“You were not friendly either,” she snapped. “How am I ever to have even the slightest of chances, if you cannot even be polite?”
“Iwaspolite,” he said, furrowing his brow at her. “And anyway, you know how uncomfortable I feel in these situations. Do you not care in the slightest for my feelings?”
“You are uncomfortable by your own doing,” Diana snapped. “If you hadn’t killed our—”
“I didnotkill them,” he said, nostrils flaring at her.
He said the words firmly, as he always did when she accused him, but he wasn’t sure he could believe them either. He had blamed himself for their death for far too many years.
“Listen,” he said finally, his chin still tense and squared. “I did not bring you here so that we could argue, and certainly not in front of all these people.”
Diana snorted. “I do believe that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you concern yourself with how welook.”
“Diana,” he said firmly. “I will leave, if you keep pushing me. Believe me, I would much rather be drinking with my friends and—”
“And gambling, no doubt.” She looked at him with disapproval.
“Yes, if I’m honest, gambling as well. At least none of those men look down on me in the same way that the people here do.”
“Our parentsdiedbecause of you, Sebastian. The least you could do is—”
“I was three-and-ten and I had smallpox! It’s not my fault they rushed back through the snow and rain and had an accident.”
Although he said the words, he did not believe them. He blamed himself even more than Diana blamed him.
“And I was eight-and-ten, and if it had not been for you, I would have debuted then, and not years later, by which time you had—”
“Stop! Diana, this is supposed to be a pleasant evening, not one of raking up the past.”
Diana sighed, her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose, and then she looked back at him.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. No more arguments, I promise. Let’s try and enjoy the evening.”
“Thank you,” he said, looking relieved. “Why don’t we take a tour of the room? See if we can get you dancing with some handsome gentleman, shall we?”
And that way, I can get a closer look at the beautiful Miss Jones.
