Page 55 of To Pleasure a Prince

“Don’t take that tone with me. What the devil didIdo?”

Thanks to you, I entered the dragon’s lair and came out singed.

She couldn’t entirely blame him for that. “I’m sorry. I don’t feel like going out tonight, that’s all.”

The thought of making small talk for the millionth time with people who cared only about their fashions and the lateston-ditheld less appeal than it used to.

Simon jerked her harp forward, leaving her fingers plucking thin air.

“Simon!” she protested as she reached for the instrument.

He hefted it out of her reach. “Youhaveto go. I’m taking Louisa tonight.”

How could that be? “You hate Almack’s.”

“Yes, but she just received her voucher, and she’s dying to attend, so you and Cicely must come along to chaperone. Lady Iversley is indisposed, probably with the same cold that plagued Louisa this week. But Draker said it would be all right as long as the two of you come, too.”

Her heart pounded. “Lord Draker was at the Iversleys? You talked to him?”

“Of course. He was being his usual rude self, insisting that Louisa could only go if you went, but that shouldn’t surprise you. Thatispart of your bargain with him, isn’t it?”

Not anymore.Why hadn’t Marcus told him? Could the man have changed his mind about Louisa and Simon? And if he had, what did it mean? That he had relinquished the battle entirely to her?

Impossible. The man was too thickheaded to do such a thing. But if he had some other purpose for this new tactic, she could not figure out what it might be.

“Does Lord Draker mean to go to Almack’s, too?” she asked, trying for a nonchalant tone. “He told me he doesn’t have a voucher.”

“I suppose that’s true. And he didn’t mention going, so he probably isn’t.”

Now she was thoroughly confused. If he didn’t go, then he was entrusting Louisa to her and Cicely and Simon. When he didn’t trustanyof them with his sister. What was she to make of that?

“But he did ask after you,” Simon went on. “Said he’d been too busy at Castlemaine to come to town the past few days.”

“I see,” she said dully. Oh, yes, she understood perfectly.

He’d simply decided to ignore her for a while. The wretch refused to do as she asked, but he probably thought to weaken her resolve with this gesture. Perhaps he assumed that a few days apart from him would soften her temper.

Arrogant beast.

“So there’s no reason for you not to come with us tonight,” Simon went on. “You can enjoy yourself without Draker around to muck things up.”

“While that is an appealing prospect, I am not in the mood to field people’s sly questions and comments about him. Besides, you really don’t need me along. Cicely is sufficient as a chaperone. And since Lord Draker won’t be there, he won’t care that I’m not.”

“He said you had to come.”

“Then he knows what he has to do to gain my compliance.” Realizing how much she’d revealed, she rose to retrieve her harp.

Simon eyed her closely. “I take it that something serious happened between you and Draker at the opera.”

She clasped her harp by the neck. “I don’t know what you mean.”

He glanced over to where Cicely was drinking in every word. “Ciss, go dress for Almack’s. Regina will be there in a moment.”

“I will not,” Regina protested, but their cousin was already headed out the door. She never disobeyed a direct command.

As soon as she was gone, Simon faced Regina. “I saw Whitmore today.”

Alarm seized her. She forced her voice to sound calm. “Did you?”