"I spied a pretty red head with your wife before. Who might she be?"
"Please keep your eyes off my wife’s friends," he warned. "They are lovely girls and do not need your terrible influence on them."
"I am appalled you would think that I have nothing other than good intentions for the beautiful maiden."
They chuckled, and he basked in the warmth of their friendship when his eyes finally roamed back to Alice to check on her. A frown crossed his face when he spied a man talking to her. He couldn’t identify who he was, and it angered him how close they stood together.
"Who is that discussing with Alice?" he asked Andrew, who knew every member of theton.
He squinted and smiled a devilish smile.
"Why he’s your wife’s former betrothed. The runaway Lord Pembroke."
He frowned as he watched them converse.
Why was the bloody man standing so close to her?
"Why is he talking to her now?" he grunted despite himself.
"Perhaps he is trying to rekindle old flames." Andrew laughed.
"He had better not."
He stormed over to them, ignoring the man looking at him in surprise.
He knew she would have been angered by the abrupt way he had ordered them to leave, but he couldn’t see past the looks he had been getting as the two of them had spoken. Did she not know what talk would come of her speaking with the man who had jilted her?
"Please don’t leave," he begged. "I apologize."
Victor was shocked to see himself reaching out to touch Alice on his own accord, worse still, hearing the words come out of his mouth. In truth, he was apologetic for accusing her as he had and rudely forcing her home. He had seen nothing in his blind rage, and now that he had considerably calmed, he saw the truth of things even though he was content to deny it.
He had been jealous when he had seen how close they had stood, and it annoyed him when Andrew teased him about it. He wondered if perhaps that was what the other members of thetoncould see.
"I just… I do not know if perhaps my marriage to you is keeping you from being with who you love."
"There is no such thing."
"You and your parents seemed heartbroken over the ended engagement to Lord Pembroke. It almost seems as though I was nothing more than an inconvenience."
"I never cared for the match between Lord Pembroke and me. I am truly glad it ended although I would have preferred if it had been a little less embarrassing." She laughed humorlessly.
"You seemed so offended by the fact that I all but dragged you away from him."
She laughed, shaking her head at him.
"I was upset you had us leave the party early without even saying goodbye to my friends or our host."
Oh.
"So you never loved Lord Pembroke?" he asked.
He tried to ignore how his breath hitched, anticipating her response, and if she noticed, she did nothing to show it. It annoyed him that her answer meant a lot more than it should have to him.
"I have never loved, nor will I ever love Lord Pembroke," she answered, shaking her head. "It was a match my father arranged,and I knew it was doomed to fail from the start. I was trying to tell him that before you came and pulled me away."
"I should have trusted you to handle things."
"You should have," she affirmed. "You will have to beg my forgiveness now."
