Chapter Twenty-five #2
‘Agreed,’ said the other two simultaneously.
‘Fine,’ said Tobias, sinking back into his chair. He was out of options; he might as well humiliate himself further.
‘You and Grace have been getting along well and now you seem not to be talking. What happened?’ asked Edward.
Tobias stared at the mantlepiece, wishing it were possible to spontaneously disappear.
‘We swear this will go no further, Tobias.’ Christopher rarely sounded this sincere; dragging his gaze to look at his youngest brother, Tobias saw a sweetly earnest expression on his face, one he usually only shared with Sophia. ‘We will not even tell our wives.’
Tobias closed his eyes.
‘You realise we can still see you, yes?’
He snapped them back open. ‘I am not Charlotte. Of course I realise you can still see me.’
Christopher raised his hands. ‘I was only checking.’
Tobias sighed. He was committed now. He might as well get this over with. As succinctly as he could, he explained what had passed between him and Grace. At the end of it, all three stared at him with open mouths, their drinks temporarily forgotten.
Finally, Freddie said, ‘To be clear, Grace offered to be your mistress and you turned her down.’
‘I did.’
‘Right,’ said Freddie, in a tone that suggested he thought Tobias was dicked in the nob. A sentiment with which Tobias could not argue.
‘Because…?’ Freddie waved his free hand around to prompt Tobias into explaining the unexplainable.
‘He clearly wants her to be his wife,’ said Edward. ‘He said as much and it has been as plain as day to the rest of us since they first set eyes on one another, that this was where it was headed. Pay attention, Freddie.’
‘I understand that part.’ Freddie scowled at Edward, who did not look contrite. ‘And while the initial refusal to be his wife at first seems problematic, we have to be grateful that she is not after him because she wants to be duchess.’
Tobias’ three brothers nodded sagely. If his very future wasn’t at stake, he would find it amusing.
‘I do feel,’ continued Freddie carefully, ‘that Tobias may have been better able to achieve that state if she was happy in his b… arms, rather than the situation we now find ourselves in, in which she is refusing to look in his direction.’
‘He did the right thing,’ maintained Edward, although he did not sound so sure.
‘How do you figure that out?’ Christopher crossed his arms across his chest, looking genuinely confused.
Edward shrugged. ‘That is the advice given to young women, is it not? Do not become someone’s mistress. Make sure you marry them before you give away your body.’
Tobias glanced at the window; even if he had been small enough to climb out of it, his brothers would catch him and drag him back to this excruciating conversation.
‘Are you suggesting that Tobias is a debutant in this scenario?’ At least Freddie seemed shocked rather than amused. Tobias wasn’t sure he could take it if they found this situation funny.
Edward had the decency to look slightly embarrassed. ‘No.’ A pause. ‘Yes, I suppose I am.’
Tobias suppressed a groan. His brothers meant well, but as yet, they were not helping.
‘He did the right thing,’ persisted Edward. ‘Now he needs to make his next move.’
‘Which is…?’
Tobias was glad Freddie had asked, because he had no idea.
‘Wooing her.’
‘That was my suggestion. Right at the beginning.’ Freddie was frowning indignantly, as if coming up with the concept of attracting a wife was his invention.
‘It was a good one, Fred. Now we just have to come up with how.’ Christopher pulled over a chair and sank down into it, balancing his glass of brandy on a ledger.
Tobias eyed it, waiting for it to slide unceremoniously to the floor, but it remained still, as if it too had promised to be on good behaviour.
‘To be fair to Tobias,’ said Freddie, also pulling up a chair, ‘he was doing a reasonable job of it until today.’
‘He was,’ said Christopher stoutly. Tobias felt a wave of affection for his brothers, enough that he could sit up straight again and take a sip of his brandy.
‘Grace is quite competitive,’ said Freddie apropos of nothing.
‘She is,’ said Christopher. ‘She won pall-mall very convincingly and although she did not celebrate overmuch, you could tell it was a hard-won battle with her instincts.’
‘If she played against you, it does not surprise me that she was the victor,’ said Edward, breaking the truce and insulting his youngest brother.
Christopher narrowed his eyes at Edward, but unusually did not rise to the jibe. ‘There were lots of us playing and you could tell that she wanted to be the winner, even if she did so politely.’
‘There you are then,’ said Freddie, as if this confirmed a theory he had just expounded on at length.
‘You are going to need to give us more than that, Fred,’ said Edward.
‘Turn the business of wooing into a competition,’ said Freddie, splaying out a hand as if what he had said was completely reasonable.
He turned so that he was only facing Tobias.
‘She wants to be your mistress, you want her to be your wife. Tell her that if that is what she wants, she has to win… well, she has to win you. But at the same time, and do not hide this from her, women do not like that—’ Freddie held up a finger to emphasise his point ‘—you tell her that you are playing to win her as your wife. Regardless of what happens, she is yours and she is not marrying Lord Beauvarlet, which we were all worried about for a while.’
‘I was not,’ said Christopher. ‘I always knew it was going to be Tobias. He is far better looking than the Beauvarlet heir.’
‘You are only saying that because Tobias looks most like you,’ said Edward, the truce on very dangerous grounds now.
‘He looks like all of us.’ Christopher shot Tobias a wink, and gave a slight shake of the head. Tobias hid a smile behind the edge of his glass, amazed that he could find something funny in this long, embarrassing conversation.
‘In that case, you are right,’ said Edward who had missed Christopher’s gesture. ‘He is better looking than Beauvarlet.’
‘I notice neither of you is mentioning my charm.’ Tobias took a sip of the brandy, the smooth liquid rolling over his tongue.
‘You have been charming Grace just fine,’ said Freddie encouragingly. ‘The riding lessons were a masterstroke.’
Tobias didn’t think he or his brothers had ever been in such accord. They were being almost alarmingly polite and reassuring. He must look in a worse state than he imagined. ‘Why are you helping me with this? Why with Grace in particular, I mean?’
Freddie glanced at the other two, who both nodded back at him, encouraging him to be the one who spoke.
‘I cannot speak for those two cowards. But I meant what I said at the start. I have never seen you as happy or as animated as when you are with Grace. You keep yourself closed off from us, and I can understand that. You had to grow up quickly, had to defend yourself, and us, against our aunt and wrest back control of the dukedom from guardians who did not want to give up the power it afforded them. Life has given you more responsibility, more reasons to be graver than other people. Since Grace has come into your life, it is as if you are becoming the man you were always meant to be. I, we—’ Freddie gestured to the other two ‘—want you to have what you want and if that is Grace, then we will do whatever we can to help you with that.’
Freddie stopped talking and the study fell into silence.
Tobias took another sip of his drink. Everything that Freddie had said was true.
Tobias did feel like he had been moving through the motions of life for years, but not truly experiencing it.
Ever since Grace had dunked him under the water, it was as if she had woken him up.
He could not lose her. Not now, not ever.
He put the glass back down on his desk, a drop of liquid landing on the report.
‘Tell me more about how this competition could work.’