Drew shrugged and put his hands under him, intending to rise and go fetch it back, and grab the sherry decanter, too. “Not the first week. After that, it seemed an appropriate way to pass the time.”
“Oh, no you don’t,” Scarsdale said as he pushed Drew back into his chair, and then sat down across from him once more, glaring. “Why are you here?”
“I am home,” he promised, looking about the place. He stayed here because the scent of Aurora’s perfume lingered on the air in her chambers. He also had good memories here with her, and he wasn’t constantly hounded by his father anymore. Although, any day now, he expected one of Northport’s underlings to appear and confirm his disinheritance.
“I don’t mean here here,” Scarsdale clarified. “I mean, you’ve stopped going out entirely.”
“What good would going out do?”
Drew had not bothered to meet with any of Northport’s choices, either. He’d turned his back on society and had chosen to remain faithful to Aurora and himself. He accepted his disinheritance as the price of wishing for a second chance at love.
“We’re all worried about you, you know,” Scarsdale murmured.
“We? I’m sure that’s an exaggeration,” he muttered. None but Scarsdale had bothered to call to check on him. Console him. Taunt him that he couldn’t keep his mistress. “There’s no reason to worry.”
“I had expected to see you at the Jamison ball last night.”
“Why? There’s nothing for me in society anymore. Nothing I want or need at a ball.” But Jamison’s unmarried daughter would have attended that event, no doubt. Another of Father’s choices. But not Drew’s.
Never Drew’s.
“I saw Miss Hillcrest there, looking breathtakingly beautiful, as usual,” Scarsdale told him, sitting back with a smug smile on his face that made Drew’s heart leap with anxiety.
Drew shook his head, fighting the surge of envy. It seemed Scarsdale’s admiration of Aurora continued, despite the scandal. She had probably danced with him, too. She often did. “Accepted back without a qualm? Good. I had hoped for that.”
“Not quite. There are some who looked at her without any pleasure in their gazes. But what could they say when the dowager Marchioness of Wharton had clearly forgiven her and was glued to her side all night? But there was one lady I was disappointed to see make something of a scene. Your friend’s sister-in-law, Miss Lavinia Hayes, particularly glared at Miss Hillcrest half the night, until Lady Wade took her sister home.”
“Foolishness. I’ll speak with Lavinia,” he promised. “Make her understand.”
“When? Today? Tomorrow? Three weeks from now? When are you going to set foot outside this house?”
Drew sucked in a breath. “You don’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand you perfectly,” Scarsdale promised. “You think you can’t live without love, so you won’t even try.”
Drew didn’t deny it.
“I do applaud you for your commitment to love and to her. You really were made for each other. Just as stubborn, just as foolish,” Scarsdale noted. “Intent on punishing yourselves. She wasn’t alone last night.”
Drew shut his eyes to hide the pain that pierced his soul to hear that news. He’d feared this news. That once Aurora was back into society, he’d lose her to some other swain. He hoped Aurora could be happy. He hoped her next lover was kind and the type of man who would treat her well.
“Yes, I saw her in the company of Northport’s former mistress, actually, and she seemed to be having a marvelous time.”
Drew looked up sharply. “With Juliette?”
“Indeed. I’ve no idea when and how they met, but the pair seemed inseparable last night,” Scarsdale promised. “They were side by side the whole of the evening, left together, too. The pair were surrounded almost all of the night by every rue under the sun. Young or old, it did not seem to matter. The pair flirted with anyone and everyone, and then went back to that little hotel they’ve both fled to, leaving many men disappointed. You do know Northport dismissed his mistress, don’t you?”
Drew blinked rapidly, hoping he’d misheard. But Scarsdale was nodding emphatically. “I hadn’t heard. I haven’t spoken to him in weeks.”
“From what I understand, Northport ended their arrangement on the very same day Aurora left you,” he said.
“The day he threatened to disinherit me. I suppose you know about that, too?” Drew grimaced when Scarsdale nodded. “He dangled his fortune as a means to bring me back into line, so I would marry someone of his choosing. He failed at that, and so I am his son no longer, I suppose.”
Scarsdale pursed his lips a moment. “From what I hear, he’s made no progress on that front.”
Drew shrugged, hardly caring anymore. It was the last straw in their relationship as father and son. “But my father must have told everyone his intentions by now.”
“It was only Aurora who shared that news with me.”