Page 81 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
‘A pugilist. You are good at boxing, Robbie. You punched me once at school.’ Gregory, Greg, was a year older than Rob, a cousin on his mother’s side, and heir to the Earl of Preston. His mother’s sisters all married men with titles.
‘You could run a poor house,’ Frederick, the heir to the Duke of Bradford, said. ‘You like helping people, don’t you?’ Fred, was six months Rob’s junior, but his title still made him conceited.
Rob was never friendly with his male cousins on his mother’s side, he actively avoided them at Eton and Oxford. They were all Harry’s friends.
‘We are heading out to the clubs after dinner, Robbie, for a game of Farrow. Will you join us? That, of course, is another option, you could become a cardsharp,’ Henry, his Uncle Robert’s son, called from further along the table, spreading the conversation and laughter further.
‘You are too much of a prude to do anything exciting. Whatever you do, it will need to have a ledger,’ Fred said, descending into the verbal stabs Rob was used to from his cousins.
His school years had been full of these digs, but not normally in front of his uncles and aunts – and not in front of Caro.
‘I prefer to be a prude if it means I have morals,’ he snapped back, his voice cutting across other conversations.
‘I spent most of my time at the races when I was your age. That is what led me into breeding horses,’ Forth, his father’s close friend, stated. He was seated across the table, much further along, beside Caro. Rob glanced at him, avoiding looking at her.
‘Have you thought of breeding horses?’ Rob’s Uncle Richard asked from the head of the table, highlighting that the conversation now included everyone.
A desire to throw down his napkin, rise, thank them all for their interest, but tell them to mind their own business, lanced through Rob’s body. Instead, he fixed a smile on his face and looked at Forth. ‘Forth says I do not have the right eye.’
‘I did not say that,’ Forth denied. ‘I said your eye is better suited to carriage stock. The mares you spotted would have bred perfect pairs.’
‘I am going to the market in Spitalfields this week, Robbie,’ Drew said. ‘If you would like to come with me?’ The question was followed by a look that said,say yes and we will shut them up.
‘Thank you, Drew. Yes. I accept.’ Rob’s blunt pitch said,I have heard enough on this subject.
Greg lifted his glass in a toast-like gesture and grinned. Rob wondered if he had begun the conversation for his own amusement. But it meant John was not the only one who had noticed Rob disliked being kept. He hated it when his cousins looked down from their elevated entitled positions in life and mocked him.
He sighed and reached for his glass, picturing himself throwing his wine over Greg.
43
In the drawing room after dinner, Rob’s cousin Gregory approached Caro. He was the complete opposite of Rob; Gregory was brash and bold and laughed easily, at his own humour. Rob had spent his evening quietly willing himself into the background. She had not noticed until now, that among his family he was more silent in nature and he did not often engage with his male cousins.
Fortunately, she did not have to endure Gregory’s company for long. He and his counterparts made their excuses and left to go to a gentlemen’s club.
‘Caro, will you be my partner for a game of whist?’ Mary called.
Caro agreed as the group parted.
Some of the men and women talked in a huddle, many of Rob’s female cousins gathered about the pianoforte and three tables of card games were established.
As Mary dealt to their table of four, Caro noticed Rob was not in any group. He stood on his own, to one side of the room, cradling a class of what she presumed was a liquor. He looked asthough he were brooding. He had spent the entire afternoon with that gloomy expression on his face.
She heard the conversation at the table that had understandably irritated him. But he had been quieter all day. The confidence and joy he expressed in life when he was with Mary and Drew ebbed away when he was with the rest of his family.
Caro played half a dozen hands of cards with Mary, and they won four, but then she excused herself. ‘I need the retiring room, excuse me, I shall bow out of the next hand.’
‘Eleanor!’ Mary called one of her cousins. ‘Would you join us?’
When Caro returned to the drawing room, Rob was standing in the same place, with the same closed-off expression.
‘A penny for them,’ she said as she approached him.
He looked at her and smiled, with closed lips. ‘Have you come to tell me to stop sulking too?’
‘Are you sulking?’
‘Probably.’ He laughed – at his own expense.
