Chapter3
Women had to be the most maddening creatures in existence, and Aurora Hillcrest was no different from all the rest. Normally, Drew was accustomed to knowing he could have anything he wanted just by crooking his smallest finger. But not tonight, it seemed. Even the one Hillcrest he most enjoyed dancing with was unavailable to him.
Drew grimaced at another lost opportunity to dance with a woman he admired. But this felt the biggest snub of the evening. Should he care that a woman he’d paid to listen to his deepest, darkest fears seemed intent on avoiding him at every turn this season?
He definitely did tonight.
In the beginning of their acquaintance, Aurora Hillcrest had been so understanding. So helpful in absolving him of any guilt he’d felt over his need to remarry for the sake of his title and family. Did she not like him at all, now there were no funds changing hands? Had her overtures of friendship all been an act?
Drew grimaced and noted the location of his dance partner for the next set, and then turned back to study Aurora Hillcrest once more. He had considered her as good a friend to him as her cousins, Lady Wharton and Mrs. Berringer, still were, but it seemed Aurora didn’t feel the same about him. Her married cousins treated his arrival far better, the same way they always had when he’d paid them to do so. The Hillcrest Academy might be no more, but that changed nothing for him. The Hillcrests were good women he’d expected to keep in his life.
All of them.
But it seemed there was one who was perpetually glad to see the back of him. The way she had brushed him off in favor of dancing with another man set his teeth on edge still.
A hand clapped upon his shoulder, and he was wrenched downward to the right as the shorter Lord Wade’s voice boomed in his ear over the din. “Three balls, two dinners, and a picnic in the first month of the season. Please put me out of my misery and tell me you’ve settled on a bride at last.”
Drew shook his head vigorously, rather than shout it out over the din of the crowd for all to hear. Lord Wade was another confidant who knew of his inner struggles. He’d known how remarkable Drew’s first wife had been, having met the woman during her first season years ago.
He turned to view his oldest friend. Wade appeared to be in a jolly mood, but Drew regarded him sourly. Probably drunk on love again. “So, you finally left your wife’s side, Wade, to remember to talk to your oldest friend?”
“Oh, she’s not far away. My love is over there keeping a watchful eye on her sister, Lavinia. They said I was scaring off her suitors by asking too many impertinent questions.” Wade laughed. “Is that not my right as a brother-in-law?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Drew promised as he turned in that direction and easily spotted Lady Wade, and her vibrant younger sister Lavinia, surrounded by gentlemen vying for her attention. “She’s popular.”
“Indeed, just like my wife was in her first season, too,” Wade boasted with the proud smile of an utterly besotted husband who was sure his wife’s affections belonged only to him.
“I remember,” Drew murmured.
Drew did not covet other men’s wives, but he had been one of Lady Wade’s potential suitors for a very short time. He was truly glad he’d not pursued Portia, once he’d discovered the viscount’s adoration of a woman he’d believed lost to him.
Lady Wade was undoubtedly good for his friend. Her fortune had rescued Wade’s family from destitution, restoring an old family in society in a way the viscount had never dreamed possible. Wade had finally revealed how bad it had been for him and his aunt, over drinks one night long after the marriage had taken place. Hiding from debtors, selling beloved furniture like the billiard table that had held so many good memories, had taken a toll.
But now, gone were the shabby, much-worn evening attire Wade had been sporting when Drew had returned to the marriage mart in search of a second wife. They’d played many a game of billiards together since, once the table had been returned to its rightful owner.
Wade had despaired he would lose Portia to a wealthier but widely unliked duke, too. Portia had eventually chosen a viscount she loved over life as a duchess with a difficult man she might never have learned to care for.
People still talked about the abrupt end of that engagement, and her nearly immediate marriage to a mere viscount. It was pleasing to see a good man, and family, reverse their fortunes, and all because he had found love. Though the influx of money had not changed Wade at all. He was still as miserly as ever.
Money had never been a severe problem for Drew. He was now wealthy enough that he could have anything…except a simple dance with Miss Hillcrest this season, he thought sourly.
She was on the dance floor still, and all the disappointments of the evening seemed amplified by her stunning smile for that other man.
Drew felt a touch of unexpected jealousy sting him. Aurora had been a remarkably good friend, and fit well in his arms the few times they’d twirled together at a ball.
Sixteen times in total.
Sixteen…but the seventeenth occasion was proving impossible to arrange.
Was she really trying to avoid him, or did it just feel that way tonight? But if she was avoiding him, why would she want to?
Had he offended her somehow in the last months? He studied her face, flushed and smiling as she twirled about on the dance floor in another man’s arms. She seemed to be enjoying herself with the fellow. And she was that way with everyone she danced with. He knew of several other gentlemen interested in Aurora, too, some honest in their consideration and others far less respectful than she deserved.
Drew’s pursuit, however, was not romantic in the way that others were.
But since this season began, since she’d started noticeably avoiding him, he felt slighted. That discomfort had prompted him to make a habit of keeping an eye on her. She had no male relatives from her own family that he’d ever met or heard of to look out for her. There was only Lord Wharton and Mr. Berringer, her cousins by marriage, but they had wives and other responsibilities.
When the dance ended, Aurora and her partner started toward his corner but suddenly changed direction, their heads bent together. Never once did Aurora glance his way, although he was tall enough to stand out in any crowd. It was almost as if she was trying to avoid even looking at him.