They had reached the top of the stairs. Andrew led the way into the dining room.
The maids had already set the table. It appeared very fine to his critical eye, with silver cutlery and shining crystal glasses. Aware his guest would probably take such displays for granted and be faced with far more lavish displays, Andrew nevertheless refused to apologize. “We may start in the drawing room if you wish, but dinner is nearly ready and we are alone tonight.” He had considered inviting someone else, if only to break the tense atmosphere, but that could not happen, with the topics they needed to discuss.
“Good,” Darius responded tersely.
Was he feeling it too? Andrew thought not. He suspected the kiss at the brothel had been to provoke rather than arouse. Or to distract. If he thought of the event that way, he would not go further than he should. Not be tempted. “I have asked the maids to serve us then leave us alone. We have much of a delicate nature to discuss. The fewer people who know of our meeting, the better.”
Too late, he recalled the other meaning. A private meeting, clandestinely held, could mean more than conversation. “I trust my servants,” he added. “The clerk has gone home, and I have the cook, a manservant, and three maidservants on the premises.”
“My goodness.” Darius paused in the act of drawing back a chair. “You do live in a cozy manner.”
Andrew shrugged. “We need no more.”
“My mother has two maids merely devoted to her clothes and presenting her creditably. I am not precisely sure how many servants we have on the premises, but the hall always contains at least two manservants, including a liveried footman.” His mouth tilted in a grin that lit his eyes from the inside. “The hall boy is there at night, of course. My brother and I frequently played tricks on the poor individual. It was not fair of us, but young men with more money than sense will kick up their heels.”
“I wouldn’t know.” Andrew took his own seat. He had ordered the table set with places opposite one another. Too late he discovered his mistake. Meeting Darius’s eyes was inevitable, creating an intimacy he desperately did not want.
“Of course not.” Darius shook out his napkin as a maid tapped at the door, and brought in two dishes. Another followed, and then his footman. One course, six removes. Andrew rarely bothered with a formal serving when on his own, but he would call this a neat dinner. He would not apologize for his inadequacies.
The maids placed the dishes on the table with only slight tremors revealing their nervousness. Andrew dismissed them with a smile and a word of thanks. “We will serve ourselves.” After the servants left, he turned to Darius. “If you cannot serve yourself, I will of course help you.”
Darius burst into laughter, a little high-pitched, Andrew thought. “Do you think I am so incapable?”
“I have known it to happen. A certain duke, for instance, on a London Guildhall dinner, did not appear to know how to pick up his knife and fork until his servant placed them in his hands.”
Darius grinned. “I can guess who that was. My brother’s father-in-law. He knows perfectly well how to serve himself, but he believes the task below his dignity.”
“Goodness!” Andrew hadn’t considered that possibility. “The event was the talk of the City for weeks. It did not improve our opinions of the people who live in Mayfair.”
“I would imagine not.” Darius lifted the lid of the dish nearest to him and inhaled deeply. “That is a beautiful joint of beef.”
“I believe in living well.” Now he could afford it. “Time was that joint would have lasted me a week.”
Darius paused in the act of neatly transferring a couple of slices of beef to his plate. “I know very little about you, Andrew. I would love to know more.”
“Because you want the advantage in our discussions?”
“Because I like you.”
The words, spoken softly, pierced Andrew with the intensity of a penny whistle blasted next to his ear. Startled, he looked up and met Darius’s eyes.
He saw more than like in the blue depths. Emotions he dared not broach, dared not even mention. “That is good to know.” He prided himself on his ability to hide his emotions. This time, so close, with the man he couldn’t put out of his mind in his home, he could not conceal them immediately.
“And you like me,” Darius said.
“I wouldn’t go that far.” He tried to make his comment into a light joke, but he feared he’d failed. In a desperate effort to change the tenor of the conversation, he went back to Darius’s question. “I was not born into wealth. My father was a draper and a member of a Guild. My uncles still run the business, but it is not as lucrative as people imagine. The Drapers’ Guild is a wealthy one, but that is mainly because of the plethora of businesses in it rather than a few powerful individuals.”
“You have always lived in London, then?”
Andrew talked while he helped himself to some beef, and then the carrots and peas that lay temptingly in another dish. That way he didn’t have to look at the man and torture himself further. “I rarely travel beyond its walls. I have ventured into the country to visit a client from time to time, but that is rarely necessary. This city is my home.” He glanced up. “I was born here. I’m the son of a draper.”
If that didn’t put off the son of a marquess, nothing would. They kept their lines pure, occasionally injecting some hybrid vigor. Darius would not to want to associate with Andrew any more than was necessary now he knew his humble origins.
“Why did your brother come to me to defend him?” he asked abruptly.
“It wasn’t my brother who located you,” Darius said softly. “It was our cousin Julius who recommended you. I don’t know why.”
Andrew recollected the sight of a sharp-featured man with piercing sapphire eyes. “Ah, yes. I did him a small service in a purchase of land. But why did he think me suitable for such a serious case?”
Darius shrugged. “Julius is a law unto himself. He rarely allows convention to affect his opinion. He must have seen something in you.”
“The case was not particularly difficult,” Andrew pointed out.
“But the stakes were high. The consequences if we lost were unthinkable.”
Andrew nodded. “They always are in murder cases.” Darius’s behavior had certainly cooled, which was, after all, what he wanted. He should feel easier, but he did not. This man disturbed him.
“The family is grateful to you.”
He didn’t want them grateful to him, least of all Darius. “I did a job I was well paid for.”
“And you did it so well,” Darius murmured. He forked up a helping of food.
“I’m gratified they think so.”
Darius swallowed and took a sip of wine before he continued. “It would do you no harm to appear in society.”