Stephanie Laurens - A Gentleman's Honor

She kept her lips shut and refused to be drawn.

Then she heard the front door open, and Adriana’s and Geoffrey’s voices. She turned as they came in.

Adriana’s face glowed. “We had a lovely drive around Kew. The gardens were well worth the visit.”

Alicia sat forward and reached for the spare teacups, wondering how to broach the subject of Tony’s proposed move, preferably in a way that would ensure her sister’s cooperation in holding back what had started to feel like an inexorable tide.

Adriana tossed her bonnet onto the window seat, took the cup of tea Alicia had poured to Geoffrey, sitting in the second armchair, then sat beside Alicia on the chaise. Taking the cup she handed her, Adriana’s gaze went to Geoffrey; he was being served crumpets and jam by Harry and Matthew.

Following her gaze, Alicia watched, noted. Despite their love of crumpets, the boys had readily shared; they’d accepted Geoffrey, not perhaps in the same unquestioning way they’d accepted Tony, yet they clearly counted him one of their small circle and trusted him.

Smiling, Adriana turned to her. “Geoffrey told me about Tony’s suggestion that we move to Upper Brook Street.” She sipped, then met Alicia’s eyes. “It sounds an excellent idea…” Her voice trailed away; seeing Alicia’s reaction, she blinked. “Isn’t it?”

Alicia looked at Tony. He returned her regard steadily, giving not an inch. She glanced at Geoffrey, but he was— quite deliberately she was sure—chatting with her brothers about the merits of blackberry jam.

Slowly, she drew breath, then met Adriana’s gaze. “I don’t know.” The unvarnished truth.

“Well—”

Adriana tried to persuade her all over again; her arguments echoed Tony’s, yet were sufficiently different to assure Alicia he hadn’t been so foolish as to plot with her sister against her.

He knew the thought crossed her mind; when, recognizing her suspicion was misplaced, she glanced at him, he searched her eyes, then faintly raised a brow. Raising his cup, he calmly sipped. And left her fighting a rear-guard action against everyone else in the room.

Her brothers didn’t press her directly; instead, they supported and elaborated on Adriana’s themes. And then Geoffrey, more quietly but also more seriously and with considerably more weight, threw his support behind Adriana and Tony.

Looking into Geoffrey’s steady brown gaze, Alicia felt her resistance waver. She could see why Geoffrey wanted Adriana and the rest of them under Tony’s roof. Glancing at Tony, she knew the same reason was a significant part of his motivation, too. Was she being irrational in refusing to agree?

She needed reassurance, but not the sort anyone present could give—

The doorbell pealed. She glanced at the clock; time had flown. Hearing feminine voices in the hall, she rose. She tugged the bellpull to summon Jenkins, and instructed her brothers they could finish the crumpets before returning to their lessons.

Turning, she headed for the door, Adriana behind her. Tony and Geoffrey followed.

“Ah—there you are, Alicia!” In the hall, Kit Hendon beamed at her.

Beside her, Leonora Wemyss smiled. “I hope we haven’t called at an inopportune moment, but there’s a gathering at Lady Mott’s that it would be wise to attend, and we wanted to coordinate which events we’ll go to tonight.”

Alicia smiled, touched hands, waited while they greeted the others, then ushered both ladies into the drawing room. As they all sat, disposing themselves on the chaise and the chairs, she realized that neither Kit nor Leonora had evinced the slightest surprise at discovering Tony and Geoffrey present.

The middle of the afternoon was not a common time for gentlemen to call.

Leonora plunged immediately into a discussion of the most promising events planned for that evening. “I think Lady Humphries’ rout, then the Canthorpes’ ball and the Hemmingses’, too. What do you think?”

They tossed around the possiblities, eventually replacing the Hemmingses’ ball with the Athelstans’. “Much better connected,” Tony said, his eyes capturing Alicia’s, “and that helps at the end of a long night.”

“Yes.” Leonora nodded, gaze distant as if reviewing a mental list. “That should do it.” She glanced at Alicia. “A very good night’s work.”

“Now,” Kit said, sitting forward, “the reason we think visiting Lady Mott’s in the next hour would be wise is that her gatherings invariably attract all the busiest bodies in town. They’re of the older, more crotchety crew, and while our story will doubtless have reached some of them, there are others who are highly active but only during the day.”

“If we concentrate our activities solely on the evening events, we’ll miss them,” Leonora put in. “Not only would that leave an avenue open for A. C. to exploit, but those old ladies themselves won’t thank us—they hate to be behindhand with gossip.”

The observation made them all grin.

Alicia glanced down at her lilac gown; she’d worn it to luncheon at Lady Candlewick’s, but courtesy of her sojourn in the park, grass stains now adorned the hem. “I’ll have to change my gown.”

“So will I.” Adriana waved at her carriage dress, quite unsuitable attire for an afternoon call on Lady Mott and company.

“No matter.” Sitting back, Kit waved. “Leonora and I will wait.”

Alicia looked at Tony and Geoffrey. The opportunity to talk privately to Kit and Leonora, to sound them out over Tony’s suggestion, was a godsend—but she didn’t want to leave Tony alone with them in case he wooed them to his cause before she’d a chance to assess their true reactions.

As if bowing to her wishes, he uncrossed his long legs and stood. With a glance, he roused Geoffrey, then turned to her. “We’ll leave you. I’ll call for you at eight, if that’s suitable?”

She rose to see them out. “Yes, of course.”

He and Geoffrey farewelled Kit and Leonora. Adriana also rose and accompanied them into the hall. Maggs stood ready to open the door.

Alicia gave Tony her hand. He held it, looked into her eyes; reading them, his lips tightened. “You will consider my suggestion, won’t you?”

“Yes.” She held his gaze. “But I don’t know that I’ll agree.”

The urge to argue welled strong; she could see it in his eyes, feel it in the clasp of his fingers about hers. But he quelled it. Suavely inclined his head.

Releasing her hand, he nodded to Adriana. With Geoffrey following, he went out of the door and down the steps into the street.

Alicia let out the breath she’d been holding and turned.

Saw Adriana’s lips open and held up a hand. “Not now. We need to get changed—we can’t keep Kit and Leonora waiting.”

Adriana, every bit as stubborn as she, pressed her lips tight, but acquiesced. They went quickly up the stairs side by side. Alicia turned into her room—and then hurried like a fiend, selecting a pale green gown of the finest twill and struggling into it, then expertly tweaking and resetting her coiled hair.

She was ready long before Adriana; quickly, shoes pattering, she hurried back down to the drawing room.

Regardless of the fact she’d only made their acquaintance yesterday, with Kit and Leonora she’d felt an instant rapport. Indeed, they had only met on her front step, yet the directness, the ready understanding on which friendship and trust were based, were already there between them. She could ask them about Tony’s suggestion; they were two of the very few people whose opinion on such an issue she would trust.

Kit was describing one of her eldest son’s antics; she smiled as Alicia rejoined them, and quickly brought the story to a close.