And Gareth knew—with every fiber of his being he knew—that the baron wished him no happiness. Gareth didn’t bother with most ton functions, but London wasn’t such a large city, socially speaking, and he couldn’t always manage to avoid his father completely. And Lord St. Clair never made any effort to hide his enmity.
As for Gareth—well, he wasn’t much better at keeping his feelings to himself. He always seemed to slip into his old ways, doing something deliberately provoking, just to make the baron angry. The last time they’d found themselves in each other’s company, Gareth had laughed too loudly, then danced far too closely with a notoriously merry widow.
Lord St. Clair had turned very red in the face, then hissed something about Gareth being no better than he should be. Gareth hadn’t been exactly certain to what his father had been referring, and the baron had been drunk, in any case. But it had left him with one powerful certainty—
Eventually, the other shoe was going to drop. When Gareth least expected it, or perhaps, now that he’d grown so suspicious, precisely when he most suspected it. But as soon as Gareth attempted to make a change in his life, to move forward, to move up…
That was when the baron would make his move. Gareth was sure of it.
And his world was going to come crashing down.
“Mr. St. Clair?”
Gareth blinked and turned to Hyacinth Bridgerton, whom, he realized somewhat sheepishly, he’d been ignoring in favor of his own thoughts. “So sorry,” he murmured, giving her the slow and easy smile that seemed to work so well when he needed to placate a female. “I was woolgathering.”
At her dubious expression, he added, “I do think from time to time.”
She smiled, clearly despite herself, but he counted that as a success. The day he couldn’t make a woman smile was the day he ought to just give up on life and move to the Outer Hebrides.
“Under normal circumstances,” he said, since the occasion seemed to call for polite conversation, “I would ask if you enjoyed the musicale, but somehow that seems cruel.”
She shifted slightly in her seat, which was interesting, since most young ladies were trained from a very young age to hold themselves with perfect stillness. Gareth found himself liking her the better for her restless energy; he, too, was the sort to find himself drumming his fingers against a tabletop when he didn’t realize it.
He watched her face, waiting for her to reply, but all she did was look vaguely uncomfortable. Finally, she leaned forward and whispered, “Mr. St. Clair?”
He leaned in as well, giving her a conspiratorial quirk of his brow. “Miss Bridgerton?”
“Would you mind terribly if we took a turn about the room?”
He waited just long enough to catch her motioning over her shoulder with the tiniest of nods. Lord Somershall was wiggling slightly in his chair, and his copious form was edged right up next to Hyacinth.
“Of course,” Gareth said gallantly, rising to his feet and offering her his arm. “I need to save Lord Somershall, after all,” he said, once they had moved several paces away.
Her eyes snapped to his face. “I beg your pardon?”
“If I were a betting man,” he said, “I’d lay the odds four-to-one in your favor.”
For about half a second she looked confused, and then her face slid into a satisfied smile. “You mean you’re not a betting man?” she asked.
He laughed. “I haven’t the blunt to be a betting man,” he said quite honestly.
“That doesn’t seem to stop most men,” she said pertly.
“Or most women,” he said, with a tilt of his head.
“Touché,” she murmured, glancing about the room. “We are a gambling people, aren’t we?”
“And what about you, Miss Bridgerton? Do you like to wager?”
“Of course,” she said, surprising him with her candor. “But only when I know I will win.”
He chuckled. “Strangely enough,” he said, guiding her toward the refreshment table, “I believe you.”
“Oh, you should,” she said blithely. “Ask anyone who knows me.”
“Wounded again,” he said, offering her his most engaging smile. “I thought I knew you.”
She opened her mouth, then looked shocked that she didn’t have a reply. Gareth took pity on her and handed her a glass of lemonade. “Drink up,” he murmured. “You look thirsty.”
He chuckled as she glowered at him over the rim of her glass, which of course only made her redouble her efforts to incinerate him with her glare.
There was something very amusing about Hyacinth Bridgerton, he decided. She was smart—very smart—but she had a certain air about her, as if she was used to always being the most intelligent person in the room. It wasn’t unattractive; she was quite charming in her own way, and he imagined that she would have to have learned to speak her own mind in order to be heard in her family—she was the youngest of eight, after all.
But it did mean that he rather enjoyed seeing her at a loss for words. It was fun to befuddle her. Gareth didn’t know why he didn’t make a point of doing it more often.
He watched as she set her glass down. “Tell me, Mr. St. Clair,” she said, “what did your grandmother say to you to convince you to attend this evening?”
“You don’t believe I came of my own free will?”
She lifted one brow. He was impressed. He’d never known a female who could do that.
“Very well,” he said, “there was a great deal of hand fluttering, then something about a visit to her physician, and then I believe she sighed.”