“Ha! That is a story. I won it, you know, won it outright from a very good chap in the Guards. On my first night back in London, I was gaming with some fellows I know at Boodles. One of them, being low on funds, staked this case of sherry already on its way from the continent…”
He stretched out the story of his successful gamble for a full five minutes while Diana listened with polite desperation, each second eroding her slim stock of remaining future hopes. Glancing across the table, she noticed that Edmund had also been listening to the conversation with scarcely veiled anger on his face.
When he noticed her eyes upon him, he quickly looked away and resolutely began a conversation with Kitty about her plans for the London Season. As Kitty began to list all the parties and events she was planning to attend— parties and events that had been on Diana’s calendar too only a few short weeks earlier— Diana thought that she might cry.
It came to her that perhaps it wasn’t simply the loss of her London Season she was mourning but the impending loss of Edmund too, and all that he represented to her. In a short period of time, he had come to mean security and excitement together, each stimulating the other to a higher and higher degree.
Kitty’s pretty face was shining with pleasure, and the expression on her face as she looked at Edmund was unmistakable. Lady Birks also glanced at her daughter and smiled benevolently at seeing her rapt in conversation with the handsome young Duke of Colborne. She looked at Diana with a satisfied smile, and Diana made an effort to answer it with her own.
It would be an excellent match for Kitty. Why should her mother not be pleased? As her cousin, Diana should also be pleased. The Duke must surely be one of the most eligible bachelors in the kingdom.
“Do you plan to be in London for the Season, Your Grace?” Lady Birks asked pleasantly. “We’re throwing a ball for Katherine in June, and we would be honoured by your presence. Andrew and Diana will be there, of course, unless she is… indisposed by that time.”
“My plans for the Season are still somewhat uncertain,” Edmund said before taking a sip of wine with an inscrutable expression and turning to smile kindly at Kitty. “My youngest sister is being presented this year, and I must keep family commitments before I can indulge my own wishes. I’m sure that Lady Katherine will shine very brightly whether I am there or not.”
“Your responsibilities are well understood, Your Grace. I will send an invitation to your London house. Naturally, it will include your mother and both of your sisters.”
She smiled again at Edmund and then remembered Jacob.
“You are also invited, Lord Wycliffe,” she added as an afterthought. Diana saw Jacob force a smile and suspected that he didn’t want to attend Lady Birks’s ball any more than he had wanted to attend her dinner.
“I would love to meet your sisters, Your Grace,” Kitty said, the way she looked at Edmund already somewhat adoring.
“On behalf of my family, I thank you both for your kindness. You can expect a reply to your invitation from my mother, Lady Birks. I will mention your ball next time I write to her.”
“It is good to know that there are other sons in the world as dutiful as mine,” Henrietta said. Accepting that she would not get more commitment from Edmund tonight, she turned her attention back to Andrew.
“Dear Andrew wrote to me so often from India, even when he was so busy with his work. Every other week, there seemed to be a letter.”
“Asking for money, more often than not…” Kitty laughed then fell silent with the full force of her mother’s and brother’s glares.
“Banking in India is damned complicated, Kitty, and communicating with bank branches anywhere civilized is hellishly slow,” Andrew said in his defense before Kitty could expound any further on her comment, his brow creasing crossly at his sister’s words.
“I was only saying that—”
“Katherine,” Lady Birks interrupted harshly, “we do not discuss the contents of private letters.”
“Of course, Mother. Forgive me,” Kitty apologized, although her expression seemed conflicted. In passing, she caught Diana’s eye, and Diana imagined that she detected a brief flash of warning.
She also noticed the short look that passed between Edmund and Jacob and wondered what it could all mean. Without her parents’ guidance, she knew that she would have to somehow work this out for herself.
It was a relief when the meal ended and the ladies went to the drawing room for coffee, leaving the men to their port. Diana wondered if she might have the chance to ask Kitty more about her reference to Andrew’s letters, or her brother’s character in general. Being five years apart in age, they had never been close in childhood, but Kitty had not been unkind.
Unfortunately, Lady Birks descended immediately on Diana in the drawing room to further sing Andrew’s praises and inform Diana of the arrangements she was making for their marriage. Diana could only nod along silently. Kitty dutifully agreed with all her mother’s comments on Andrew and enthusiasm for the wedding.
“I have always wanted a sister,” Kitty told Diana with a smile. Diana smiled back, as it seemed the only genuine and spontaneous comment that her cousin had made since they left the dining room.
When the gentlemen joined them in the drawing room after only a brief time, Diana noticed that Percy entered the room with Andrew while Edmund and Jacob hung back slightly, talking between themselves in low voices.
Andrew was once again the first at the drinks tray. After watching him downing another whiskey and trying to count how much he must have already drunk that evening, Diana turned away, wishing she could simply leave.
“Are you all right, Diana?” Edmund asked, coming to her side for the first time that evening. The kind tone of his voice was almost painful to hear, especially as Kitty’s eyes were following him around the room.
“I’m just tired, Edmund.”
“Can I get you a drink? Perhaps another sherry?”
“Nothing to drink, no,” Diana said with a shudder, thinking of the way Andrew poured whiskey down his throat. “I don’t think I ever want to drink again.”