The Lady By His Side(118)

Sebastian was relieved she’d agreed. No matter the distraction, ten barrels of gunpowder and the havoc that could wreak in the heart of London was difficult to block from their minds.





Chapter 17





“Am I allowed to say it’s about time?”

Sebastian hid a wince. He’d just made formal application for Antonia’s hand in marriage. “As you wish” didn’t seem a wise response to make to the gentleman seated on the other side of the desk in the study of the Green Street house. Gyles Rawlings, Earl of Chillingworth and Antonia’s father, was one of Sebastian’s father’s oldest friends.

“I suppose I should ask,” Chillingworth continued, clearly unsurprised by Sebastian’s silence, “what Antonia has to say to this.”

“I’ve asked her, and she’s agreed.”

“Excellent.” Sitting back in his chair, Chillingworth smiled. While Sebastian felt the earl was enjoying himself—thrilled to have a Cynster metaphorically at his mercy—he nevertheless appeared to be genuinely delighted. “A wise move on your part, and a highly satisfactory one on hers.” He eyed Sebastian indulgently. “I suppose I should confess that your father and I long suspected it would come to this.”

Understanding that Chillingworth was not inclined to even pretend to be averse to the union  —not that Sebastian had anticipated rejection, but the earl could have made his approval much harder to gain—he tested the waters with a disgruntled grunt. “You—or he—might have warned me.”

Chillingworth opened his eyes wide. “Where would be the fun in that?”

It was, Sebastian discovered, a touch disconcerting that Antonia had inherited her gray gaze from her father.

That gaze was currently fixed on him in a far-too-knowing fashion. “Besides,” the earl said, “we each of us have to find our own way into and out of the morass.”

Sebastian nearly asked “Which morass?” but suspected he knew. Then it struck him that Chillingworth had to have faced many of the same issues—along with the same intense and rather fiery counter-response—he himself was now facing; it was widely acknowledged that Antonia had inherited both her black hair and the wilder, more dramatic side of her nature from her mother. “Apropos of that”—he rapidly searched for the right words, but in the end, settled for a man-to-man appeal—“as Antonia takes after the countess in many ways, do you have any helpful hints about how to manage the usual hurdles men of our ilk face?”

Chillingworth regarded him impassively, then, somewhat to Sebastian’s surprise, the earl leaned forward, clasped his hands on the blotter, and fixed him with a serious look. “I’m sure your father would agree that the most critical aspect to understand in order to enjoy a long and happy marriage is to realize that power isn’t entirely ours. Not with respect to wives—or at least not to our sort of wives. We might rule our roost, but only with their acquiescence. As long as we play by those rules and give them due deference, all goes smoothly. Try to lord it over them, and you will very quickly wish you hadn’t—you really don’t want to test them, or more to the point, plumb your own emotions, believe me. ”

Sebastian considered that, then asked, “You mean that continues…forever?”

Chillingworth sent him a shark’s grin. “To the grave. Ours, most likely.”

The look Sebastian sent him clearly made the earl’s day; Chillingworth laughed, then gestured to the door and made to stand.

Sebastian stayed him with an upraised hand. “One moment. There’s something else you need to know.”

Chillingworth sank back into his chair. There was nothing wrong with the earl’s ability to read other men. His “What is it?” held a sharper edge.

Succinctly, Sebastian described Drake’s mission, and how Antonia as well as he was now involved. “The intrigue is ongoing, and it’s possible that I, and even Antonia, may have a further role to play.”

Chillingworth didn’t look thrilled. He stared at Sebastian for several seconds, then stated, “I can’t order her out of it, any more than you can.”

Sebastian grimaced. “So it seems.”

Chillingworth studied him, then said, “Your father and I, and the others of our circle…when we were your age, we stepped into the fray when we needed to. When we were called on. We can hardly argue against you—and even Antonia—stepping up to the same mark in your time.”

Sebastian held the earl’s gaze, then arched a brow. “Like a baton being passed on?”