Gavin chuckled over Alex's glare, unable to resist teasing her. "It does seem that way, although never having had to wear a ball gown myself, I can't guarantee I wouldn't be confused as well."
"It's a good thing, too. I'm not sure you'd survive the corset."
He cocked an eyebrow in response to Alex's retort and moved to greet Ella and Vivi. As Gavin bowed over the backs of their hands, Vivi was the first to speak. Her "Good afternoon, my lord Blackmoor" surprised Alex.
"Oh," said Alex quietly, remembering her manners and falling into a curtsy, "apologies, my lord, your new title slipped my mind."
Gavin turned back toward Alex, surprised. "No need to stand on ceremony, Alex. I forget that I'm the earl myself most of the time. I cannot seem to get comfortable with the idea that I carry the title now. Besides, I don't see how it would change much. Nick has been an earl your whole life and that doesn't seem to change the way you treat him." He shot her an odd smile and nodded in the direction of Alex's middle brother.
Nick, as always, was quick to chime in. "That's right! You lot have never respected my title," he said, puffing out his chest in a false air of pompousness.
He added a thickly arrogant tenor to his blustering. "Why should Blackmoor get any respect? I've been the Earl of Farrow since before you were born and it doesn't earn me an ounce of esteem!"
Everyone laughed and, with that, the awkwardness of the situation had disappeared. Gavin moved to sit by Alex's brothers, throwing himself into their conversation about a horse auction they planned to attend the next week.
Alex rejoined Vivi and Ella, who resumed their discussion about a novel that the three girls had recently read, Mansfield Park, but she couldn't shake the odd feeling she'd had during the scene that had just unfolded. She hadn't missed the fact that, even when Nick was making light of his own title, he'd casually referred to Gavin as Blackmoor — the name that was now rightfully his, along with the earldom and all its privileges — as though it were the most natural thing in the world. But when she'd seen him in the doorway, Alex hadn't even registered that Gavin was any different, that anything had changed.
With one ear on the girls' discussion, Alex stole a glance at the object of her thoughts.
Gavin's father had been her own father's closest boyhood friend — something that was bound to have happened, considering the fact that Blackmoor and Stafford lands bordered each other both in the Essex countryside and in London, where the townhouses shared expansive back gardens on Park Lane. Proximity and age had made Gavin a natural companion of the Stafford sons. The four had climbed trees together, been schooled together, and wreaked general havoc together.
For all the afternoon teas, suppers, and dinners that Gavin had been a part of, Alex thought of him as a fourth brother, equal parts exasperating older sibling and wonderful protector. When, at the age of seven, she had climbed a tree in the back garden trying to emulate her brothers and become stuck in its branches, it was thirteen-year-old Gavin who had come to rescue her — talking her down to a low branch and convincing her to let go and trust him to catch her when she fell. Of course, once it was over, Gavin went back to teasing her; he had never let her forget that she "climbs trees like a girl."
To her surprise, she had missed him in the past few months, and the short time had changed him. She had seen him last in January, three months ago, at the funeral of his father, the late earl. The earl had died tragically from a fall from his horse on a rocky cliff side path on the Blackmoor estate in Essex.
The entire ton had mourned the loss of Gavin's father — a wonderful, intelligent man who had been liked and admired by all.
Alex could remember watching Gavin at the funeral as he stood with sadness in his eyes, strong and silent next to his devastated mother. She had wanted to go to him, to speak to him, but in the crush following the funeral and in the days thereafter, she'd been unable to find a moment to tell him how sorry she was for his loss — not that those words would have held much comfort for a son who had lost his father so unexpectedly.
Now, as she watched him speak with her brothers, she noted his thinner, more serious face, the deeper set of his tired eyes. She was happy he was out of official mourning, that he had joined them in London for the season, and that he seemed to be surviving the shift from unburdened heir to earl, complete with all the responsibilities that came with the title. Yet she couldn't help but wonder just how much of a toll the last few months had taken.
As though he sensed her thoughts, Gavin turned and met her gaze. Several seconds passed and he winked, as if to assure her that her worries were unnecessary. One side of his mouth raised in a lopsided smile, he turned back to her brothers, and Alex refocused on Ella and Vivi's conversation, pushing her questions to the back of her mind for the time being, and promising herself she'd find a moment alone with him later.
"I didn't find it nearly as interesting as Pride and Prejudice," Vivi was saying.
"Of course you didn't! I've never read Pride and Prejudice's equal," said Ella, passionately. "But better or worse is really irrelevant, Vivi. What's most tragic about this book is that, even now, after publishing three wonderful books — each one easily as brilliant as anything written by a man — the author cannot reveal her true identity for fear of repercussions! It's inexcusable that, as a society, we would show such a devastating lack of progress."
"It is disconcerting. But it cannot go on forever," Vivi pointed out. "This particular 'Lady' has garnered too much celebrity to remain anonymous."
"One can only hope that's true," Ella said, turning to look at Alex. "What did you think of the book, Alex?"
Before she had a chance to answer, the conversation was interrupted by Will's loud and exaggerated groan of anguish from across the room. "We can't go to the theater that night. It's Scamp's coming-out at Almack's. Mother will have our heads if we're not there."
Hearing the odious nickname her brothers used for her, she stopped the girls' talking with a raised hand and looked over at the boys. "I'm in the room, Will, in case you'd forgotten. And trust me — I don't find the thought of an evening at Almack's any more entertaining than you do."
"Nonsense," interrupted Nick. "All girls love the idea of Almack's. They spend the majority of their early years envisioning exactly what their first evening there will be like. They go all starry-eyed about the ruddy place, imagining just who will be the first man to steal their hearts."
"Not these girls," piped in Ella.
"I, for one, have no interest at all in having my heart stolen," Alex interjected, ire rising.
Gavin leaned back in his chair and studied the trio of girls, taking note of Alex's rising temper. "To be honest, Nick, I'd be surprised to hear these three speaking of having their hearts stolen... with an attitude like this... I'm guessing this lot is much more interested in who will be the first man to have his heart stolen — they don't seem the wallflower type."
Alex exploded in irritation. "Why is it that men believe that all women care to think about is the trappings of romance and love? You really don't consider the possibility that there's anything more to us, do you?"
The boys looked at each other and turned to the girls with expressions that clearly articulated the answer to her question — rendering words unnecessary.
"Fools," Alex mumbled under her breath. "In actual fact, gentlemen, I think we'd all much prefer to steer clear of heart stealing of any kind, victim or perpetrator," Alex continued. "Of course, you lot wouldn't understand that. You're never going to be forced into dancing with some namby-pamby so your mothers can feel better about your marriage prospects."