, or she would send him packing. “But I believe there’s good in him.”

Until she said it, she hadn’t realized it. But it was true. It might be buried rather deep, but therewasgood in him.

“You’re wrong about him, Kit. At best, he’s a prankster who makes fun of bad poets for entertainment.” When she gaped at him, Sydney added, “Yes, I noticed all his antics at the reading. It was exactly the sort of thing he did at Harrow. He never takes anything seriously.”

Whereas Sydney took everything so seriously that he couldn’t even make up his mind about marriage.

“At worst,” Sydney continued, “he’s a duplicitous defiler of women.”

“And how do you know that about him?”

“Surely you recognize the type—charming, quick-witted, skilled at seduction, and completely without moral fiber.”

“In other words, you know it because you assume it. Not because you have any evidence that he defiles or deceives women.”

Sydney grew sullen. “He used to flatter the maids at Harrow so he could kiss them.”

A giggle floated up inside her. She could easily imagine a sixteen-year-old Alec feeling his oats, flirting with some chambermaid so he could steal a kiss. It would be just like him. “If he did, he probably kissed a great many. I doubt few maids could resist Alec’s charm.”

“You’re not listening—”

“Why should I? It would be one thing if you could show me how dastardly he’s been since he’s arrived in England, but all this nonsense from his days at Harrow…goodness, every boy does those things.”

“Ididn’t.”

“I’ll bet your friend Lord Napier did. He seems the sort.”

Sydney gave a strangely harsh laugh. “One thing I can promise you—Napier has never tried to kiss a chambermaid in his life.”

“If you say so. But all boys act foolishly sometimes. You can’t judge a man’s character by the pranks he played as a lad.” Especially a man who’d been estranged from his father and sent abroad in the middle of a war.

A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Tell me something, Sydney—what exactly did Alec do to get sent down from school?” That was one subject Alec had been tight-lipped about.

Sydney frowned. “His stupid friends had some notion that they could pass themselves off as a royal entourage if Iversley would pretend to be the Prince of Wales. They strolled into an inn they’d never gone to in a neighboring town and demanded an expensive meal. When the innkeeper challenged them, they ran off, but the man reported it to Harrow and picked every one of them out.”