ChapterSeventeen
“Would we consider that a rousing success?” Dean asked Francis and Joseph late in the night as the three of them lounged around the brothers’ parlor at Rathborne House, well after their mother’s musical evening had ended. “Mother’s guests seemed to enjoy themselves. That raja—not the one who glared at everyone all evening, the other one—seemed to be the high point of the evening. But your darling beloved was whisked away so early.”
Francis frowned at his brother’s assessment of the musical event and took another sip of his brandy, debating whether he should just drink the entire bottle and obliterate the rest of the frustrating day.
“It was an unmitigated disaster,” Joseph grumbled from his chair near the fireplace. He hadn’t touched a drop, of course, but no one would have known it from the sullen way he hunched into his chair and frowned. Francis only got that peevish when he was extraordinarily drunk.
“Why do you say so?” Francis asked. “Because the object of my affection was stolen away by her father and her pseudo-husband before my case could really be made—”
“Or because Miss Garrett proved to the world that she is an accomplished saloon girl?” Dean finished Francis’s question with a laugh, sending a wink Francis’s way.
Francis couldn’t help but grin, even though his heart was troubled and his frustration had reached towering heights. If he were honest, Miss Garrett’s shocking performance had been the light point in an otherwise fraught evening. Her performance and Raikut’s were bound to make the event the talk of London, particularly since his mother’s guest list for the evening had been so exclusive. His mother would have invitations for all the highlight events of the upcoming season flowing in after word of the musical evening got out.
But that didn’t help Francis’s quest at all. Not only that, he couldn’t help but feel as though time were running out. If Narayan decided he’d had enough and chose to take Priya back to Koch Bihar—well, rushing off to Brighton was one thing. Traveling halfway around the world was another.
“What do you plan to do next, frater?” Dean asked, turning slightly more serious—though whether Dean was capable of actual seriousness, Francis wasn’t certain. “Is kidnapping and escape to the continent on the cards now?”
Francis huffed out a breath and cradled his brandy snifter. “It might have to be. It isn’t just a matter of my wishes and my happiness now. Priya would be stifled to death in the sort of life Raikut would offer her.”
“Though you have to admit,” Dean said with a wince, “Raikut is a jolly sort.”
“He’s too old for her,” Joseph commented from his hunched position. When both Francis and Dean glanced to him in surprise, he straightened a bit and said, “Why are you shocked to hear me say that? I might be the most sensible one of the four of us—”
“The stodgiest, you mean,” Dean muttered under his breath.
“—but that doesn’t mean that I think bright and vivacious young ladies should be saddled with older husbands,” Joseph went on with a scowl. “They should have a chance to be young and to illuminate the world with the flower of their youth.”
Francis and Dean exchanged an astounded look, then stared at Joseph.
“Is this the same brother that spent an hour on his knees every evening, reciting every one of the prayers Father gave us to memorize by heart?” Dean asked, unable to hide his amusement. “Or has Miss Garrett addled his brain already.”
Joseph sighed heavily, his face going bright pink, and pushed himself out of his chair. “I will not stand for these insults. I’m going to bed.”
No sooner had he taken three steps across the room, though, than Flynn appeared in the doorway. Francis was on the verge of asking why the butler was still up when Priya appeared just behind him, looking pale and distressed.
“Miss Narayan, sir,” Flynn announced, although Francis had already shot to his feet and started toward her before the introduction. “I informed her it was much too late for a call, but she insisted.”
“It’s perfectly alright, Flynn,” Francis said, already ignoring the butler as he rushed to take Priya’s hands. “My darling, has something happened?”
Priya glanced worriedly at Joseph and Dean, then bit her lip and looked up at Francis, as though she didn’t know whether it was safe for her to speak if they weren’t completely alone.
“Come in and sit,” Francis told her to ease her fears. “Whatever you have to say, you can say it in my brothers’ presence. They are just as staunch of allies as I am.”
“Well, not quite,” Dean said, though his jest was not unkind.
“I do not know what to do,” Priya said as she let Francis walk her all the way into the parlor, then sat on the sofa. Francis sat with her, and Dean and Joseph gathered close. “My father was greatly displeased by the way the evening unfolded.”
Francis hummed. “Yes, I can imagine. Has he threatened you with some sort of action?”
If Narayan had made any sounds about taking Priya out of England, he would have to act fast, even if those actions were drastic.
Priya shook her head, but there wasn’t much certainty in the gesture. “He did not advance that far in his argument, he simply put his foot down and said I should have no more contact with you.” She lowered her head and seemed to blink back tears, which shot straight to Francis’s heart. “He told me the love I feel is foolish infatuation and that it will pass. He said my place is with the husband he contracted for me.”
“All of which is rubbish,” Dean snorted.
Priya seemed to shrink into herself at Dean’s comment instead of being comforted by it. Francis frowned at him and shook his head slightly. He needed to be the one to manage this situation.
“Your father is wrong,” he said, coolly and calmly. He could feel that it was vital for him to take charge of the situation in order to ensure the outcome they needed. “He cannot see past his own interests. He must be made to see all the advantages of allowing you to follow your heart.”
He rested his hands over Priya’s, wishing he could infuse her with confidence.
Instead, she glanced to him with the most mournful look he had seen from her yet. “I feel as though I am being torn into a thousand pieces,” she said, barely stopping herself from crying, by the sound of it. “I love my father, and my brother, and I’ve no wish to break from them. But I love you as well, Francis. I want my life to be with you.”
Francis’s breath caught in his throat at her words. His heart felt as though it was expanding beyond the space of his chest. It was the first time Priya had said outright that she loved him. All he wanted to do was take her in his arms and kiss her until the sadness was gone from her beautiful face, leaving nothing but smiles. He wanted to do even more than that.
But there were things to manage first.
“I love you too, my darling,” he said, cradling the side of her hot face with one hand. “Which is why I am not going to desert you in your time of need. And I am going to do whatever it takes to make your father see that I am the better option, that he would be proud to have a son like me and to join our families together.”