“It’s been years,” Caroline shot back. “He was a boy. Boys will spend their time with…anyone.” As Anthony had done with them. “But when those lords grow up, they keep company with men whom they declare are socially superior and marry…Diamonds with fortunes at the ready.” With that last utterance basically falling like an epithet from her lips, Caroline turned her attention back to the young woman gliding gracefully about the room in the arms of her dashing partner.

It was not, however, the particular man who commanded Lettie’s notice.

Anthony was on the move.

“Where are you going?” her sister whispered furiously after her.

“To investigate.” With her eyes on the tall, dark-haired gentleman winding his way through the crowd, Lettie set off in pursuit.

Chapter 2

Bloody hell.

The place was crawling with Brookfields.

They were everywhere.

There were two brothers and three sisters, and as such, it was inevitable he would see them here.

The Brookfield family was why Anthony Grafton, the Duke of Granville, had made a concerted effort to avoid London, but for matters of Parliament, for all the years he had.

More specifically, Rhys Brookfield, his best friend from long ago, a man to whom he’d been as close as he was to his own brother.

And a man whom he’d ultimately betrayed.

Granted, he’d done so only to prevent the other man from committing the gravest mistake.

In the end, it had been Anthony who’d made the gravest blunder—and at the behest of the other man’s mother, no less.

Alas, the Marchioness of Guilford had come to Anthony, pleading for him to help Rhys, who she’d said was being taken in by an actress. The young actress who’d first been a willing participant in that embrace, and upon Rhys’s arrival, had been stricken with grief, and instantly regretted that transgression. Rhys had been unwilling to listen to any and all attempts Anthony had made to explain the reason he’d done what he’d done. Nor had he been willing to hear out Anthony’s subsequent defense of the young woman’s moment of weakness.

That day, he’d ruined two lives.

All in the name of friendship.

Friendship.

His lips curled in a sardonic smile.

He’d learned two very important lessons that day. One, he should not interfere in matters that didn’t involve him. And two, the Brookfield family was a family to be avoided at all costs.

Nay, from that moment on, he’d resolved to stay far and clear of the Brookfield clan, and he’d honored that pledge he’d made to himself.

“We are not leaving, my dear son,” his mother drawled, as around them a bevy of fops all but tripped over one another, embarrassing themselves in their fawning over Eloise.

Arms folded, Anthony took in the ridiculous tableau.

“I did not say we would.”