Lady Bridget's Diary (Keeping Up with the Cavendishes #1)(74)

Brothers.

“Do shut up. This isn’t funny and you’re causing a scene. You know how I detest scenes.”

“You could just say that you are in love with her. Like a human.”

He could. Maybe. But things had gone very badly the last time he said those three little words, and he was terrified of repeating that scene.

And in the event Darcy thought things couldn’t get worse, Alistair Finlay--Jones showed up, settling into an empty chair, also looking morose.

“What is so funny?” he asked.

“Darcy attempting to express his feelings,” Rupert told him. “It’s like a baby bird, trying to fly.”

“I should like to see that,” Jones said. “And what feelings? Hunger, thirst, annoyance, and a vague sense of disappointment with the entire world?”

“Love,” Rupert said proudly. “He is in love.”

“Have you not heard anything I said?” Darcy asked, indeed annoyed. “We could all be ruined. We shall be cast out of society.”

He gave a sharp look to his brother, who finally seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation.

“All of us?” Jones questioned.

“Lady Bridget. Rupert. Myself. Her sister.”

Jones’s eyes flashed. “Which sister?”

“Lady Amelia.”

And then Jones swore under his breath. Darcy gave him A Look.

And then Fox showed up, because apparently this situation could indeed become worse.

“What are we discussing? I hesitate to ask, because it looks very serious and you know how I feel about serious things,” he said, pulling up a chair and settling in.

“We are discussing whether Darcy will marry your sister or not,” Rupert answered with a distinct lack of subtlety or tact.

“I thought this was decided ages ago,” Fox asked, yawning. “Have you still not popped the question? Gad, Darcy, what are you waiting for?”

“She proposed to him. In a manner of speaking,” Rupert said.

“When is the wedding?” Jones asked.

“That’s the thing. He would rather there wasn’t a wedding,” Rupert explained uneasily.

Fox turned and leveled a stare at Darcy. “Are you saying that you’ve strung along my sister for years and now you aren’t going to marry her?”

“Yes. Precisely that.”

Fox stood, drawing himself up to his full height of well over six feet. Darcy sighed and stood as well, not at all eager for what was about to happen but knowing it was inevitable and his duty as a gentleman to take it.

Fox promptly punched him in the face. Darcy stumbled back, clutching the side of his face where he’d been hit. Fox shook out his hand.

“I deserve that,” Darcy muttered. “But bloody hell, you can throw a punch.”

“Apologies mate, but I had to do that. Family honor, etc., etc. I could use a drink while you tell me what she has done now.”

“She is blackmailing Darcy,” Rupert said.

“God she’s devious,” Fox said, grinning. “Got all the brains in our family.”

No one contradicted this.

“Well, there goes my plan to enlist your help,” Darcy said dryly.

“Could you explain the problem? I’m confused,” Fox said.

“Francesca is threatening to expose information that would ruin Amelia, myself, and Bridget unless he marries her,” Rupert explained. “But he no longer wishes to marry her, as he discovered that he does in fact possess a heart and it yearns for Bridget.”

Darcy rolled his eyes at such a treacly way of phrasing it.

“That’s quite the dilemma.”

“Thank you, Fox, for bringing that to my attention.”

“We can do something. We can fix this,” Jones said. “After all, it is not every day that Darcy admits to feelings, especially of the romantic variety. Rupert, was there concrete information about you? Whatever it is about you?”

“It was just rumors,” Rupert said dismissively. “There isn’t really any proof. Not anymore. Thanks to Darcy.”

“Well if there is no proof, then I would think that between the lot of us, we’d be able to dismiss any rumors. Should they surface,” Jones said.

“What kind of rumors?” Fox asked.

“Nothing,” Darcy and Rupert said at the same time.

“I will only say this,” Rupert continued. “Lady Francesca would damage her own reputation should she speak of it.”

“Now I’m intrigued,” Jones said. And Fox said, “I as well.”

“You shall have to live with your curiosity,” Rupert said. “Besides, we have more important matters to attend to at the moment. Such as my dear brother’s future happiness.”

“Right,” Jones said. “I may have been out of society for some time, but won’t Lady Amelia and Lady Bridget’s reputations be protected if they are wed?”

“Yes.”

“I should think the solution is damn obvious,” Jones said. “We marry them.”

“Clever . . .” Fox mused.

“It seems too easy,” Darcy said.

“Have you proposed and been accepted?” Jones asked, with a lift of his brow and a distinct rise in his voice. “Have you tried to convince one of those women to pledge her troth to you?”