He consulted his inner self and inwardly acknowledged that him backing off wasn’t going to happen. But he had to say something to appease her. He forced himself to nod—an exceedingly small nod. “Very well. We’ll see how matters progress.”
She wasn’t convinced she’d got what she wanted. She searched his face, then she appeared to accept she’d done enough for the moment; the passion left her eyes to be replaced with her usual cool hauteur. She shifted to his side and turned to view the gathering. “Have you spoken with Ennis yet?”
“Only to greet him. He’s surrounded by others, and this is hardly an appropriate venue.” He studied their host, still standing before the fireplace. “I’ll need to watch and seize a moment to make it clear that I’m Drake’s surrogate. Then he and I will need to meet privately, and I assume he’ll want to keep that meeting secret.”
“Well, we’ve a few minutes yet before dinner will be announced.” She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm. “Come with me, and let’s see if I can engineer your moment.”
He let her guide him to the group about Ennis, but although they joined it, there were too many others in the company likewise intent on spending a few moments with their host; despite Antonia’s best efforts, no opportunity arose for Sebastian to exchange even a few private words with Ennis.
Blanchard appeared and announced that dinner was served. Courtesy of their ranks, Sebastian and Antonia were separated by the full length of the table; as the highest-ranking lady, she was seated on Ennis’s right, while Sebastian, as the highest-ranking male, led Cecilia in to dinner and sat at her right.
As course followed course, Sebastian found his frustration mounting. Not only had he yet to speak with Ennis, but he also had to sit and watch Antonia being made much of by the gentlemen at the other end of the table, while simultaneously keeping his wits about him sufficiently to avoid Cecilia’s lures.
Despite all evidence that he was uninterested in reanimating an affair long dead, she continued to eye him with open speculation, as if she remained hopeful that his escorting Antonia was merely a convenient excuse he’d seized in order to return to her—Cecilia’s—orbit.
Sebastian was quite sure that, despite his usual perspicacity, Drake hadn’t foreseen the mounting complications evolving from what Drake had considered a fortuitous set of circumstances. Not only was Sebastian juggling the mission itself, but he also had to contend with Ennis’s understandable reluctance to have anything to do with him, with an unexpected company of Anglo-Irish all around, plus his increasingly unsettling and potentially highly charged interactions with Antonia, and on top of it all, he needed to douse Cecilia’s increasingly transparent expectations.
Very much aware that Ennis was directing occasional dark looks down the table at him, Sebastian made every effort to keep the conversation general and otherwise direct his attention to Mrs. Parrish, seated on his right. While at the dinner table, he could do nothing about his mission, or about Antonia, so he devoted his energies to avoiding Cecilia and ignoring her thankfully subtle encouragements.
Nevertheless, he’d rarely been so grateful to see the end of a meal. After Cecilia rose and led the ladies back to the drawing room, the gentlemen moved up the table, and the decanters were passed around. There was no chance whatsoever of speaking privately with Ennis; rather than further aggravate the man, Sebastian kept his distance. He sat beside Hadley Featherstonehaugh and talked of horses and the latest fads in carriages. They were joined by Worthington and McGibbin, and the interlude passed in companionable bonhomie.
Sebastian perked up when, by general consensus, the men decided not to join the ladies but instead to retreat to the billiards room. But he was destined for disappointment; as even Parrish and McGibbin elected to eschew the ladies’ company and crowd into the billiards room, there was no chance to approach Ennis, even to simply drop a quiet word in his ear.
It was increasingly obvious that any such word would have to be exchanged in relative privacy at the very least—in a situation where Sebastian could overcome Ennis’s unwillingness to interact with him without alerting anyone else to the exchange being in any way notable.
Sebastian played two rounds of billiards—one with Hadley, Wilson, and Filbury, the other with Connell Boyne, Worthington, and Parrish, who, despite his age and girth, proved a dab hand at the game.
Ennis didn’t play but circulated among his guests, stopping here and there to chat and replenish the glasses of brandy or whisky most held. Ennis gave Sebastian a wide berth, but not so obviously that any but Sebastian would notice.