“You’re welcome. But I have to say that your concerns do seem premature. Why not wait a bit and see how the arrangement works before you judge it?”
Denys considered, trying to find a way to explain without revealing his own vulnerabilities. “It’s so damned awkward.”
“Bound to be,” Stuart conceded. “But that’ll pass in time, I daresay.”
“It’ll cause tremendous gossip.”
“Which, since you’re a viscount and Lola’s not a lady, hardly affects your reputation—or hers, either, for that matter. At worst, people will assume you’ve taken up with her again.”
Glad that someone had grasped at least that much of his difficulty, he nodded. “Just so.”
“You’re thinking of your father,” James put in.
“Of course I am. My father is a good man, and I’m fond of him. But I am also thinking of my mother, and Susan—all my family. When the scandal sheets find out about this, the whole business will be raked up and discussedad nauseum. Speculation will run wild that Lola and I have rekindled our affair. We’ll be the talk of society.”
“Only until people see there’s nothing to the gossip.”
Denys thought of that damnable kiss in his office and resisted the impulse to shift guiltily in his chair. “Yes, well,” he mumbled, “until they do, it’ll be a painful and embarrassing situation for the entire family. It was difficult enough for them to endure it all the first time—”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Nick interrupted with a groan. “You made a fool of yourself over a woman. It’s happened to us all. When will you stop flogging yourself for not being the ever-perfect son?”
“I know you don’t worry about things like that, Nick,” he shot back. “You gave up being Landsdowne’s perfect son before any of us were out of short pants.”
Nick grinned, unperturbed. “You’ve met Landsdowne. Were he your father, would you give a damn what he thought?”
Denys sighed. “I suppose not,” he conceded. “But I can’t make light of what this sort of talk would do to my family. I care about them. I care how they would feel, and I care what they think. And in any case, they are not the only ones to consider. There’s Georgiana as well.”
The other four men stared at him, and their surprise led him to assume a nonchalant air. “We’ve been seeing a bit of each other this season. Well, I am thirty-two, you know,” he added, their silence impelling him to explain. “Time’s getting on. I have to start thinking of the future.”
Jack gave a shout of laughter at that, and Denys turned to the man beside him with a frown. “Really, Jack, you seem to find my situation endlessly amusing.”
“Well,” Jack began, but Denys cut him off.
“We all hold aristocratic titles, and we know it’s our duty to marry, and marry well. Even you finally accepted that fact.”
“I would not have done if Linnet hadn’t been the perfect wife for me.”
Denys considered Georgiana—her grace and restraint, her charity work, her impeccable reputation and background, her fastidious nature, their fond childhood. “And Georgiana would be the perfect wife for me.”
“Not perfect enough to impel you to actually propose, however.”
He scowled in the face of that irrefutable point. “Just because I haven’t doesn’t mean I won’t. I am... considering it.”
“It’s probably too late now. You’ve known Georgiana since she was born. If she has half the brains I think she has, she gave up any hopes about you ages ago. I would have.”
He opened his mouth to fire off a smart reply about Jack’s brains, but Nick deprived him of the chance.
“Surely, Georgiana and your family will all understand this arrangement with Lola is a business partnership, one forced upon you. Your private relationship with Lola is history, you’ve assured your family on that point, and once you’ve explained it all to Georgiana, there should be no cause for worry.”
“In theory that seems so reasonable.” Denys took another swallow of port. “The reality, I daresay, will be much less so.”
“Why?” Nick countered. “Don’t they trust you?”
“Of course they trust me. It’s just that—” He stopped, the brutal truth hitting him square in the chest.
I don’t trust myself.
That admission, silently made, was galling beyond belief, and when he glanced around the table, the faces of his friends told him he might just as well have said it out loud.
