Chapter 4
Chapter Four
“Isuppose we should return to the ball.” Lady Vivian bit her lip as her eyes drifted from Thomas to the door that led back into the ballroom. “Who knows what rumors are starting?”
Thomas noticed the tension in her shoulders, the way she clenched her fists. Her jaw tightened, causing the muscles in her neck to tense. She reminded him of someone bracing herself for a fight.
“You seem as though you are preparing for battle, not a dance.” He gestured to the ballroom.
“It feels like it,” Lady Vivian admitted. “I had not expected everything to be so chaotic.”
“You make it seem as though you have never been to a ball before.” He chuckled.
She looked at him, her eyes wide. “It is. At least, my first proper ball. My parents saw no reason for me to be properly out as I was already engaged.”
“And you chose this to make your debut?” His own eyes widened, and he shook his head. “A rather bold choice.”
“And it has paid off, would you not agree?” Lady Vivian arched an eyebrow at him, her mouth curling into a half smile.
“I suppose that is true.” Thomas found himself smiling in return.
“Though if you do not wish to return to the ball proper, I can arrange it so that you can slip away without notice. These things are so chaotic that few people take their leave before departing. And you already have what you came for.”
“I will need to find my chaperone.” Lady Vivian bit her lip.
“Not a very mindful chaperone, given she appears to have made no efforts to find her charge.” Thomas kept his voice neutral, wondering at the kind of chaperone who would be so negligent in their duties.
Surely after what she has faced, her parents would want someone who could keep her safe.
He realized his shoulders had tightened as he considered the kinds of trouble an unchaperoned and unmarried young lady could face. He forced them to loosen.
“She was more interested in the drinks, it must be said. And of course, given my age… well, I suppose her behavior is understandable. Though I do not relish the thought of trying to find her in the chaos.” Lady Vivian swallowed, the movement shifting the necklace around her neck and drawing his attention to the slender slope of her skin.
Focus. Thomas clasped his hands behind his back. “I shall have someone find her for you. Give me a description, and I will see it done. If you take that path, it will lead you to the front of the house.”
Lady Vivian hesitated and then nodded. “Very well. Thank you.”
Thomas waved a servant over and instructed him to find the woman matching the chaperone’s description. He waited until the man had reappeared with the woman in tow and watched carefully as Lady Vivian and the chaperone disappeared into the distance.
“You know, there are easier ways of winning our bet than frightening women off in the middle of a dance.” Dominic’s voice said from behind him. “If I had realized your flirting had deteriorated to this extent, I might not have made the wager in the first place.”
Thomas turned to face his cousin, doing his best to keep his expression neutral, even as he felt a slight flush spread across his cheeks.
It made him think of the flush on Lady Vivian’s cheeks when he had called out her bluff, and he thought he smelled the faint scent of roses. He ran the pad of his thumb across his fingers unconsciously.
Thomas forced himself not to look in the direction that Lady Vivian had gone. “She was surprised, not scared.”
“And what did you say that surprised her so much?” Dominic folded his arms across his chest, leaning against a nearby wall.
Thomas arched an eyebrow at his cousin. “I offered to marry her.”
The look of surprise on his cousin’s face was almost worth the admission. Thomas held his amusement in check as he watched his cousin’s jaw drop.
“What?” Dominic blinked at him, shaking his head. “You offered to marry her? Are you mad? Do you even know her?”
Thomas gave his cousin a frank look. “Strong words coming from you, Dominic. How long had you known Charlotte before you roped her into pretending to be your betrothed?”
He knew that Dominic and his wife had begun their life together as a bid to gain an inheritance and freedom. The arrangement had been one of mutual benefit, not love, though it had turned into that.
I will not fall into that trap. He felt something stir uneasily in his chest, but pushed it away. His cousins might be like brothers to him, but they were their own men. Besides, from what he had seen of Lady Vivian, she seemed businesslike and detached.
She is not looking for romance; she is just seeking revenge.
It was a comforting thought.
Dominic frowned at him. “That was a low blow, Elington, but I suppose you have a point. Though I am guessing by her swift departure that you are not engaged?”
“Actually, she has accepted.” Thomas rolled his shoulders out and gestured to the cup that his fiancée had left behind. “We discussed it over tea. I thought it would help her nerves.”
He ran his thumb across his fingers, thinking of the way she had taken the cup from him and her fingers had brushed against his own.
“You are serious?” Dominic let out a breath of air that fogged the air around them. “When Felty told me you planned on finding yourself a wife, I thought he was pulling my leg.”
“He was not,” Thomas replied nonchalantly.
“You owe me thirty guineas.” Dominic stepped toward him, his hand outstretched, a look of boyish glee on his face. “I did not expect to win quite so soon, I must say.”
“You have not won.” Thomas batted his cousin’s hand away. “Our wager was that I would be married, in love, and deliriously happy. I am none of those things.”
Dominic’s brow furrowed. “You just told me she has accepted your proposal.”
“Which makes her my fiancée, not my wife. At least not yet.” Thomas ran a hand through his hair, his eyes drifting back to where Lady Vivian had left.
“And we are not marrying for love, Dorson. I am sure Felty told you of my need for respectability, and well, Lady Vivian finds herself in need of a husband, and it seemed a sensible solution for us to marry.”
“Lady Vivian?” Dominic asked.
Thomas gestured with his hand, trying to remember her full name and title. “Lady Vivian Willows. Her father is the Earl of Brookes.”
“She is the one that Lord Brixten jilted!” Dominic exclaimed.
“Yes.” Thomas made a shushing motion at his cousin and glared. “Married a girl barely out of leading strings, and broke off a decades-long engagement to do it. She was promised to him at birth, and the scoundrel did not even have the decency to send a letter.”
Thomas’s jaw clenched, and he flexed his fingers. He was thankful he hadn’t run into the man. He had little patience for men who treated women like mere playthings and even less for men who broke their promises.
Not that he will face any real repercussions. After all, his father-in-law will shield him from much of the ton’s ire.
Dominic chewed his lip. “And you do not fear that there was a reason for him to behave like that? What if the woman is to blame?”
“Short of killing someone, I can think of very little a woman could do that would deserve that kind of treatment.” He gave his cousin a level look as he wrestled the anger that flared within him. “And she did not seem like the murderous type to me.”
“That does not mean she will be a pleasant wife. She could be mad or—” Dominic began, but Thomas cut him off, holding up a hand.
“She is still my fiancée, and I will not have my own cousin cast aspersions on her character. She is not the one who has behaved abominably.” Thomas let out a long breath.
“I am not trying to find the love of my life, Dorson. In fact, I need the opposite. I need a woman who won’t get caught up in flights of fancy.
I need someone who is grounded, who is practical and strong. ”
“And you think that is Lady Vivian?”
“I do. I can think of few women who would describe her ordeal without being moved to tears. I can think of even fewer who would enter society at twenty-four with their heads held high, and upon meeting their ex-fiancé and his new wife, immediately find a way to make him regret leaving their engagement.” He thought of the businesslike way Vivian had laid out everything before him.
She seemed more bothered by the nuisance of having to find a husband than by any hurt her fiancé had caused.
“You sound as if you admire her.” Dominic gave him a sidelong look.
“I admire what I have seen of her nature,” Thomas admitted. “Besides, she comes from a good family. She will bring me the respectability I need, and in doing so, she will have the chance to make her ex-fiancé rue the day he let her slip from his grasp.”
“And I take it Lady Vivian understands just what you are offering her?” Dominic chewed his lip. “She does not expect you to give her a real marriage?”
“I made it clear that it would be a marriage in name alone.” Thomas made an emphatic gesture with his hand. “And I will reiterate it when I call on her tomorrow. After all, I should at least make a show of gaining her father’s consent.”
Dominic massaged his neck. “You are playing a dangerous game, Elington.”
“It is not a game,” Thomas countered. “It is simply good business.”
There was a beat of silence, and Thomas added, “I had rather hoped that you would be my best man. But if you disapprove of my plan, then perhaps I should ask Felty instead.”
Dominic opened his mouth, but at that moment, Charlotte walked onto the veranda and put her arm around her husband. Thomas inclined his head to her.
“Your grandmother is looking for you, Thomas.” Charlotte jerked her head toward the ballroom.
“Which means that it is high time I take my leave of you.” Thomas turned and began to make his way down the steps in the direction his fiancée had disappeared.
“Elington, wait!” Dominic called, grabbing his arm. “I will do it.”
Thomas smiled at him. “Brilliant.”
“I still think this is a foolish plan.” Dominic laughed. “But it will at the very least work out in my favor.”
“Ever the optimist, cousin, ever the optimist.” Thomas walked away.
He would visit his fiancée in the morning and make sure they were on the same page. He was offering her a business arrangement, and pretty face or no, he knew his plan would work.