‘Indeed?’ he murmured, trying for disinterested. Which, of course, he was.
‘Yes, at the Hastings ball.’
Radcliffe absorbed this for a moment.
‘I should then perhaps congratulate you,’ he said at last.
She shook her head, looking at him archly from under her brows. ‘A touch premature. You never know, perhaps Mr Pemberton’s brother will arrive at the eleventh hour to blackmail me. I should not like to celebrate yet, just in case.’
‘Of course,’ Radcliffe agreed smoothly. ‘Most sensible. Though I should not expect there are many men in the world brave enough to stand up to you.’
She laughed. ‘Just one, in fact.’ Kitty paused. ‘I have not yet thanked you, for helping us yesterday with Lord Leicester. It was very kind of you – had you not intervened, I cannot imagine Pemberton would want to marry me.’
Kitty had meant the thanks sincerely, but Radcliffe did not look at all pleased to receive them, giving a short bark of bitter laughter. She frowned, unsure of how she had offended him.
‘Can you really mean to marry someone you do not love?’ he asked her, quite abruptly.
Kitty’s hand faltered as she lifted her glass to her mouth.
‘People marry without love all the time,’ she reminded him, her voice hardening. ‘It is not so rare. You think my déclassé background makes me more mercenary, but marriages of convenience are the creation of your class, not mine.’
‘It has never been your background that has given me most pause, Miss Talbot,’ Radcliffe said, affronted. ‘Merely your willingness to sacrifice Archie’s happiness for your own ends.’
She looked at him, assessing.
‘And if I had truly been in love with him. What then?’
‘I don’t follow.’
‘Would you have accepted our relationship, our engagement, had my background been the same, but my feelings for de Lacy been true?’
‘Had I been sure your affection was real, and his also, I don’t see why not,’ Radcliffe said slowly, sensing there was a trap but unable to detect where.
‘Liar,’ she said, almost affectionately. ‘You would never have countenanced it. You protest that your issue was my deceit, but the gap in our social standing would always have prevented your approval. You would never have given it – even if you believed my sentiment to be true.’
‘And how could I ever have believed your feelings to be true?’ he said roughly, ‘When you are so clearly willing to marry anyone who is rich enough, sentiment be damned?’
‘Tell me this, then,’ she said. ‘Could you ever have looked past my birth? Past my circumstances? Could it ever have truly not mattered?’
Her voice was infused with more emotion than the argument warranted, but she did not care. She had to know. He did not answer, staring at her with eyes full of some unnamed emotion.
‘I—’ he began, but he could not finish.
‘You could not,’ she finished for him. They were talking about more than just Archie, now, and they both knew it.
‘You would never have wanted Archie more than you needed his money,’ he said hoarsely.
‘And is that so important?’ she asked. ‘Is want so much more important than need?’
‘It’s everything,’ he told her, voice raw.
‘I understand,’ she said.
And she did.
She looked down, then cleared her throat loudly, twice. ‘I actually had something quite different upon my mind, to say to you,’ she said, brushing past the emotion of their exchange with sheer force of will.
There was a long pause while he appeared to master himself. ‘Yes?’ he asked at last.
‘I thought it best to warn you that it appears Archie is in a spot of trouble. He has been seen in the company of Lord Selbourne, haunting all the worst gambling spots in London.’
Radcliffe blinked – he had not expected that. ‘Thank you for your concern,’ he said dismissively, ‘but Archie is quite all right. It is the duty of any young gentleman to walk a little on the wild side, at some point in his life.’
It was Kitty’s turn to blink now – for she had not expected that. ‘You think it is his duty to develop a gambling addiction? For that is what my aunt has warned me of – he spends his nights in the company of men who are not even allowed in the faro houses.’
His lip curled. ‘You’ll forgive me if I trust my understanding of the situation over Mrs Kendall’s.’