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comprehension.”
    Addison smiled. “Dulcie was beautiful
though, and if you’d married her, the place settings at your dinner
parties would have been the talk of London. I bet Jillian doesn’t
have such a unique talent.”
    Saber raised a black brow and couldn’t
resist irritating Addison. “No, but I thoroughly enjoy the ones she does have.”
    “She’s after your title and fortune.”
    So is every other unmarried female in
London , Saber raged silently. “She’ll get neither, and this
discussion is over.”
    Addison tipped his imaginary hat and grinned
again. “I’ll meet you downstairs. I’ve already informed your staff
to prepare you for the trip, and I’ve sent a messenger to Leighwood
as well. It will be Leighwood rather than Paris, will it
not?”
    “You know perfectly well it will be,” Saber
snapped. “You made sure of it.”
    Addison couldn’t stop smiling. “Smashing!
I’ll be in the drawing room with your dear, sweet aunties. When I
left them they were having a discussion concerning the poor
unfortunate street girl who will be living with them. Sheltering,
teaching, and finding honest employment for destitute lasses is the
newest mission of mercy among the older ladies of the nobility.
From what I gather, Ladies Roth, Baldwin, Ainsworth, and Chapman
already have their little paupers.”
    Saber’s shoulders sagged. A thieving street
waif in his home was just what he needed, he thought sardonically.
God. What other obnoxious bits of news were going to come to him
today? “I suppose Aunt Lucy and Aunt Clara are anxious to have one
of these lasses of their own?”
    “‘The most ignorant and needy soul in all of
England.’ Those were their precise words. They have consented,
however, to wait until you return from your trip. I’ll go now and
inform them you’ve chosen to go to Leighwood rather than
Paris.”
    “Addison, I swear I’ll have you on toast for
this!”
    “The deuce, you say?” Addison exclaimed,
feigning fear. “Cheer up, old chap. The bet could have been for
higher stakes.”
    Saber made a growling sound. “What, besides
going to Paris with Aunt Lucy, Aunt Clara, and a group of their
companions, could be worse than being a servant to you and those
three idiots I’m confused enough to call friends?”
    Addison was silent for a moment. He looked
at the floor, then back up at Saber. “We could have stipulated the
fortnight be spent at Ravenhurst instead of Leighwood. God knows something must get you back to your ducal lands.”
    Though Saber was a master at hiding his
emotions, Addison did not miss the fleeting look of rage in his
eyes and felt a wave of frustration and sadness. “You’ll have to
return one day, Saber,” he said quietly. “And when you do, it
should be with your duchess on your arm.”
    Like a giant wave, grief gathered, swelled,
and crashed through Saber. He felt as though he were drowning in
it, “Addison—”
    “If you won’t be told by me, your closest
friend, who will you listen to?”
    “And you never let an opportunity pass to
tell me, do you?”
    “Then you’ll hear me out?”
    “Short of killing you, I cannot think of a
way to dissuade you. Besides, it is not the purpose of your life to
run mine?”
    Addison was undaunted by his friend’s
sarcasm. He loved Saber like a brother and there was nothing he
wouldn’t do, dare, or shoulder in order to help him set his life
right again. “Five years, Saber. Five years or sixty months, or two
hundred and sixty weeks, or... How many days is that? Well, no
matter. However you look at it, it’s a very long time to hide from
the world.”
    “I do not hide.”
    “Very well,” Addison conceded. “Five years
is a long time to pretend you have no feelings for the world and
the people who live in it.”
    “I am feeling impatience and anger at this
moment.”
    “Lord Marion Tremayne,” Addison continued,
rocking from toes to heels. “Once a man of charm and laughter. But
that man met his death