Roberta was longing to ask about Teddy’s mother, but didn’t quite dare. And she felt dimly ashamed of herself as well. Would she have done the same for Teddy? The thought made her feel shallow and—
Damon took her hand. “There’s no explaining it until you have one of your own,” he said. “It was a moment of madness. If I tell you that his grandmother handed over an infant with a soggy nappy…does that demonstrate just how remarkably deranged I became?”
“Yes,” she said. But she didn’t think he sounded deranged.
“What would you like to do now?” Damon asked. “Shall we rejoin the party or shall we do something utterly scandalous like walking in the garden?”
“No one will even notice that we are absent,” she said rather sourly.
“I must admit that the young lady whom Jemma presumably invited to be my escort shows little interest in my company.” His tone was so funny that Roberta started laughing. “She is spending the evening hanging on every word that has dropped from Beaumont’s lips, though it doesn’t seem to bother my sister.”
“No,” Roberta said. “I’m afraid it doesn’t. How the mighty are fallen. I’m sure you were introduced to me as the gentleman whom all marriageable maidens desired…except, it seems, Miss Tatlock.”
“And you.”
“I’m not marriageable anymore,” Roberta pointed out. “I’m engaged to the man currently playing a game of chess for the right to your sister’s bed.” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that!”
But Damon was laughing. “That’s calling a spade a spade.” He seemed to be steering her outside, but the last thing Roberta wanted was to walk about under the smudgy London sky smelling of coal smoke. Besides, what Damon likely wanted was to push her against a tree and kiss her senseless, and she saw no reason why that couldn’t happen in more pleasant surroundings. In fact…
“Wait here a moment!” she said, and flew back up the stairs.
Two seconds later she was back, a box tucked under her arm.
Damon looked at it, and then his eyes widened.
“I believe,” Roberta said, “there is a chess game going on in the ballroom. Shall we take the library, or perhaps my chamber?” She knew full well that the diabolical smile in his eyes was echoed on the edges of her mouth.
“A friendly game of dominoes between cousins?” he enquired.
“Dollymop dominoes,” she said firmly. “I’ve heard it’s played in all the best households.”
“I”—he said, leaning over and taking the box from her—“have made it one of my lifetime missions never to disappoint a family member.”
“Then you’ll need to show me a game that’s truly superior,” she said, making her voice into a purr and feeling a thrill at her own sophistication. “And not just your skills at the game either.”
“I live to please,” he said.
And since his voice brought back to mind an image of a beautifully defined chest, muscles rippling as he threw a cowpat, Roberta had no doubt but that his reputation would be unflawed by a vigorous game of dominoes.
Chapter 28
J emma was a trifle irritated. She and Villiers played a side game of chess, but it was over almost before it began. Villiers set two traps for her simultaneously. She saw the chance to capture his bishop, but missed the chance to capture his knight. Either way, she lost her queen.
The moment she rose from the table, Harriet pulled her over to a small sofa. “Things are going so well,” she said happily.
“They could be better,” Jemma replied. If she had moved her knight to Queen’s Bishop Three in the fourth round…