Chapter Nineteen

“Guilford? I can’t believe I’m seeing you at one of these things.”

Caleb turned to see Mathew Rourke, the Duke of Balton, reach out a hand to him.

He’d known Mathew in Eton and then Oxford.

They’d been as different as night and day. Whilst Caleb had been raising hell everywhere he went, Mathew had had his head firmly buried in his books.

Caleb had only seen the man briefly and sporadically over the years.

Mathew rarely came to Town and since he’d married his childhood friend Isabelle Carlton, he’d been around even less.

Not that the two men moved in the same circles.

At least, they hadn’t until recently.

“I can hardly believe it myself.” Caleb grimaced by way of answer.

He’d rather gouge his eyes out than attend Society events, but he’d been doing just that for the past two months, desperately trying to find his Siren.

Remembering the first time he’d accepted an invitation to one of these things, the gawks, the whispers, and finally the pitying smile from Lady Anita, he couldn’t quite believe he was putting himself through this over and over again.

He knew that she wouldn’t be at a ball like this, of course. But he had few options available to him.

For the past eight weeks he’d spent his evenings dashing around Town, making insipid conversation with fellow members of the ton in the hopes that he’d hear something about a governess that would lead him to her.

Then he’d come home, defeated, and ask his ever-patient servants if she’d come, or if she’d sent word.

The answer was always, no.

She’d disappeared. And he had no idea how to find her.

“So, what brings you into Society, then?” Mathew asked, his eyes raking the ballroom then softening as they lit on his wife. The duchess was, as usual, the centre of attention.

Everyone seemed to be clamouring for an audience with her.

As Caleb watched, she looked over and shared a subtle, knowing look with her husband.

Caleb felt his gut clench with envy.

Isabelle Carlton was famous for her beauty.

But it didn’t hold a candle to his Siren’s. And while the duke was clearly enchanted by his wife’s violet gaze, Caleb was desperate to find a silver one.

“I thought it was time,” Caleb remembered to answer. “Not getting any younger and all that.”

“Hmm.”

He turned to face the duke at the man’s obvious scepticism.

“You don’t believe me?”

“No.”

Well, at least his old acquaintance was honest.

“I’ve only arrived in Town, but everyone is abuzz with talk of the Marquess of Guilford suddenly attending every event he can get an invitation to. That’s not your biological clock, man. That’s a woman.”

Caleb gaped, meaning to deny it at once.

But then he thought, what was the point?

He loved his Siren. He’d known that for sure that first evening she hadn’t arrived at his door. And he’d only grown more certain of it with every night that past without her.

How had she just disappeared? Why had she?

“How did you know?” he asked dully.

Mathew snorted.

“You like these things even less than I do. But I’d have taken tea in a gown if it meant making Isabelle mine. It stands to reason you’re suffering a similar affliction.”

Caleb had to swallow a sudden lump in his throat.

“Is she here?” Mathew asked.

“No, she’s – it’s complicated,” he began, not knowing how he’d ever go about explaining himself.

Thankfully, his attempts were interrupted by the arrival of Mathew’s duchess, her red hair gleaming in the candlelight.

Mathew quickly made introductions, and Caleb bowed formally, counting down the seconds until he could escape and go home to be miserable in private.

“The Wicked Marquess in the flesh.” The duchess’s smile was all mischief. “I have to admit, I expected different.”

Caleb felt his lips twitch despite himself.

“How so?”

“Well, I thought you’d have horns, at the very least,” she continued outrageously. “But here you stand, without so much as a cloven hoof!”

Caleb laughed sincerely for the first time since he’d lost the enchantress.

“You must have your hands full, Balton,” he said to the duke.

“Oh, I do,” the other man answered, though he sounded more than happy about it.

“I saw you both glaring at the poor occupants of the ballroom and wondered who’d upset you,” Lady Balton said now, not even trying to hide her interest.

“Guilford’s lost his lady,” Balton said, pulling his wife toward him as though Caleb’s predicament were catching.

“How terribly intriguing,” the duchess answered. “Who is she? Perhaps I can help?”

Caleb felt himself at a loss for words once again.

How would he ever go about explaining that he was in love with a woman whose name he didn’t even know?

But if anyone could help, it would be the social butterfly before him.

What did he have to lose? He’d already lost the only thing he’d ever cared about.

“The only thing I can tell you for sure is that she is a beautiful, raven-haired governess with the most incredible silver eyes I’ve ever seen.”

His words were met with a stunned silence.

“Er – that’s not a lot to go on,” Mathew finally said, and Caleb felt his heart sink, even though he knew his friend was correct.

He was about to excuse himself when the duchess spoke.

“I don’t know of a governess like that. In my experience, most of these wives would be terrified to hire someone who looked like that,” she said with a bluntness that reminded him of the siren. “But those eyes sound just like Lord Batten’s. Most unusual. I’m quite envious of them. Perhaps you were mistaken about her being a governess?”

Caleb could only stare as an ember of hope flickered to life in his chest.

He barely listened as the duke insisted her own violet eyes were the most beautiful he could imagine, whilst she laughingly told him to stop.

Caleb whipped his head around, seeking out the male occupants of the room.

He knew the name Batten but not the man. The fact was he had little to no knowledge of these people, given that he’d lived his life as far from them as humanly possible.

All that would change, of course, if he found his Siren. He’d become every inch the respectable gentleman for her.

“Ah, there he is.”

Caleb desperately followed the duchess’s nod.

A tall, severe looking gentleman stood not ten feet from them.

While Caleb watched, he turned toward them, perhaps sensing their gazes on him.

Caleb’s heart stuttered in his chest.

The duchess was correct.

His eyes were almost the same colour as the siren’s!

That couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Your grace.” Caleb turned back swiftly to the duchess, afraid to let the earl out of his sight for long. “I am forever indebted to you.”

Her smile was dazzling.

“Think nothing of it,” she said with a casual wave of her hand. “I am so fond of a romantic ending. I do, however, expect an invitation to the wedding as payment.”

Caleb stopped short of offering her the moon itself if it meant he’d find his lady.

With a hurried goodbye, he stalked toward the earl and hopefully toward a clue as to where his Siren was hiding.