Page 53 of A Royal Kiss & Tell
“Ladley, for one.”
She laughed. “Your old school chum? Robert Ladley has never passed a whisky or an ale he didn’t drink.”
Beck’s brows dipped as this was news to him. “I beg your pardon. Ladley was sober enough to go with all due haste to fetch a doctor the night you almost died.”
“I didn’t almost die, and is it not true that very recently you had to have the help of two footmen to haul him out to a hackney?”
Beck’s brows sank deeper. “Onetime.”
“Who else?” Lady Caroline chirped, having dismissed the Earl of Montford as a prospect.
Beck sniffed. “Lord March.”
Leo didn’t know Lord March, but Lady Caroline clearly did. She slowly turned her head and pinned her brother with a look that made even Leo cringe.
“He’s not as bad as you think,” Beck said quickly. “I know what is said of him, but just because Hollis prints it doesn’t make it true.”
“She happens to be exceedingly accurate in most things. Keep thinking, Beck. And really, this seems neither the time nor place to discuss my dismal marriage prospects. We’d not want to make the drive tedious for His Royal Highness.”
“He doesn’t mind,” Beck said confidently, when, in fact, Leo did indeed mind. “You mustn’t think of him as a prince, really, Caro. He’s more like...like an uncle.”
“Anuncle?” Leo said, incredulous.
“My point is, you’re like family now,” Beck said. “You are the brother of Prince Sebastian, married to Eliza, and Caro, you have always said you and Eliza are more sisters than friends. God knows she and Hollis treat me like an outnumbered brother.”
Caroline stared at Leo. Leo stared back. He could feel the tension between them, could feel it fill the carriage and press against the walls, could detect the scent of desire mixed pleasingly with her perfume. “Fine,” she said. “He’s my uncle.”
“I am not your uncle,” Leo said. “I am no one’s uncle,” he added for Beck’s benefit, but neither of them appeared to be listening to him. Lady Caroline had positioned herself so that her gaze was on the window and the passing scenery of trees and rolling hills dotted with sheep. And Beck, upon seeing the same rolling hills, launched into a tale about a hunt he and Norfolk had participated in several years ago where the dogs had been thrown off the trail of a fox by a dead deer.
It was enough to put a grown man to sleep.
After what seemed an hour of mindless chatter, Leo felt himself sliding off into dreamland when he was suddenly jolted by a strange bounce in the carriage. He sat up. Beck was leaning forward, straining to see out the window as the coach rolled to a halt.
“What the devil? Stay here, the both of you,” Beck said sternly. He flung open the door and hopped out, then slammed the door shut behind him. Leo could hear him calling up to the driver, asking if it was a wheel.
Caroline slowly pushed herself upright, her gaze locked on Leo.
Leo leaned back against the squabs. The sound of men talking, or perhaps even arguing, faded into the distance.
“Shouldn’t you step out and see what has happened?” she asked. “Perhaps lend a hand?”
“Thank you for the suggestion of how I ought to behave, but I believe I’ll remain here and discover why you are treating me like a leper.”
“I’m not treating you like a leper.”
“No? Feels a bit like it. Whatever you may call it, you are treating me quite differently than you did the last time we met. You do remember the last time we met, do you not?”
The color in her cheeks returned. “Yes, all right, I was ill behaved when last we met, but I was terribly cross. I beg your forgiveness.”
“Interesting.” He sat up and braced his arms against his knees, leaning toward her. “What a strange thing you do when you are cross. Is it always so?”
“Obviously not. It depends on the person and the injury.”
He nodded, amused. “I don’t know if you are complimenting me or not.”
She frowned. “It won’t happen again. I lost my head, that’s all. My actions were in no way an indication of any...regard for you.”
“Ah. But the color in your cheeks just now and the enthusiasm in your kiss would suggest otherwise. Are you certain you don’t have a bit of regard for me?”
