Page 4 of The Dangerous Love of a Rogue
Good Lord.He had not expected Pembroke to marry for years. He was not like his sister, he was no more innocent than Drew and he did not need money. They had travelled in the same circles on the grand tour. Pembroke had been one of the women’s toys too. He had walked away from the demimonde a while ago, though. Now he looked down on the men he used to call friends. Men like Drew, who had no choice but to live that way.
‘Why?’ Peter asked, his hand resting on Drew’s shoulder.
‘I simply wondered.’
‘I thought you were interested in the sister. You will hardly have a chance there if you pitch for the man’s wife.’
‘I have no more interest in married women.’
Mary’s mother was speaking to her now. Mary glanced across the room, and he knew, even though he had no evidence of it, that her eyes were seeking him. An odd sensation leapt in his chest. He would have said it was his heart, but like Pembroke, he did not really have one. That had been kicked far too many times in his life.
Mary’s gaze had not found him. Instead, she faced her mother and said something in return, the fingers of the hand he could see forming a little fist as she expressed some forceful point of view.
‘Stop drooling over the fair Miss Marlow, and come and play cards.’
‘I ought not, I have no money.’
‘If you need funds I’ll lend you more. Come and play. Mark and Harry are in a game so I need you for my pair.’
‘Very well.’
Drew played a few hands of cards at the tables with his friends for an hour. They did not normally attend such affairs, but Derwent’s wife was in his mother’s set, and so any young man with poor morals had been encouraged to attend. After the ball the night would end in an orgy, but by then he and his friends would be gone. He had never liked those kinds of games.
‘I am out.’ He’d played for long enough. If he wished to escape his current life, he must return to the task of fulfilling his plan.
‘Settle what you owe before you leave.’
Fortune had played against him. Drew looked at Peter who nodded as his hand moved to his pocket.
Drew rose. ‘Good evening, gentleman,’ he said, then shared a look with Peter that said,I shall see you in a while.
It was all well and good to have a generous wealthy friend, but how could a man respect himself when he lived off his friend like a leech, or from the services he rendered to flesh-hungry wives.The devil take this life.He no longer wished for it.
If he’d been born in different circumstances his father might have paid for a commission in the army or a placement in the clergy. The Marquis of Framlington had given Drew his name and begrudgingly paid for Drew’s bed and board through his years of schooling, but that was all he would do to save face. Then Drew had learned a way to earn freedom from his false father’s house. If only he’d known then that he was tying himself up in a new hell.
He should have saved the money the women gave him and paid for a commission himself. He’d been too young, and too greedy. He’d squandered it at card tables. His losses and debts had built up and sucked him into the power of his mother’s friends. They’d been paying the duns on his behalf for years, never enough to clear the debt, just enough to make him come back.
He returned to the ballroom and looked for Miss Marlow. He spotted her instantly. Her dark curls bounced on her shoulders as she skipped through the steps of another country dance. He truly liked the girl.
But it would be safer not to put all his eggs in one basket. He scanned the other debutantes in the room. There was an auburn-haired lady he’d danced with at previous balls. She was not as pleasing on the eye as Miss Marlow but her dowry was substantial. He moved towards the set she was among, preparing to take her hand for the next dance.
A woman was spun out of the last turn of the current dance and collided with him.
It was Pembroke’s newly acquired wife.
Her gaze met his, as her chest rose and fell with her quickened breaths.
She had blue eyes, but they were not pale like her sister-in-law’s.
Damn it, but he was tempted to play a game. If he settled on Miss Marlow, then Pembroke would most likely fight him all the way.
She turned back to her partner.
Drew saw Pembroke speaking with Lady Elizabeth Ponsonby, Drew’s eldest sister. She was older than Pembroke too, by a long way. She married young and adopted their mother’s unfaithful way of life. He knew Pembroke and she had had a liaison for a while. She was the one who had pulled Pembroke into the demimonde. Pembroke had been as innocent and stupid as his little sister. Like a baby presented to the women in a linen cloth – here is another young male for you to mislead.
Drew never spoke to Elizabeth or acknowledged their connection.
Yet, if Elizabeth was interested in Pembroke again, she would not let him escape easily, which gave Drew time.
