Page 62 of To Pleasure a Prince

The women’s enthusiasm was infectious. Marcus smiled. “I’ve been told it was used as such during the reign of Henry VIII, but since then it’s served mostly as storage for meat or wine or whatever the present owner chooses.”

“And what doyoukeep in the dungeon, sir?” Lady Amanda asked, with a coy flutter of her eyelashes.

Another flirting female. Amazing.

Regina snorted. “Nothing of interest to you, Amanda, I’m sure.”

Marcus’s gaze shot to her. She couldn’t actually be jealous, could she?

“Oh?” Lady Amanda retorted slyly. “How would you know unless you’ve seen it? You must have seen his estate, to know so much about his ‘castle.’ ”

Regina colored. “Well…I…that is—

“Her brother is quite enamored of my sister,” Marcus said swiftly. “Of course they’ve visited Castlemaine.” As Lady Amanda and her companions exchanged knowing glances, he decided it was time to put an end to this dangerous conversation. “Now, if you will excuse us, I promised the next dance to Lady Regina.” He held his arm out. “Shall we?”

She took it with a grateful smile, and they walked off toward the ballroom. As soon as they were out of earshot, she murmured, “Thank you.”

“I take it that Lady Amanda would delight in seeing you ruined.”

“Amanda is only happy when everyone else is miserable.”

He shook his head. “And that is the sort of woman you consider a friend?”

“That is the sort of woman I consider a necessary evil,” she countered. “Tell me, did you enjoy your conversation with the gentlemen about rifles?”

“I suppose,” he hedged.

“One of those men is Amanda’s brother. He is a perfectly amiable fellow and someone I enjoy talking to; but to have his company, I must endure hers from time to time, and so I do.”

“I don’t know why. I wouldn’t give you a farthing for any of them.”

“But surely there are people you would give a farthing for, people whose friends you endure because you enjoy their company. The Iversleys, perhaps.”

“I don’t have to endure their friends to have their company. And the few friends they do have are fine with me.”

“Then perhaps there is someone else you would care enough about to endure their companions? Your brother, for example?”

His gaze shot to her. “Brother?”

“Oh, please, don’t play the innocent with me. It is clear that you and Mr. Byrne are friends, and everyone knows you are half brothers.”

“Prinny says otherwise.”

“True. But he doesn’t have to acknowledge Mr. Byrne as his son for people to know that he is. Just as they know thatyouare. And I’ll wager that if either of you would un-bend enough to approach His Highness, he would treat you with the same generosity as he’s treated his other natural children.”

“Even if that were true, and I’m not sure that it is,” Marcus retorted, “any help he provided would come with conditions. And I am not interested in bowing to his dam—…to his cursed conditions.”

She stopped to pull him to the lemonade table, which presently stood deserted. As he poured her a glass, she gazed up at him earnestly. “Is that why you cast the prince out of your home all those years ago?”

“I cast him out of my home because he turned my mother into a whore.”

“Did he?”

He could almost see what she was thinking.It takes two to make a whore.That painful truth was one he’d spent half his life trying to ignore.

And he was no more disposed to think about it now. He poured a glass of lemonade for himself. “We weren’t discussing my mother,” he grumbled. “We were discussing Byrne. And I don’t see what he has to do with anything. Or why you think he and I are such great friends.”

She shrugged. “He had to be the one who got you your Stranger’s Ticket. Everyone knows he and a certain Lady Patroness were once…intimate companions.”