He met his friend’s gaze and declared, “There is no one that I can find who will do your sister justice.”
Alexander cocked his head to the side and his eyes narrowed before he demanded, ”Do you love her?”
“No,” he replied honestly. “I don’t think I shall ever love anyone.”
That was a line he had to keep very close to if he was to avoid what had happened to his mother…and to himself.
Blackbrook’s shoulders tensed and disgust darkened his features. “All the more reason to call you out. That you would allow her to come into your rooms, to linger there, to have a conversation in your presence alone and notloveher? You are a cad, James, and I shall never forgive you for this.”
His friend smoothed his hands down his waistcoat and met his gaze. “So, I ask you one more time. What are you going to do about this?”
James leveled his friend with a hard stare. There was really only one answer. It did not matter that the past was roaring in his head, that memories of his father raging were but a shadow away. He had crossed the Rubicon, and all he could do now was make sure it didn’t all go entirely to hell.
Somehow… Somehow? He would protect Jack from himself.
There was really only one solution to all of this. He knew exactly what had to be done and what he had to say, despite the fact it went against everything he had ever vowed to himself. And so he drew a deep breath and prepared himself to say it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jack basked in the adulation.
Truly, adulation was the only word for it.
She could scarcely believe the response. The entire company had stood up and cheered for her for several minutes.
The sound of the applause washed over her, and she had felt how much they had been moved by her music. She wound through the crowd as each person waited to speak to her, asking where she had learned to play thus, and if she would play again for them that evening.
She might, she did not know.
Triumph blazed through her. It was a unique and heartily appreciated sensation. She allowed herself to touch Maria Anna’s last note, which she had tucked into her reticule. She did not need to take it out and read the heartbreaking words for the millionth time. No, in this moment, she felt she was doing this not just for herself, but also for the friend she might never see again. For the friend who’d had to abandon her dreams.
Suddenly, she realized she might notneedthe duke’s assistance after all, though she would still make use of his investigative skills, and it was a strangely freeing thing, except she did find that she kept looking for him.
Though she tried to hide it, Jack sneaked glances about the room as she accepted compliments from the other guests to see if the Duke of Stone had witnessed her performance.
It was most frustrating that she did so, but she couldn’t stop herself from seeking him.
She had hoped that he might be here. He wassupposedto be here, drat it all, but she had yet to spot him.
As she wandered through the crowd, beaming and smiling at everyone who enthusiastically proclaimed her marvelous, she felt a significant happiness that she had finally made her mother proud.
Who knew that, all this time, if she had simply played the piano in the way she loved to play it, everything would be solved?
The one thing that they thought would keep her from a good match was the one thing that seemed to guarantee it.
She felt confident that on the morrow she would have a host of callers. It was a wonderful feeling. Yes, things were looking much better, even if several of the people who did compliment her did not know the difference between Herr Beethoven and Herr Bach, or Herr Mozart for that matter.
None of it mattered.
She was pleased, at last, to be appreciated for her own skills and not the skills that thetonthought a lady should have.
When she neared the hall, longing to step out to the terrace but knowing she could not, since she was to avoid being alone, she was stunned to see the Duke of Stone standing there.
She gasped in surprise. “Whatever are you doing here?”
“It seems to be a question that is most important this evening,” he replied hollowly.
There was something odd about him. His stance was stiff in the shadows, not at all like his usual, sensual, commanding self.