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Selina had no response for this. She was still watching the monkey, astounded at the oddly dapper yet infantile image he presented. She had intended to use Pip to test Sebastian’s limits, not provide him an ally.

Phoebe laughed as Pip fiddled with the button on his waistcoat. “How very handsome you are now, Pip.”

“Pip,” Mr. Drake said in a severe tone. “Propriety demands we not disrobe in polite company.”

Pip scampered over to him, apparently forgetting about the waistcoat, and jumped onto his arm.

“Good man.” Mr. Drake smiled and pulled a bonbon out of the pocket of his tailcoat.

The monkey reached for it, but Mr. Drake put it out of his grasp. “You have not yet made your bow.” He cleared his throat significantly. “Make a leg, Pip.”

Somewhat reluctantly, Pip hopped back onto the floor and, in an unmistakable attempt at a bow, he leaned forward.

Selina looked on with her mouth agape while Phoebe clapped enthusiastically, her face wreathed in smiles. “You have trained him!”

“I have worked on a few things with him that I hope will serve to make him a less overwhelming pet,” Mr. Drake replied modestly.

Pip snatched the bonbon Mr. Drake offered, then went to enjoy it in the corner of the room in peace.

Selina, who had not yet managed to utter anything beyond her original, bemused question about Pip’s clout, felt a sudden rush of victory.

“You mean to leave him here, then?” Her gaze darted to Phoebe, seeking an acknowledgement that, despite the unexpected progress Mr. Drake had made with Pip, he had still come with the purpose of ridding himself of the monkey.

“Oh, no,” Mr. Drake said. “I am happy to take him with me for as long as it is of help.”

Selina was bereft of speech yet again.

“However did you manage to make such a gentleman out of him, Mr. Drake?” Phoebe asked with wonder. “It must have taken a great deal of work. ”

“It was nothing,” Mr. Drake insisted as the monkey returned to his place on his shoulder. “We have amused ourselves greatly together, have we not, Pip?”

Pip’s response to this was to turn to Mr. Drake and begin searching through the hair near his temple, grooming him.

Mr. Drake smiled but made no move to stop Pip, instead taking a seat. “He is training to become my valet now.” He winked at Selina.

The door to the drawing room opened, and a footman appeared. His eyes darted to Mr. Drake, then back to Selina.

“What is it, James?” Selina asked, though she already knew why he had come. Indeed, she had insisted he do so.

“You have another visitor, ma’am. Mr. Tolliver is waiting in the entrance hall.”

“Oh dear,” Selina said in feigned discomfiture. “How foolish of me to have forgotten. Erm…”

Mr. Drake rose. “Pip and I shall leave you to your visitor, ladies.”

“No, no,” Selina hurried to say. “You have only just arrived. If you do not mind overmuch, Mr. Tolliver may join us.” It would be too bad if she was obliged to endure the presence of Mr. Tolliver without the joy of watching him compete with Mr. Drake.

Mr. Tolliver could not stand to be near her in the presence of another gentleman without trying to prove himself superior.

Mr. Drake paused for a moment, then gave a nod and took his seat again. “As you wish.” Meanwhile, Pip again escaped to the corner of the room, where he consumed the fruit he had stolen from Mr. Drake’s pocket.

The footman bowed and soon returned with Mr. Tolliver, whose benevolent expression lasted through his bow to Selina and Phoebe, only to disintegrate the moment he noticed Mr. Drake.

“I pray you will excuse my thoughtlessness, Mr. Tolliver,” Selina said. “I lost track of my engagements, which is why you find us with a friend. Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Sebastian Drake.”

The Herculean effort Mr. Tolliver’s forced smile required of him had Selina fighting her own amusement as he bowed stiffly to Mr. Drake.

Mr. Drake seemed to be similarly amused by Mr. Tolliver’s attitude toward him, for the corner of his mouth twitched, and his gaze flicked to Selina.

She strived to control her expression but feared she had failed, for Mr. Drake’s eyes danced as they held hers, eliciting a strange stutter in her heartbeat.

It was precisely what she had warned Phoebe against: the man who made one feel as if she was the only woman in the room. And yet, he still managed to evoke the feeling, all the same.

“A friend, you say?” Mr. Tolliver repeated as he stared at Mr. Drake. “I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing Mrs. Lawrence mention you.”

Thoroughly diverted already, Selina watched the effect of this on Mr. Drake with interest.

Mr. Drake smiled knowingly. “Whereas she has spoken of you multiple times.”

Her amusement dissolved. She had done no such thing.

“She…she has?” Mr. Tolliver asked, apparently taken off his guard, though not unpleasantly so.

“Oh, yes,” Mr. Drake said as Pip galloped up and hopped onto his arm.

“Good heavens!” Mr. Tolliver stumbled backward in surprise.

“Come, now, Pip,” Mr. Drake chided the monkey. “Is that any way to greet a visitor?” He pulled out what appeared to be a piece of dried fruit, which Pip’s eyes fixed on hungrily. “Make a leg.”

Pip reluctantly hopped down and executed his simple bow, though his eyes remained fixed on the treat at every possible moment. In exchange for his sacrifice, he was awarded the desired fruit.

Mr. Tolliver blinked at the strange performance, then looked at Mr. Drake. “Do you bring that…thing with you on all your house calls?”

Mr. Drake laughed. “No, though he is certainly helpful for pushing past polite conversation.”

Mr. Tolliver frowned deeply. “I cannot see why anyone would wish to push past polite conversation , as you put it.”

Mr. Drake’s gaze met Selina’s again, and she raised her brows to signify that she too was interested to hear Mr. Drake’s response, though she privately agreed with him and was nearly certain he knew it.

“No, indeed,” Mr. Drake replied, humbled. “Someone like you, who so clearly excels at conversation, need never resort to such barbarous methods.”

Mr. Tolliver seemed not to know what to make of this comment, perhaps because he was watching Pip, who had come up to Selina and was interested in her reticule. “Is that creature bothering you, Mrs. Lawrence?”

“Oh, no,” Selina said genially. “He is quite all right.”

“She is accustomed to managing him,” Mr. Drake reassured him. “Pip belonged to Mr. Lawrence.”

Selina’s muscles tightened. She had been so focused on putting Mr. Drake in an awkward situation that she had not thought carefully enough about this encounter and how Pip would be discussed.

“Belonged to George?” Mr. Tolliver repeated with incredulity. “I never knew George to have a pet.”

Selina forced a laugh. “Nor would you. George could be surprisingly private, you know.”

“It was Mr. Drake who trained Pip, though,” Phoebe chimed in. “Is it not marvelous the way he is dressed and how he bows just so? Such skill it must have required.”

“You overwhelm me, Miss Grant,” Mr. Drake said. “It was simply an idea I took into my head, but I am happy to know it has found favor with you. ”

“How could it not?” Phoebe asked. “Is it not the most charming thing, Selina?”

Selina opened her mouth without any idea how to respond to this. It was charming, but she did not particularly care to compliment Mr. Drake.

The obligation to respond was removed by Mr. Tolliver. “I once trained a falcon so that, if I threw my glove into the air from horseback, it would retrieve it and return it straight to my hand.”

Mr. Drake’s brows shot up in tandem with Selina’s.

She forced herself not to meet his gaze, for she felt certain that if she did, she would burst into laughter.

She happened to know that Mr. Tolliver was very mediocre indeed at both riding and falconry, which was when the next idea occurred to her. “Mr. Drake is an accomplished hunter, Mr. Tolliver.”

“Are you now?” Mr. Tolliver took up the gauntlet without the slightest bit of hesitation.

Selina could hardly contain the eagerness she felt to hear just what fools both men would make of themselves on a topic neither of them knew well.

Mr. Drake gave a laugh and rose to his feet.

“We shan’t bore Mrs. Lawrence or Miss Grant with tales of the hunt today.

Pip and I will allow you three to enjoy the conversation you intended to have.

We still have some training to be getting on with, don’t we, chap?

” He strode over to Selina, who had settled in for another ten minutes at least of competition between the suitors but could not think of a way to force Mr. Drake to stay.

He did not seem terribly inclined to compete with Mr. Tolliver.

She rose and faced him.

He met her gaze with that familiar glint of shared amusement in his eyes that made her feel short of breath.

“I cannot pretend I have the skill to teach Pip to retrieve your glove as Mr. Tolliver might manage, but I will do my poor best to instill him with a bit of discipline.” He put out his hand to welcome hers, and before she knew what she was about, she had granted it to him.

“Thank you for allowing us to call upon you.” He pressed a light kiss to the back of her glove, sending her heart racing and warmth into her cheeks.

Mr. Tolliver shot to his feet and cleared his throat. “You had better leave the monkey with me, Drake. I will teach him anything Mrs. Lawrence desires. Better he be with a friend of George’s, you know.”

Selina stared at Mr. Tolliver in chagrined amazement, then at Mr. Drake.

Had Mr. Drake foreseen this outcome? Had he somehow brought it into being?

“I am sure Mrs. Lawrence and I would not wish to put such a burden upon you, Mr. Tolliver.” Mr. Drake turned to her. “Would we?”

She blinked, more confused than ever. “No, of course not.”

“Nonsense,” Mr. Tolliver replied, coming over to retrieve Pip from Mr. Drake. “It is no burden at all when Mrs. Lawrence needs something. She is accustomed to asking me.”

Selina struggled to think of anything she would ask Mr. Tolliver for, but any reply was swallowed up in the way Pip resisted the man’s efforts to take him from Mr. Drake.

Mr. Drake was obliged to oil the hinges with fruit in order to persuade Pip to accept the idea.

Before Selina could decide on a response to the entire situation, Mr. Drake had bid them farewell and was leaving without Pip on his shoulder.

She and Phoebe were obliged to sit through another half hour of Mr. Tolliver’s company, a great deal of which was taken up by his frustrations with Pip, who insisted on searching and then re-searching every pocket or hiding place he could find in Mr. Tolliver’s clothing, presumably for something to eat.

She made one other attempt to persuade Mr. Tolliver against his intention to train Pip, for she had little confidence that he would even know how to care for the monkey, but he would brook no disagreement, and she did not particularly wish to be saddled with Pip now that Mr. Drake had left.

She could not help feeling that, for all her plans to torture Mr. Drake, he had come out on top with awe-inspiring dexterity.

When Mr. Tolliver finally left and the door closed behind Pip and him, Selina slumped into her chair, exhausted.

“Well,” Phoebe said, “that went a different way than you had planned.”

Selina looked over at her, unable to suppress a smile. “And you are thrilled, aren’t you?”

“Well, when you pit someone as amiable as Mr. Drake against someone as boring and self-important as Mr. Tolliver, what do you expect? Do you still cling to your notion that he is merely hunting your fortune?”

“Of course I do! You heard Mr. Haskett. He is a fortune hunter. There is no doubt on that score.”

“Well, for my part, I would not mind having a fortune if it meant Mr. Drake was the one hunting me.”

“Phoebe!” Selina cried out, shocked and amused all at once.

Phoebe grinned. “Do you mean to play the same games with Mr. Tolliver that you have been playing with Mr. Drake? Tolliver is a fortune hunter too, after all.”

“Good heavens, no,” Selina said, disgusted at the mere thought.

“Why not?” She stared at Selina with a bit too much innocent curiosity.

Selina did not reply, for if she did, it would confirm something she had no wish to confirm: she was enjoying this game with Mr. Drake. It would be entirely miserable if Mr. Tolliver were to take his place, however.

How she hated that knowledge.