He chuckled. “I am just over thirty. Father was working well into his fifties.”
She sighed. “First, your father still worked for the state department. He did not go out running around picking fights with Russian spies. Secondly, your father had already married by that point and we had started a family.”
He groaned. “Please, not this again, Mother.”
“I thought once Sebastian was married you would follow suit.”
His usual response to these discussions was to leave. The problem was that she had him trapped. That was, unless he wanted to traipse around nude in front of her. Even he wasn’t brave enough to do that. And from the shrewd look in her hazel eyes, she knew she had him.
“I have told you that I will not marry until there is someone to take my place.”
“Hmph. That is not going to happen if you do not marry and set up a nursery. Unless…”
Her gaze grew unfocused as something bubbled in her dangerous mind. His father said he had never known a man who could out plot his mother.
“What about your cousin? Simon was being trained by your uncle…well, before. He is five and twenty, definitely old enough to handle overseeing things while you do this.”
He should have known she would latch onto Simon. “His father died less than six months ago.”
She nodded acknowledging his comment. A flash of pain came and went so fast most would have missed it. Harold had actually been his father’s uncle, but they had been as close as if they were brothers. His death was still raw for the entire family.
“Have you been able to find who poisoned him?”
He shook his head. “No. Joanna seems to have a lead on a Russian, but that is it. She can barely go out into society, and most see her as a pariah.”
His mother smiled. “And knowing Jo, she enjoys that. She was never one for ball and musicales.”
“My only worry is that she is becoming obsessed with finding the spy. Being cut off from society has allowed her to turn all her attention to the task.”
Her smile faded. “I will talk to her. She still blames herself for it.”
He nodded but said nothing.
“You will attend the Ethinghams’ ball tonight.”
He wanted to groan but knew better not to. He might be a man and an earl, but she was his mother. Lady Adelaide would not hesitate to box his ears if he refused her demand. And, dammit to all, he was in too much pain to deal with that tonight. Trussing up in his evening clothes was going to be painful enough as it was.
“I don’t know if Sebastian would forgive you if you missed it.”
Sebastian didn’t care if he showed up or not, but apparently his mother did.
“Is there a particular reason?”
She sighed. “Lady Victoria asked.”
And that sealed it. With Sebastian’s mother pairing up with his, there was no way to win.
“I understand my duties, Mother.”
She brushed a lock of hair away from his forehead. “Even when you were a little boy you did.” She cupped his cheek, a familiar move she had used when he was a lad. “Just know that filling your father’s shoes is not everything there is in life, dear boy. You need some outside activities.”
“I do other things.”
She dropped her hand. “I am not talking about your mistresses or paramours.”
Heat filled his face. He should be accustomed to his mother’s plain talk, but he did not know a man who was. There was something so…wrong, discussing your love life with your mother—especially while naked.
“I am talking about the future. Take time to make one for yourself.”
He nodded as she leaned forward and kissed his forehead.
As she walked toward the door, she said, “And you will accompany me to the ball. No escaping to your club.”
He chuckled as he threw off his bed covers. He pulled on his robe and tied the sash. A knock sounded at the door.
“Come.”
His valet opened the door and stepped inside.
“Really, my lord. These late nights are not good for you.”
He chuckled. “Are you telling me that I am past my salad days?”
“Oh, you passed those days years ago. Now it is getting embarrassing.”
Daniel frowned. “Embarrassing?”
“Roving all over kingdom come, for what? Spy games? It is well past time you set up a nursery.”
Daniel groaned. “Not you too.”
“I see that your mother has talked to you about it.”
“It is her favorite subject of discussion. You would think she would busy herself with my sisters.”
“With Lady Portia married, she is content for now with your sisters.”
“But not with me.”
Jenkins opened his mouth, but Daniel lifted a hand. “No more. It is bad enough I have to rearrange a meeting meant for tonight for later this week. I have agreed to go to the ball. Leave it be.”
With a sniff, Jenkins moved to his wardrobe and seemingly got down to work. It figured his mother would enlist Jenkins in her plot. He had been with them for years and knew much about the Bridgertons…being a former spy himself. And knowing his mother, she had convinced Jenkins that it was imperative he do everything he could to make sure Daniel did his duty.
His mother knew him better than anyone should. The two of them had weathered some very tough storms together. When his father had been murdered, Daniel had only been thirteen. His mother had married young, and at the age of one and thirty found herself a widow with a horde of children to raise and spy ring to run. Not your average life.
As the bath water was being brought up and poured into the tub, Daniel looked out upon Mayfair. He knew his mother wanted him to marry, and for that reason he had not told her of his decision. Marriage and children was something he would never have. He could not do what he needed to do and have a life outside of that. His mother was the strongest woman he knew and the loss of her husband had almost killed her. Watching her struggle had a profound effect on him. He had promised himself he would never marry.
A man who lived life waiting to see who wanted to kill him next could not have that luxury.
Chapter Two
“Do smile, Anna. It cannot be all that dire.”
She glanced up at her cousin by marriage as he twirled her around the dance floor. From the moment she’d arrived both cousins had ensured she felt comfortable, and Douglas had even insisted on a waltz with her. It was the only dance she had accepted, even with the warning looks her mother kept tossing her way.
“You cannot complain, my lord. This is your ball. There was a time you avoided these activities as if it were the plague. Now you are having one in your own home.”
Douglas smiled. “Yes, but it makes my wife happy. I am ever ready to do that.” He glanced at his wife who was presently dancing with an earl. “Even if I have to share her with everyone else.”
The disgruntled expression on his face made her laugh. It was a joy to see a man who loved his wife so much. Especially Cicely. No one deserved loving attention more than her cousin. “I daresay she could care less about everyone else.”
His cheeks reddened and she laughed again.
“Oh, my. I made you blush.”
He cleared his throat and looked over her shoulder. “What I want to know is why you have refused so many dances, but you accepted mine?”
“You are family.”
He cocked his head and brought his gaze back to meet hers. “I have been warned by your mother not to discuss this, but I truly wish you would not allow what happened to affect you in this way.”
Her face flamed and she looked around. Sebastian, and not to mention Douglas, had made sure that not a whiff of scandal touched her. Still, she could not help the feeling that people knew. She swallowed a lump in her throat that threatened to choke her. She concentrated on his chest. “I thank you for your understanding.”
“Anna.” His voice was stern and not like the D
ouglas she knew. It was the one Cicely hated the most…his ducal voice. She forced herself to meet his gaze.
“I do not want you to waste your life because you feel you are responsible for what happened.”
“Working with orphans is wasting my life?”
He studied her for a moment. “No. That is a worthy cause. But caring for another woman’s child is not the same as having one of your own.”
Pain and irritation entwined as it thrummed through her blood. She knew he felt he had the right to comment, but it was going too far. Some of what she was thinking must have shown in her face.
“I do apologize for being so forward, but I do not want you to suffer because of that mess. You were not at fault any more than Cicely was.”
She nodded.
He smiled. “Now, I wanted to tell you that we expect another bundle of joy to be presented to us in several months.”
And with that, he whirled her away and Anna forced herself to concentrate.
“What are you doing here on the sidelines?” Daniel asked his best friend. “You are usually out on the floor with your wife.”
Sebastian smiled as he glanced in the direction of Colleen who was sitting between both of their mothers. “She is feeling a little under the weather at the moment.”
“Nothing serious.”
A small smile curved Sebastian’s lips. “No. She will be fine.”
“Your sister looks as if she hates every minute of that waltz,” Daniel said as he watched the duke expertly steer her around the floor.
Sebastian grimaced. “She is not presenting herself very well tonight, is she?”
Daniel could not disagree with that. Anyone who knew Anna could tell from the set of her shoulders that she was not happy with the circumstances. She often pulled her shoulders back when she was irritated. And the smile she offered the duke was not one of genuine smiles. This one curved her lips but did not meet her eyes. There had been a time when every smile showed the exuberant joy she felt inside. Those smiles were a rare occurrence these days.
“Daniel?”
He shook himself free of the thoughts. “You know she didn’t want to be here. She is doing her duty. It is all you can expect.”
Sebastian grunted. “I thought if she were to attend—”
“You got it in your head she would find a man and fall madly in love? How many of these soirees have you taken her to in the last few months?”
“I just don’t want her wasting her time working at that orphanage. She could have her pick of men, but she pays them no heed.”
True to Sebastian’s comments, the waltz ended and Douglas walked her back to her mother. As he did, men’s heads turned, watching. The available gentlemen followed. They surrounded her, each trying to gain her attention, but she barely noticed. If he didn’t know better, he would think she would rather meet the guillotine than speak to one of them.
“You need to ask her to dance. A waltz.”
His heart leapt at the idea of holding Anna in his arms, touching her. It would be heaven and hell combined.
“No.”
He said it loud enough for a few people to turn to Daniel and stare at him as if he had grown horns in his head.
“Excuse me?”
He opened his mouth, but then closed it again. He had avoided this situation for years. The one waltz he had shared with her the first year she had been out had been painful. The moment she had stepped into his arms, his body had reacted. For the first time since his youth, he found his palms sweating and his mind completely blank. The lust encased in a thick layer of guilt had been enough to cause any man to go mad.
He glanced at Sebastian who continued to watch his sister with a frown. How did one tell his best friend he was lusting after his younger sister? It was a rule that you did not even think of your friend’s sister that way. You just did not do it.
Sebastian turned his attention back to Daniel. “If you do not dance with her, people will wonder. Douglas is family and she dances with no one else?”
“He is the host. Besides, it will probably make her that much more popular.”
Not that she needed help in that quarter. With her soft blue eyes, perfect skin and petite, rounded body, most men drew to her. There was a way she looked at a man, focusing her entire attention on him, that made most lose their heads. He knew. He had been given that sort of attention one time, long ago. It was one of the reasons he had to stay away from her. Very far away.
“There will be talk. I know you understand.”
Daniel knew what he meant. Douglas had had a reputation for being a rake of the first order before meeting Cicely, and gossip, no matter how far from the truth, could wound.
“Please, Daniel.”
Daniel felt the hatchet lower. Sebastian did not ask much of him, and he rarely said please. Daniel shot him a look and wanted nothing more than to smack the self-satisfied smile curving his friend’s lips.
“You owe me a boon.”
Sebastian nodded. “I agree.”
Without a backward glance, he started on his trek across the ballroom to where Anna was holding court.
“Daniel?”
He turned and found his father’s best friend and his honorary uncle, Lord Elwood, waving a finger in the air. Knowing his duty, Daniel changed direction and moved to make his way to the older man.
“I am surprised to find you here tonight,” he remarked as he grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing footman. Lord Horace Elwood had been his father’s friend since Eton. As Horace always told it, his father had stepped in to protect him during a fight and they had been friends from that moment on. His hair was no longer the sandy brown of his youth, but now laced with gray and thinning on top. He had become a permanent part of their lives from the moment his father had died. In a house surrounded by women, Daniel had always been thankful for the friendship offered by Horace.
“Mother.”
Horace’s blue eyes danced over his glass as he sipped. “Oh, I understand now. Anxious for you to set up a nursery, is she?”
Daniel nodded as he glanced in Anna’s direction. “Did she tell you about it?”
He chuckled. “I would not admit it if she did. But it is normal for your mother to want you to settle.”
Lord Smythe made a move to step closer to Anna, causing Daniel to frown. The way she was smiling up at the man there was bound to be talk. She should know better than to even give the man any attention. Bloody hell, she had to know his reputation.
“Ah, I see you have your eye on someone already.”
Daniel glanced at him. “I do?”
He gestured in the direction of Anna with his glass. “It is understandable. With her fortune and good looks, she is a catch. Her do-gooder status is a trouble.”
He shook his head trying to keep track of Horace’s conversation. “Trouble?”
“Well, my dear boy, you cannot have a wife around that sort of riff raff. Very unseemly.”
Daniel nodded again, not wanting to get into another argument with him. The one fault that Horace possessed was a bone-deep snobbishness.
“Either way, I am doing this as a favor to Sebastian and I better make my way over there before the next waltz.”
“Happy hunting, my dear boy.”
Daniel fought the need to groan at the image of him hunting for a wife and started on his path again. With each step, his heart sped up, his body reacted. It had been like this since she had come to town several years earlier. He, a man who had been with countless women, who was renowned for his seduction skills, found himself at a loss of what to do when in the presence of Anna. That was, until three years ago. Since then she had avoided soirees of this type. Lately though, it had been easier. She had become more conservative in her dress. Unfortunately, tonight Daniel detected her mother’s hand in her choice of outfits.
The delicate blue silk draped her curves, making the most of her small waist. It showed entirely too much of her breasts in Daniel’s opinion. Ind
eed, Lord Smythe was practically drooling as he talked to her bosom. Possessive anger whipped through him as his blood heated and he clenched his fists. Damn her mother for putting her on display like a prize to be won.
Knowing that it would be better to get the deed done, Daniel approached her. He elbowed his way through the sea of young men surrounding his quarry. The moment he stepped up next to her, he found himself unable to speak. Anna was responding to a question from some wet-behind-the-ears viscount and not even looking at him. But even so, his palms began to sweat. When she turned to him, he felt the blood drain from his head. Those huge blue eyes always did it to him. No matter how many times he reminded himself he could not lust after Sebastian’s sister, his body ignored him. When she met his gaze, every warning he gave himself dissolved.
“Lord Bridgerton.” Her voice had dipped an octave as it slipped over his nerve endings. Cultured English draped in a layer of sensuality. “I did not expect to see you in attendance.”
He knew he should throw out a witty rejoinder, but his brain refused to work. It had been months since he had seen her dressed for a ball. The impact of her appearance singed across his senses. Even standing several feet away from her, he could catch wisps of her fragrance. Rose water. He could never smell it and not think of her or imagine spending a night searching out the scent on her flesh.
Just thinking it brought images to mind, causing his cock to harden. Christ, he had not had this problem in public since…well, the last time he danced with her.
“Lord Bridgerton?”
It took him a moment to detect the worry in her voice. It was enough to snap his mind away from his lust-filled thoughts.
“Lady Anna.” He bowed. “I have come to beg a dance with you.”
The first strains of the next waltz filtered over the crowd. From the look on her face he could tell she knew he had timed it on purpose.
Before she could respond, Lord Smythe decided to speak for her. “Lady Anna is not dancing tonight.”
The look she shot the idiot would have shriveled any man’s parts, but Lord Smythe was not paying attention. She opened her mouth to blast the earl, but Daniel decided to stop her from verbally smashing the man. He did not have time to listen to the pup make a fool of himself.
The Spy Who Loved Her: Once Upon an Accident, Book 3 Page 2