Dare looked over to Knox approaching with a long-stemmed glass of champagne in his hand, painting the lie of a refined lord dripping with elegance.
In truth, he was a bare-knuckle fighting ruffian.
“Lost?”
“Yes,” Knox said before taking a sip of his champagne. “You have the look of a boy who has stumbled into a place he shouldn’t have. You seem distracted.”
“I am.” Why bother lying? He could even argue that he had stumbled into a place he shouldn’t have simply because she wasn’t here.
“Drake told me that you came to his boxing match with your lady love.” Eyes that saw way too much studied him.
“She’s not my lady love.”
“Yet she is the source of your distraction, is she not?”
“What about you? You spoke with Drake. What else did he say?”
“Not much, honestly. He is impatient to return home.”
Dare snorted. What was going between him and the duchess? She’d shown up at the warehouse to watch him box, for Christ’s sake. A damn strange occurrence. There seemed to be a deep conflict between the two. Also, not many knew this, but the duchess had played the biggest part in his mother’s fall from grace—she’d revealed her pregnancy to the family causing Drake’s mother to be expelled from her family home, and society at large, leaving her and Drake on the streets. The only family member who had shown any pity was her sister, Dare’s mother. She’d used her own funds to help them settle in Brighton and visited them from time to time.
A nasty affair.
“If he is that impatient, he should up the ante or make amends.” The latter he’d never do.
“True.”
Dare certainly didn’t want to be dragged into a feud of any sort. He thought of Leonora, her family secret. The same fate awaited her should the secret ever come to light—at least where society was concerned. She’d be cast out. Ostracized. Fortunately, Heart would never abandon his family. Just look at the lengths the man had gone to in order to protect her. Drake’s mother hadn’t been that fortunate.
But even if the worst somehow happened,healso wouldn’t allow Leonora to be entirely abandoned. She possessed too much light for Dare to ever allow that.
And he appeared to be a moth.
Ugly little things, unable to help being drawn to a flicker of light and a bit of warmth. But they could only ever flit around it, never entirely obtain it.
He sighed.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Knox said, amused.
“What?” Dare swept the room to map out the best exit for a hasty departure. No use standing about in boredom. He couldn’t even muster up the spirit to pretend to enjoy himself. He should just go to bed.
Knox studied him with a keen gaze. “I’ve never heard you sigh like that before.”
“Like what? A sigh is a sigh.”
“Notthatsigh. That sigh is laced with the ache of longing.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” He would never, ever sigh with an ache of longing. How did that even happen? What did that evensoundlike?
“Am I really the ridiculous one?”
“Well, you’d have to be. How else would you know what a sigh of longing sounds like? You could only know it if you have experience with it yourself, old chap.”
Knox pulled a face.
That’s better. “Why are you even here?” Dare continued, changing the subject. “Don’t you have a gambling hell to run?”
“I own it,” his friend corrected. “Which means I just pore over the accounts. I have a manager who takes care of the rest.”
