Page 3 of Her Duke at Midnight
Adam shot his friend a smile. Roger Bennett might be an overly bright pain in the arse when one wanted to wallow in one’s bed all day, but he would defend a friend with the same fierceness he put into being merry.
“Our intentions may be good, my friend, but we may still do harm.”
“Mmm,” Bennett murmured thoughtfully. “I’ve heard she’s set to marry soon.”
“Yes, I heard the same.” The lady had removed to her family’s country estate and fallen in love with the local vicar, or so the story went when it reached the London tattle sheets. “I do wish her well.”
“Yes, of course.”
A maid entered the room with a tea tray, and Bennett had poured himself a cup before Adam had a chance to reach for his coffee.
“Now,” his friend said as he blew across the surface of his steaming cup, “let us get to the matter at hand.”
“You mean the part where I refuse to accompany you to a winter house party?”
Bennett sipped his tea and glared at Adam. “You should agree. Get yourself out of the city.” He offered Adam’s disheveled hair and messily tied neckcloth a judgmental shake of his head. “Look at you, man. You need this. A chance to be social again. My God, have you accepted a single invitation since July?”
“Only Alexandra’s. Those I couldn’t refuse.” Adam’s sister was bullheaded and would simply come to him if he declined to visit her.
“Well, this is a chance to be among people again. Lord and Lady Derwent are respectable to a fault. I doubt there will be any lusty widows clamoring for your attention. Just shooting and feasting and perhaps some music.”
“I don’t hunt, as you well know.”
Bennett flicked his fingers, brushing away the comment. “Then you shall excuse yourself from the hunting party and read a book or doze before the fire. You do seem to love your scientific tomes. You’ve never had trouble entertaining yourself.”
Adam did not point out that a bed partner was often how he entertained himself when he wasn’t reading, and he hadn’t had one in far too long.
“No ladies attending at all?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Adam narrowed an eye, and Bennett’s cheeks went positively rosy. “What aren’t you telling me? You said this is urgent. Why?”
His friend drew in a deep breath and held it, eyeing Adam as if debating how much to divulge.
“Out with it. The whole truth if you want me to consider this venture at all.”
“We must depart by tomorrow at the latest if we wish to accept the Derwent invitation. And Lady Lara Mercer is attending.” His eyes took on an overeager glow. “I met her at a soirée last month, danced with her at a ball last week, and am completely besotted, Everton.”
Adam pinched the bridge of his nose and attempted to mentally tally the number of women Bennett had been smitten with in the past few months. He stopped counting at five. The man was on a mission to find the future Mrs. Bennett, and, so far, each attempt had led to bouts of heartache and disappointment.
“If she’s been invited, other ladies will have been too.”
“Certainly, but you can simply make your unavailability clear. Can you not?”
Of course, he could. He had. The next woman in his life would be the noblewoman he chose as a bride, and he’d already decided that would be an entirely practical transaction. He could offer a title, a modicum of wealth, and a partnership of equals. Nothing more. Nothing as complicated as the ideal of love that Bennett sought for himself.
“Come, Everton, you can resist the temptations of a few ladies for a fortnight, can’t you?”
Adam stared at the fire in the grate, then at the frost lining the edge of his window. He’d spent plenty of miserable holiday seasons as a child at his family’s estate in Hampshire. After the death of his mother when he was nine, they’d all felt empty and joyless, especially after his brother left home. In recent years, he’d always ensured he had a bedmate during the season, someone as eager for companionship over the holidays as he was.
He didn’t expect a house party in Kent to bring any holiday joy, but he would have the companionship of Bennett, who could be irritatingly happy, but whom Adam considered his dearest friend.
“I happen to know Lady Alexandra is in Greece for the month of December,” Bennett put in with his usual estimable timing. “Some sort of ladies’ holiday. So she can’t claim you for the next fortnight.”
“Very well.” Adam sighed because something in his gut told him the trip would not be as simple as Bennett seemed to think. “I’ll accompany you to Kent, but I have only one rule.”
Bennett’s eyes lit with an excited gleam. “Which is?”
