Free A Taste of Honey by Lindsay Kiernan

awake, despite the late hour when Garrett reached London.  If he rode quickly, he could be in town by two or three in the morning and meet with Kent before seeing his sister at breakfast.
    Hours later Garrett found Kent awake, in high spirits and mostly sober.  Usually by this time he was already half into his cups.  Instead Kent was energetic.
    “Have you been to bed?”
    Kent sat in his evening robe at the large desk in the middle of a massive study filled with cigar scented furniture from all of the after dinner drinks that Kent entertained.
    “Of course not,” Kent answered unapologetically and pointed at the side bar where a small late night feast had just been spread out.  “If you haven't eaten yet, then help yourself,” he offered.  “I returned home only moments ago and had the cook fix me up a plate.  It's not hot food but she did include some great cheeses,” Kent insisted as he began devouring some of the items.
    Garrett ignored the food and sat in an over sized leather chair across from his friend.  “So you were out all night again.  Were you with Estelle?
    Kent was famous for his slew of mistresses.  He had recently bragged that his present one was adept at keeping him awake late into the morning with some of the new techniques they had been mastering together.  Nearly half of London wanted Estelle which only made her more appealing to Kent.
    “I left her,” Kent said, smiling all the wider at his confession and the surprised face of his friend.
    Garrett was usually able to guess each of Kent's future actions at least a day before Kent had even made a decision.  Part of this was because he knew his friend so well, part of it was because Kent had become so predictable in his goals of going against what society wanted.  Kent seemed to enjoy that for once he might have leapt ahead of what Garrett had expected.
    Garrett could not be too surprised though.  The relationship between Kent and Estelle had gone on longer than most of the others that Kent had kept.  Before Estelle there had been other women.  Some of his affairs had even overlapped.  Once Kent had kept three mistresses all at the same time.  Each was housed in a different area of London, to keep them from knowing about each other.  Every time he tired of a woman he would give out one last large set of gifts, including jewels and dresses to ease any guilt over their tears.  Estelle had been the first woman in a long time who had not tried to get him to marry her, which was why Kent had stayed with her longer than the others.
    “Who is the next one now?  You didn't steal someone else's lover did you?” Garrett prodded.  It was one of Kent's favorite games, to seduce a mistress away from some other rich man.  Kent's penchant for such games had once pitted them against each other but in the end Amelia had chosen the safer of the two men.
    “No I haven't stolen any mistresses and I'm not looking for a new one either.”
    This time Garrett couldn't hide the surprise he felt at his friend’s words, which clearly delighted Kent to witness.
    “Are you mad?  You haven't been without a mistress in almost four years.”
    Patting his mouth with a napkin, Kent pushed away from the desk.  “No, I'm not mad.  I have been thinking lately about my future, and what my father would have wanted.”
    “You've never cared about what that man wanted,” Garrett reminded his friend, who had lived peacefully without the constant nagging of the old man for two years, now that his father had died.  It was no hidden fact that Kent had been overjoyed at the occasion.
    “I've decided to get married,” Kent told his friend.  “I should be fathering children, and since I don't want to just sire bastards to run around this town, I've decided to find a wife.”
    “Why not marry Estelle?  She would have agreed to it, I'm sure.”  From being around his mother who was devoted to the business of husband hunting, Garrett could not imagine that