Page 34 of To Pleasure a Prince
“Draker has fine qualities?” Simon quipped. “I must have missed them.”
“Then you are not as observant as I took you for,” the prince snapped.
Judging from the look of chagrin on Simon’s face, he’d momentarily forgotten Marcus’s relationship to His Highness. “I’m observant enough to notice that the man has an interest in my sister that she does not reciprocate.”
His attempt to divert the prince’s displeasure worked, for His Highness’s baleful glance swung to her. “Is that true?”
“Simon misunderstands the nature of Lord Draker’s interest in me,” she hedged. “The man merely wants to prove to me that society is as corrupt as he believes it to be. We’re engaged in a kind of contest, if you will.”
“And he certainly isn’t the sort my sister finds attractive,” Simon added.
“That’s not true.” Regina colored when His Highness lifted an eyebrow. “But our interests are too different. He has little use for polite society. And I don’t think he likes me much. Sometimes he even seems to despise me.”
“Nonsense,” the prince said kindly. “Who could despise a lovely creature like you, my dear?”
Marcus could.“All the same, I doubt he has any interest in marrying me.”
Simon had apparently grown impatient with the conversation, for he left the writing table to approach the settee. “You can regale His Highness with tales of your courtship some other time, dear girl. I have several important matters of state to discuss with him privately right now, and the hour is getting late.”
Since when did His Highness discuss matters of state with her brother in Simon’s drawing room instead of at Carlton House?
Drawing her hand from the prince’s, she rose. “Very well, I shall leave you.”
His Highness rose, too. “Enjoy your evening at the opera, my dear.”
She left, still burning to know what they were talking about. Could Marcus be right about Simon’s intentions? Wasn’t it an odd coincidence that His Highness would come here on the very night Simon had first been allowed to court Louisa?
On the other hand, if His Highness really did want influence over Louisa’s future, then it made sense that he’d take an interest in Simon’s courtship of her. That did not mean they were plotting anything underhanded.
They might even truly be discussing affairs of state. Marcus’s ridiculous obsession with intrigue was simply making her imagine it herself. That was the trouble with letting the man kiss her—it made her think like him.
She certainly found Marcus attractive, and he’d made his physical attraction to her quite apparent. But that wasn’t enough for a true courtship between two people so different from each other.
When his mouth was ravaging hers, however, she tended to forget that. So she simplymustkeep him at arm’s length from now on. She mustn’t let him kiss her again, no matter how gloriously he did so.
She would continue trying to civilize the beast and promote the match between Louisa and Simon, but she would be cordial and no more. Because nothing good could come of letting Marcus—Lord Draker—too close.
As soon as Regina was gone, the prince turned to Simon. “Are you sure she doesn’t know what you mean to do? Your sister is more astute than she seems.”
“I’m well aware of that.” Simon only hoped that Draker, her new charitable project, would keep her too busy to examine his own activities. “Draker may have voiced his suspicions, but that doesn’t mean she believes them.”
“Then why did she agree to his mad bargain?”
“To prove him wrong in all his suppositions, just as she said.” No point in mentioning the wager. He doubted His Highness would approve of such a wager involving his by-blow. “As long as Regina weighs in on my side, we’re safe.”
His Highness heaved his bulky frame from the settee. “Not so safe, I should think, if my son means to spend every moment with you and Louisa. How am I supposed to see my daughter and discuss her future?”
“Perhaps you should just let me tell her who you are to her—”
“Certainly not. Draker’s secretive nature and his stubborn insistence that she’s not mine have worked in our favor heretofore, because they’ve kept him from revealing to her some rather sordid details about my affair with his mother. If you tell her the truth, she’ll run off to confirm it with him, and Draker will poison her against me before I even have the chance to tell my side.”
Sordid details? Simon tamped down his curiosity. The secret to being His Highness’s confidant was not to ask too many questions.
“When the time is right,” the prince went on, “Iwill tell her that she’s my daughter. But first I must get her alone, and you’re supposed to take care of that.”
“I’m trying, damn it. I don’t see why you can’t demand that the Iversleys bring her to Carlton House for a visit.”
“Because if I press Iversley, Draker will certainly reveal things I’d rather not have known, especially in this tumultuous time.”
