To the man’s credit, he didn’t rise to the bait, but he did fix Jackson with a heavy glare. Then he stood up and headed for the door. “I’ll walk you out, Lucas.”
Lucas nodded, his expression still vaguely besotted. The man was definitely in love with his wife, and Jackson felt a moment’s envy. His parents had looked at each other like that until his mother’s death. And though his stepmother made his father happy enough, they didn’t share the deep love that his parents had once had.
Unfortunately, Byrn couldn’t leave without one last threat. He stopped at the door to pin Jackson with a heavy stare. “I will go to any lengths to protect my sisters,” he said. “All of them!”
Jackson gave the man his most taunting brow raise. He would have enjoyed Bryn’s scowl except beside him, he noticed Aaron’s flinch. What the hell?
He was still wondering about that when Lucas rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry. Lady Gwen is safe with him.”
Byrn seemed to take that at face value. He gave Jackson a nod, another to Aaron, then left on Lucas’s heels. The two could be heard talking in low tones as they descended the stairs. Which left Jackson to button his pants and question Aaron at the same time.
“So?” he pressed. “Why did you come here?”
The man blew out a heavy breath as he sank onto the edge of Jackson’s bed. “I’ve done something hideous, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
“You?” He couldn’t believe it. Aaron was the most boringly upright man in all of England. Honest to a fault, moderate in all his passions, and forever looking to the well-being of his fellow man. “What have you done? Overpaid your butler? Tripped over a napping bootblack?” He constantly teased his friend for having the laziest staff in London.
“I’ve ruined Byrn’s sister.”
Jackson’s head snapped up. “You did what? To Gwen?” He couldn’t believe it.
“Not her. The other one. Lilah.” And the way he half whispered the girl’s name with awe showed that the man was in deep trouble indeed. “I need your help to delay things until after my resolution passes. Then I can marry her.”
Jackson held up his hand. He needed specific details if he was to sort through Aaron’s mess. “What exactly did you do?”
Aaron took a deep breath. “We walked together last night. I don’t know what I was thinking except that she was sweet, funny, and her eyes were so pretty in the moonlight.”
“That’s it? You walked together?”
“She was funny! Don’t you understand? She made me laugh.”
That was a surprise. Given Aaron’s particular family situation and his political passions, the man tended to be intensely serious. Jackson was his best friend and he could count on one hand the number of times Aaron had laughed. But that didn’t exactly equate to ruination. “You just walked.”
“Along the Dark Path,” he said, “in the moonlight. It was very…”
“Romantic?” Though his friend would never admit it, Aaron did have a romantic heart. It was, in fact, what drove his political ambitions. He wanted to support the returning veterans, he wanted to fund doctors who researched cures for any number of diseases, and he wanted to do it all with money most of the government wanted to go into war and other types of spending. It was very noble of him, and Jackson supported him, but marriage to a beautiful and funny bastard was not going to help his political cause.
“I need specifics, Aaron. Whatexactlydid you do with Lilah?”
Aaron looked up at the ceiling. His breath came out in a deep exhale that somehow managed to be both romantic and tragic at the same time. “I kissed her,” he said.
“And?”
“And? And nothing! What do you take me for? I wasn’t going to—”
“Ruin her?”
Aaron scowled at his friend. “I’m going to marry her. I’ve ruined her, and therefore it must be done.”
“With a kiss?”
“But I have to wait until after the orphan resolution is passed. We need money for those children, and I will not allow my indiscretion—”
“What indiscretion?” Jackson interrupted. “It was just a kiss.” He stared at his friend. They both knew the political repercussions from a relationship to an acknowledged bastard would be devastating for his career. Political men married political wives from politically advantageous families. That was the way of things. And yet, apparently, Aaron had fallen for the most impossible woman of all. After just one kiss, no less, and the man insisted that honor forced him to marry the girl. “You know everyone will think she manipulated you into marriage. Can’t you just…” He didn’t know what. Fall in love with someone else? That was never going to work for Aaron.
“She didn’t manipulate me!” Aaron gasped. “I overpowered her! I took advantage of her innocent nature. I must pay.”
“Overpowered her with a kiss?”