A Reckless Promise. Кейси Майклс

just three, and she barely remembers her, which is sad in itself. I did my best to step in for her, coming to live with them, helping in John’s surgery, taking it over for the time he was away and...and until he died.”

      She seemed open to telling him things now, so he decided to see just how much information might be forthcoming. “You never mentioned where John and Marley lived. Where he had his surgery.”

      She looked up at him curiously, and he noticed that her eyes were shining with unshed tears. It hadn’t been the best of days for her, not for a many number of weeks and months, and he felt his heart soften toward her. She was quietly brave, and he admired her for that, as well. He could even forgive her lies—her one lie, for that’s all it had been, really. She had done what she had thought best under the circumstances. As had he, come to think of the thing.

      Careful, Darby, you’re in danger of turning into a softhearted ninny. What would your friends have to say if they suspected any such nonsense? Well, that’s simple enough. They’d think you’d once again fallen into a mud puddle only to come up smelling like the first roses of spring, that’s what they’d think, because Sadie Grace is an exceedingly beautiful woman, apparently both inside and out.

      “I didn’t? I certainly wasn’t hiding that information. We resided in Dibden, in Hampshire. I doubt you’ve heard of it.”

      Darby shook his head slightly, for he’d gotten lost in his own thoughts and for a moment didn’t have the faintest idea what Sadie was saying. “Oh, Dibden. No, I can’t say that I’ve heard of the place. Not quite the thriving metropolis, I’ll assume. But you didn’t always live there?”

      “No. I remained in our parents’ cottage in Huyton, not much distance from Liverpool, after they’d passed, happy with a small allowance. Papa had been a tutor and Mama a fine seamstress, and they left me as well-provided-for as they could. But that was only until Susan died. I’m a country mouse, and content. I’ve really never been anywhere, and yet now here I am in London, and soon to be a viscountess. I still can’t quite imagine it. You’re marrying quite beneath you, my lord Nailbourne, but with your friends’ support, I believe there’s still time for you to come to your senses. Ah, and here they come now, marching to your defense, I should hope.”

      Darby looked across the square to see Gabe and Coop approaching, Rigby and his Clarice bringing up the rear. He suppressed a smile at the sight of Rigby’s betrothed, who apparently had discovered a love for furs, as the ermine muff she carried rivaled the size of a bandbox. She certainly had adapted well to her new station in life.

      “Miss Hamilton,” Gabriel Sinclair intoned, bowing in her direction, as did the others, while Clarice shooed Darby from his seat and quickly occupied it, giving a surprised Sadie a quick hug that left her to surreptitiously pick a few bits of ermine fluff from her tongue.

      “Excuse us, Sadie,” Darby said as he joined his friends a safe distance away from Clarice’s happy chatter. “Gentlemen? You’ve come to thank me for the puppies?”

      “What?” the red-haired Rigby said, momentarily confused. “Oh, yes, yes, indeed, the puppy. Quite the surprise, that. Not so much as Gabe’s birds, but Clarice is happy enough. Can’t walk a parrot in the park, you know, although Lord knows we did the next best thing. Clary’s already named him Goodfellow. Er, yes, thank you very much.”

      That was the beauty of Jeremy Rigby; he was easily distracted.

      Gabe and Coop, however, were not.

      “You want to tell us what the devil’s going on?” Gabe asked.

      “Why, Gabe, gentlemen, whatever would make you think something is going on? I will admit I have only a faint hope that the ladies swallowed that farradiddle about Sadie and I discovering a mutual affection, but they won’t question it. In truth, Miss Hamilton made a foolish mistake, I committed a worse faux pas, thus compounding the error, and now we are constrained to marry. It happens every day. Or at least it seems to. As I recall, Gabe, it nearly happened to you. Oh, wait a moment, it did. To both of you, to one degree or another. I suppose I’m simply following in your footsteps, taking my hints from watching you.”

      “Thea was deliberately putting herself in danger. I had no choice.”

      “There are always choices, Gabe. And you, Coop, you and Dany were on your way to the altar within four and twenty hours of your first meeting, which I was so fortunate to witness.”

      “There were unusual circumstances, and you know it, and the engagement was meant only as a ploy, a temporary solution.”

      “I was rather in on that, as well, wasn’t I? Perhaps the fates are having their fun with me now, as a sort of punishment. Do you think we’ll tumble into love when we least expect it, Sadie and I, as you fellows did? I doubt it, but at least my ward won’t have to worry about losing her aunt.”

      “Yes, at the bottom of it, it’s the child, isn’t it,” Coop remarked, not as a question, but as a statement he felt certain was correct. He always had been the most levelheaded of their group. “This all has something to do with John’s orphaned daughter.”

      “It may also have something to do with the obvious beauty of that young lady over there.”

      “I admit to an attraction, Gabe, yes,” Darby said, laughing. “In fact, marriage to Sadie has seemed the only logical solution since we first met, if she’s to become a part of my household, and clearly Marley loves her. The events of this morning only gave me an opportunity to avail myself of that solution. There. Are you all happier now? I’m not exactly throwing myself away strictly for the child, or on impulse. I may have only the one eye, but it sees quite well.”

      “But marriage, Darby?” Gabe shook his head. “Out of your own mouth, you didn’t even know her true name an hour ago, if she really is John’s sister. We’d hate to see you hoodwinked.”