Page 17 of Invitation
“Good afternoon, Lord Overton,” the footman said crisply, taking Tobias’s hat and gloves.And using his new title.
“Thank you, Dexter.I trust Lord Lucien is in his office at this hour?”
Dexter inclined his prematurely gray head.The footmen at the Phoenix Club did not wear wigs as they did in so many others.“Indeed he is.”
Tobias thanked him again before going up to the second floor to Lucien’s office.The door to his outer sitting room was open, so Tobias strode inside only to stop short at seeing Lucien in quiet conversation with a young just outside his open office door.
Lucien’s gaze lifted as he looked over the woman’s shoulder and acknowledged Tobias.“I’ll see you soon,” he said to her.
She turned, and, keeping her head down, darted by Tobias on her way out.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Tobias said, thinking the woman seemed in an exceptional hurry to leave—and not be noticed by Tobias.“Helping another soul in need?”
“Yes.”Lucien beckoned him to his office.
“Good, then you’re already in the mood.”
Lucien closed the door and arched a brow at Tobias.“You need help?”
“So much.”Tobias dropped into a chair.“My father has left me…a mess.”
“Brandy?”Lucien offered.
Tobias nodded.
Moving to pour their drinks, Lucien said, “I would have thought your father would have left things in an exceedingly orderly manner.”
“Orderly for him, yes.For me?”Tobias shook his head, the familiar frustration and anger he’d felt since his father’s death swelling in his chest.“He had a ward.”
“That is a surprise.”Lucien handed him a glass and sat in a nearby chair.“Is that why you need help?”
“She’ll be here in a fortnight for her Season.I’m to keep my father’s promise to her father and see her wed.She will need a chaperone and a sponsor.I have neither, nor do I know how to obtain them.”He pinned Lucien with a desperate stare.“Who is going to sponsor a ward ofmine?”
Lucien’s lips spread into an easy smile.“Leave that to me.I’ve just the lady in mind.And, as it happens, I have the perfect chaperone and lady’s companion.You just encountered her, in fact.”
Tobias glanced toward the door.“The woman who practically ran away when I arrived?”
“I promise she is more than equal to the task.When have I ever led you astray?”
Tobias thought about that.While Lucien had been, as was his nature, an always helpful participant in Tobias’s debauchery over the past two years, he hadn’t led him anywhere Tobias hadn’t tried to go first.
Taking a long drink, Tobias let the heat of the brandy calm him.It had been a trying month since his father’s death, and the news that he now had a ward wasn’t even the worst of it.
“There’s something else,” Lucien said softly.“Is it about this ward?”
Tobias shook his head.“No, it’s about me.If I don’t wed within three months of my father’s death, I will forfeit my mother’s holdings.”The thought of losing her house in Wiltshire, the very center of every bit of happiness in his youth, stole his breath.His father was far more cruel than Tobias had ever imagined.That, or he had no idea how much the house meant to Tobias.Either way, Tobias felt as though he hadn’t known the man at all.
“I’m so sorry.”Lucien’s brow creased as he regarded him over his raised glass.“I suppose your father has the last word when it comes to his demands that you wed.”
“So it seems,” Tobias muttered.He took another drink before looking resolutely to his friend.“You can wave your magic wand and present me with a chaperone and a sponsor.Any chance you can find me a tolerable wife?”
Don’t miss the first full-length novel in THE PHOENIX CLUB,IMPROPER!Read on for a sneak peek at chapter one!
Find out what happens when a dissolute guardian (that’s Tobias!) must rehabilitate his reputation to launch his very proper young ward in Society only to discover she’s a hellion in disguise…
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