Page 2 of To Pleasure a Prince
“Why not? He’s young, he’s rich, he’s unmarried—”
“He’s Prinny’s close friend, that’s who he is,” Byrne put in. He walked up to stand beside Marcus. “How very interesting.”
Iversley blinked. “I’m sorry, we didn’t know. Neither of us pays much attention to society gossip.”
Byrne shot Marcus a knowing glance. “They’re too busy doing…other things.”
“There hasn’t been much ofthatlately,” Iversley grumbled. “Katherine had a baby two months ago, remember?”
“Ah, the life of the married man,” Byrne said smugly. “Give me a bachelor’s life any day, eh, Draker?”
“Damned right.” But Marcus actually envied Iversley his adoring wife and infant daughter. He’d trade all his riches to have either.
But he never would. He had to accept that. Marcus narrowed his gaze as he saw Foxmoor take Louisa to the floor. “Was Prinny at court today?”
Iversley made a sound of disgust. “I heard he was. I didn’t see our blasted father myself, however.”
“You’ve never met him, have you?” Byrne asked Iversley.
“No. Not that it would matter if I did. He doesn’t even realize I’m his by-blow. What about you?”
“Saw him once at the theater when I was a boy. Mother pointed him out to me from backstage.” Byrne scowled. “She never stopped trying to make him acknowledge me, if only privately. Of course, Prinny would die before he’d admit to fathering a child by a common Irish actress. What would his bloody friends think?” He shot Marcus a glance. “He only admits to the ones like Marcus, born to ‘respectable’ wives of gentlemen.”
“Trust me,” Marcus muttered, “the last thing you want is Prinny in your life. Why do you think I’ve kept Louisa away from him all these years?”
Iversley blinked. “Louisa is Prinny’s, too? You said it was just you, but if we have a half sister—”
He scowled. “Itisjust me. Louisa was born the year Prinny got married, while he and my mother were on the outs. But although the girl is definitely the viscount’s daughter, Prinny has shown a sudden interest in her. The devil sent a messenger a month ago requesting a meeting ‘to discuss Louisa’s future.’ I sent the man packing.”
Byrne lifted an eyebrow. “Perhaps Prinny knows something we don’t—he never claims any by-blows he doesn’t have to.”
“She’snothis,” Marcus growled. “The year of her birth was the only time he avoided our estate. Besides, if he’d believed her to be his, he would have challenged me for guardianship long ago, like he did with that girl Minney a few years back. The viscount believed Louisa to be his own daughter, society accepts her as the viscount’s, and I’d better not hear you implying otherwise.”
“But she must know thatyou’rePrinny’s son—”
“If she does, she never speaks of it. And I won’t have you rousing painful questions in her mind about her own blood when there’s no reason for it. So keep your damned mouth shut, do you hear?”
“Fine,” Byrne muttered. “I don’t know why you’re so testy about it. It’s not as if being Prinny’s by-blow would hurt her. The ones he’s privately acknowledged have done quite well as a result of the association. Hell, you could have done well yourself if you hadn’t publicly tossed him and your mother out of Castlemaine.”
That one act had tarnished him in society, but his mother’s revenge, the lies she told her friends about him afterward, had blackened him forever. Nine years later, he was still paying for it. And all because of that damned lecherous prince.
“He deserved what I did.” The old anger boiled up inside Draker. “So did my mother. They were lying in each other’s arms a mere week after Father died.”
“So what?” Byrne drained his glass. “The viscount never protested it. Why should you? He was dead, for God’s sake, and he wasn’t even your father.”
“He acted like one. And he deserved some respect from them for treating me like a son all those years.”
Byrne snorted. “He let his wife cuckold him—”
“You’re certainly one to talk,” Marcus ground out. “If not for obliging husbands, you’d have no bed companions.”
Byrne’s blue eyes hardened to chips of ice. “Now see here, you pompous—”
“That’s enough, both of you.” Iversley stared through the window. “It’s Louisa we should worry about. Should Foxmoor be kept away from her?”
Marcus gulped some wine. “Most certainly. It can’t be coincidence that Prinny’s most ambitious friend is sniffing around Louisa.”
“Fine. After tonight, he won’t be invited to our functions.”
