To Protect a Princess (Regency Royals #1) - Jess Michaels Page 0,48
her glove for all-too-brief a moment. When he glanced up at her, her pupils had dilated and her breath was short.
“Goodbye, Captain,” she whispered as she tugged her hand from his and hurried away back toward the palace, yanking her hood up as she went.
“Goodbye, Ilaria,” he whispered. Then he turned back to the sea that had been his home for so many years. She would welcome him back. She would help him forget any other desires.
She had to.
1817
London
Jonah eased his way through Fitzhugh’s Club and took a seat by the fire. A precisely liveried servant approached with cigars, but Jonah waved them away and picked up the paper that had been left on the table beside his seat. Splashed across the front was a story about the Athawick royal family. Something about King Grantham’s latest meeting with the courtiers for the prince regent. There was an accompanying cartoon that depicted Grantham as larger than life and beautiful as a Greek god while the courtiers were small and feeble at his feet.
“That should play extremely poorly in the palace,” Jonah muttered. He glanced up and caught his breath. Coming across the room was Jonah’s old friend Nicholas Gillingham and Gillingham’s brother-in-law, the Earl of Bramwell. He lifted a hand to wave and stood to greet the men as they joined him.
Gillingham switched his cane to the opposite hand before he shook Jonah’s. “Good to see you, Captain.”
“Gillingham,” Jonah said with a genuine smile. One that dimmed as he extended a hand to Bramwell, as well. “My lord. Won’t you two join me?”
He didn’t really want to sit with the man who was being groomed to be Ilaria’s future husband, but there was no way to avoid the societal expectation of politeness without making a scene.
The men took the seats beside him and for a while the talk was general and uneventful. He was somehow able to control his countenance as he chatted amiably with the man he knew was in contention to marry Ilaria. The fact that he was a good man was at least helpful.
But the idea of him having Ilaria, falling in love with her, making a life with her…it was physically painful.
“It seems like it’s been an eventful Season thus far,” Gillingham said. “My brother, the Duke of Roseford, tells me he hasn’t seen anything like it. But you know, Thomas—you are at the heart of this royal family situation.”
Bramwell smiled but the expression was tight. It didn’t reach his eyes. “Yes. Every party is truly a crush and half the people in attendance have snuck in just to get a look at the Athawick party’s gowns and hair. And the rumors run rampant. I think I’ve been featured five or six times in barely blind items in the Scandal Sheet.”
“Are the items true?” Jonah asked quietly, gripping his chair arm just a little harder.
“Some of them, yes, but you know that rag. It’s nonsense more than half the time.” Bramwell rolled his eyes. “I shudder to think what they’ll say after tomorrow.”
Jonah straightened up. “What is tomorrow?”
“The opera. It’s the performance of the year, people say. The regent will be there—there are rumors Princess Caroline will make some other move against him. And my mother and I will be sharing our box with Princess Ilaria and Queen Giabella.”
Jonah’s heart sank even as Bramwell continued talking casually about the arrow he had just flung directly into Jonah’s heart. Such a public outing would, as Bramwell implied, set the gossips off. Because it meant something. The circling of the two families was entirely clear. And the end result was predictable.
“You’re really going to do this, are you, Bramwell?” Jonah asked, interrupting the earl in the middle of his sentence.
Bramwell appeared taken aback and shook his head. “Do…what?”
“Marry her,” Jonah said, as quietly as he could.
Gillingham’s eyes went wide and he slid to the front of his chair as if he sensed he might have to intervene between the two men. Which made Jonah wonder how wild he looked, since Bramwell appeared entirely calm.
“I…” the earl said, and then bent his head. “I suppose the intention is not a secret, especially since you are so close to the family, I’ve heard. There are overtures being made in that arena, yes.”
Jonah couldn’t believe how unmoved this man seemed to be about this subject. He was talking about marrying Ilaria, who was beautiful and sharp-witted and frustrating and wonderful. A woman one couldn’t help falling in love with.