He stared at his friend then laughed. “I’m happy for you. But I’d be terrible company. I shouldn’t come.”
“The bloody hell you won’t. You’re the reason for it. Now, you’re coming with me. Get up. You’re going to be my best man, and—”
“Are you getting married tonight?” he asked, flummoxed.
Blackbrook threw back his head and laughed. “No. If she will have me, we’re going to have a grand wedding, because it will be the only way to get out of this horrible situation and have London talk about something else.”
“Is that why you’re going to ask her to marry you, to wash over the gossip?” James asked quietly.
Blackbrook stood then offered his hand. “Of course not. I’m going to ask her because I believe that I’m falling in love with her. She is the sunshine to my cloud.”
“Oh, God,” James groaned. “That is the most nauseating thing I have ever heard.”
“Isn’t it delightful?”
James blew out a sigh and did feel a moment’s lightness at Blackbrook’s anticipated happiness. He took his friend’s hand. “It is. I cannot imagine feeling thus myself.”
Blackbrook hauled him to his feet. “Don’t be absurd. I saw the way you danced with Jack at Vauxhall. I saw the way you danced with her at the Scofield ball. Youloveher as nauseatingly as any man can love a woman. I don’t care what you say.” Blackbrook waggled his brows, and quipped, “I should call you out for your lies.”
Lies. It was a strong word, even in jest. But perhaps… Perhaps he had been lying to himself for far too long.
He studied his friend, and he thought back to all those years ago when he had run away, hoping for a different life. He had found it, and he had found friends.
But Blackbrook wasn’t wrong.
With every breath now, he was acting out of fear. Fear of disappointing others. Fear of making a muck of it. And he truly had,becauseof the fear.
“What can I do?” he asked. “She must hate me.”
Blackbrook cocked his dark head to the side. “Jack? Hate you? I do not think she is capable of it. And this I know. She would not want you to slip into darkness, my friend. None of us do.”
He drew in a deep breath. “I don’t…I don’t feel in the proper humor for this.”
“I don’t care if you’re in the proper humor,” Blackbrook countered. “All that matters is that you come with me.”
He knew in this moment that he had a choice—he could keep his friend or he could lose him.
“Right, then,” he declared. “Since I love weddings so well, if not my own, let’s go arrange another one.”
“Let’s,” Blackbrook agreed, a smile tilting his lips, and the worry beginning to ease from his face. “Now. Grand gestures. Can we think of any?”
“You don’t need one,” James replied without hesitation. “Not with Miss Fairweather. All you need to do is show up and speak your heart.”
“Excellent advice,” said Blackbrook. “Why don’t you take it yourself?”
And with that, his best friend strolled out of the room, leaving only for James to follow him.
He did not look back, knowing that his friend would always be behind him, would always have his back, and would always make certain that nothing truly ill would befall him.
James stood still and gazed up at his father’s portrait one last time. And as he did so, he realized that in this very moment, he had been saved from a dangerous path, and he was grateful for it.
Jack had declared she wanted all of him. And now… Now, he had to find out, if he could give her all of him, would she still accept it, given the fool he had been?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jacqueline adored Olivia. She adored her brother. It had been two weeks since her own unfortunate nuptials and theoretically she should have adored the idea of attending their wedding.
She did not.