Indiscreet by Mary Balogh Page B

last evening had been a thoroughly insignificant incident in his life.
    He doubted he had slept an hour last night.
    â€œPoor Rex,” his sister said, laughing and squeezing his arm. “I can see that in some ways it must be wretched to have inherited the title and the property and the fortune and to be single and handsome. Not that it would be any easier for you if you looked like the ugliest of bulldogs, I suppose. You are irresistiblymarriageable to anyone related to a single female between the ages of sixteen and thirty. But if Clarissa had any sense, she would realize that this is a quite impossible match. Ellen has acquired no real town bronze yet despite a Season last year. Though she is, of course, a sweet girl. And pretty.”
    â€œThank you for rescuing me,” he said dryly. “And I daresay Miss Hudson is silently blessing you too. She looks at me as if she expects that at any moment I am going to pick her up with one hand and devour her. What did we do to deserve Clarissa as a sister-in-law, Daphne? I do believe I must have been mad to have accepted her invitation. I knew what was in store for me.”
    â€œBut it is so lovely to be together in one place, the three of us,” she said, squeezing his arm again. “It happens so rarely. We all live so far apart. I miss you and Claude despite a happy marriage. Do you still pine for Horatia Eckert?”
    â€œI never did
pine,
” he said, his jaw tightening. “I fell madly in love during the short interval between the Peninsula and Waterloo, got myself betrothed in indecent haste, and might well have lived to regret it. It was as well that she also fell in love—after I had left for Brussels and with someone else.”
    â€œWith a practiced seducer and fortune hunter,” she said. “He is notorious for preying on young, inexperienced girls, especially when they have wealthy papas. He has even ruined a few innocents. Fortunately he has never yet achieved his goal of winning a wealthy bride. It is amazing to me that someone has not put a bullet between his eyes before now. Don’t be too harsh onHoratia, Rex. She was very young and very impressionable. And you were gone to war. And nothing came of it after all.”
    â€œPerhaps,” he said through his teeth, “because the size of her fortune had been greatly exaggerated. I was well out of it, Daphne, and would appreciate not being reminded of it.”
    â€œAnd therein lies a contradiction,” she said. “You would not be reluctant to talk of the matter if it had left you as unscarred as you always claim.”
    â€œNo man likes being reminded of his humiliation at the hands of a woman,” he said, wincing inwardly at his memories of the previous evening. “She did break our engagement, Daphne. That made me look somewhat—well, undesirable.”
    â€œUndesirable? You?” She laughed again. “Rex. Have you looked at yourself in a glass lately?”
    But he was not inclined to continue the conversation. He could hear music coming through the French windows of the room. The windows had been opened a little to admit the fresh spring air. Someone was playing scales.
    The music lesson was still in progress, then. Damn!
    â€œAh,” his sister said, “good. We are not too late.”
    The occupants of the room were unaware of their presence for all of a minute or two. All three of them had their backs to the windows. Juliana was sitting on a chair writing in what appeared to be a theory book. William was at the pianoforte, playing scales. Mrs. Winters was standing behind him.
    His prim, straitlaced widow who was in reality a tease and a hypocrite. He could not remember a time when he had somiscalculated with a woman. He did not feel very kindly disposed toward her.
    He had never known a woman who cultivated simplicity to such a degree. Her hair, smooth and shining in the light from the windows, was dressed in its usual knot