It would do no good for Francis to barge into the conversation and demand to sweep Priya away. The best he could do was to hope that the men were so distracted by Nan’s charm that Priya could step away without being noticed.
Priya seemed to sense that same thing. She held Francis’s gaze for a moment, and even when she turned away so that Francis’s mother could introduce her to Nan, she continued to peek back at Francis.
Francis caught his mother’s eye as she directed the conversation, and nodded at Priya. Though she was still speaking, his mother nodded slightly, indicating she knew the situation in front of them and would act accordingly. Knowing that his entire family was involved in the effort to give him and Priya a chance to have their own way, Francis stepped back a few feet until he was partially concealed by a potted palm.
“It’s just over there, by that table,” Francis heard his mother say at last. “Miss Narayan, would you be so good as to fetch it for me?”
“Of course, my lady.” Francis watched Priya curtsy, then head in his direction.
Narayan attempted to stop her, but Raikut dragged him into the conversation. Jeetan tried to come after Priya next, but Nan asked him a direct question, preventing him.
Francis could have shouted for joy when Priya came near him at the potted palm. “What did my mother send you for?” he asked.
“Sheet music,” Priya answered without looking at him, continuing on to a table by the door. “She wants me to select a piece to sing this evening.”
“Can you sing?” Francis asked as he followed her, delighted by the prospect.
Priya finally glanced up at him as they reached a table strewn with sheet music. “Well enough,” she said.
Francis wasted no time. He knew he had no time to waste. “Are you well, my darling?” he asked.
Priya let out a breath. She put on a show of searching through the music for a song she liked, but her full attention was on Francis. “I am well enough. I just wish that this whole thing was over.”
“I know, my love,” Francis said.
She glanced up at him, warmth and longing and misery in her eyes. “I have given it much thought this week,” she said, a slight tremor in her voice, “and…and you know that I want to be yours with everything I have.”
“I know.”
Francis wanted to draw her into his arms and kiss the anxiety away from her. The best he could do was to rest his hand over hers in a way that made it look as though they were searching for music.
“What was that strange conversation you were in the midst of when I arrived at your house with Mother’s invitation the other day?” he asked, hoping to draw Priya out of her sadness.
Priya pursed her lips and frowned. “I thought that if I showed myself to be a modern woman intent on the advancement of the rights of all women, Jogendra would be put off and ask to be released from our marriage.”
Francis frowned at her statement for several reasons. “And then he stood by you instead of being appalled,” he said. He shook his head. “That was unexpected.”
Priya stopped trying to pretend she was searching for a song and turned her hands so that Francis could thread their fingers together. “I do not think Jogendra will release me from the arrangement my father made with him. He…he sees me more as a shining toy than a wife. Jealousy will not work when he feels no emotional possessiveness toward me.”
Francis hated hearing that. But at the same time, in a paradoxical way, it gave him hope. Perhaps if Raikut saw just how desperately he and Priya were in love, it would touch some sort of sentiment in him.
He didn’t have time to contemplate that before Jeetan marched up behind them, surprising them by snapping, “This is inappropriate. We should not even be here. Come away, sister.”
Francis wanted to wring the whelp’s neck, but that wouldn’t have gained him anything. Instead, he plucked the sheet music for a particularly sentimental duet from the pile and handed it to Priya.
“Here you are,” he said. “And I would be honored to perform this duet with you.”
Priya glanced to the music, then her face colored. When her brother attempted to peek at the song’s title, she held the music to her chest. “Thank you, my lord. I will inform your mother.”
Before Jeetan could interfere further, Priya sent him a scathing look, then marched away. Francis held back, taking up a position along the side of the room with his two brothers, as Priya sought out his mother and handed her the music. Francis could tell by his mother’s smile that she approved of the scheme.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” she called, heading toward the piano, which had been set up at the front of a large arrangement of chairs. “Do take your seats. On behalf of my sons, my daughter-in-law, and I, welcome to Rathborne House.”
Miss Garrett—who had rushed to take a seat in the front row—burst into applause as though she were at a music hall. Several of the more refined guests stared at her with wide, offended eyes. Martin Piper sat at the piano nearby, laughing, and sent a look to Mr. Archibald—who had discreetly taken a seat at the back. Joseph let out a strangled sigh and planted his face in his palms, shaking his head.
“You’d better get used to it,” Dean teased him. “If you try to wriggle out of making her our sister-in-law, she’ll probably lasso you from the back of her buffalo and force you to the altar at the end of a shotgun.”
Francis laughed, but Joseph said, “It’s not a joke. She really does have her sights set on me.”
Francis rather thought the combination of his stiff and prudish brother with the indomitable American heiress was a brilliant one, but only time would tell on that score.
The musical portion of the evening began with Nan singing a delightfully complicated aria. Mr. Piper had been hired to accompany all of the singers, and to perform a few songs himself. The presence of two professional musicians to start the evening off gave the whole event an air of quality that most home entertainments did not possess. Francis could only hope that Narayan would be impressed.
Raikut was deeply impressed, that much was clear from the start. He watched Nan with rapt attention, tugging on Narayan’s arm a few times and whispering in his ear as if explaining why he, too, should be impressed. Priya sat on his other side, and he whispered to her once or twice as well, but Francis doubted Priya was paying attention to the singing at all.
She spent most of her time gazing discreetly across the room at him. Francis even moved so that the two of them could drink in the sight of each other without gaining notice.
She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It wasn’t simply the shine of her jewelry or the shape of her face either. Never had Francis met a woman who had sparked his interest on such a deep level before. Priya was intelligent, and her intelligence should be used to its greatest effectiveness. It was a crime to lock a woman like her away, even if she was locked in complete luxury, when she should be given a chance to shine. Narayan had to see the truth of his daughter’s potential. He had to let her go so that she would be free to belong to Francis. Francis wouldn’t stop until they’d won this battle.
He was jarred out of his thoughts and forced to look away from Priya as Nan finished her song and accepted her applause. Belatedly, Francis clapped along with everyone else, but the musical evening was swiftly becoming a chore that he had to complete instead of an enjoyment.
At least, it was until Miss Garrett leapt up to take her turn entertaining the crowd. She rushed to Mr. Piper with a grin that could only be described as wicked, whispering something in his ear. Mr. Piper laughed and nodded, then played a flourishing chord on the piano.
“This is one of my favorite songs,” Miss Garrett took up her place in front of the piano. “We sing it all the time back home.”
The song started off sedately enough. Joseph seemed to be holding his breath as he watched, waiting for disaster to strike. Francis thought he was overreacting a bit…until Miss Garrett reached the chorus and Mr. Piper picked up the pace of the tune.
By the time Miss Garrett got to the line “There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight,” she was belting out the song and lifting up her skirts to dance along to the words.
On the one hand, Francis wanted to laugh, because Miss Garrett could give Nan a run for her money as an entertainer. She had no inhibitions whatsoever as she gave Francis’s mother’s guests something to talk about for months. On the other, he felt sorry for Joseph. His youngest brother’s life was going to be eventful indeed.
The other benefit of Miss Garrett’s garish performance was that even Narayan was stunned to silence by the end of it. So much so that when Francis’s mother got up to announce, “And now we will have what I hope is a much more peaceful duet performed by Miss Narayan and my son, Lord Cathraiche,” Narayan made no effort to prevent Priya from standing and making her way to the piano.
“What’s this all about?” Dean asked as Francis pushed away from the wall to join her.