Page 12 of My Secret Duke
There were cries of encouragement from the women, but Harold held up his hands with a laugh. He was an affable fellow, with a warm smile and fair hair, like mostof the Fitzsimmonses. Ivo had always gotten on well with him. “That, sadly, I cannot tell you,” he said. “I have approached a friend of the author’s and suggested a sequel would be welcome, but she seems reluctant to write another novel. I shall keep trying, I assure you. We can but hope,” he added, with a smile around the room, lingering a moment on Annette.
That moment caught Ivo’s attention, and he wondered if there was something between them. The way Annette smiled back, her cheeks pink, made him think there was a partiality. What would the Viscountess Monteith think of Harold as a prospective son-in-law? Sadly, she would probably want a title at the very least, and Harold had none. He may be related to a duke, but his side of the family had inherited neither titles nor fortune, and he worked for his living. While these may be crosses against his suit in the viscountess’s eyes, Ivo could see that in temperament, his cousin and Annette were a perfect match.
He had thought himself and Olivia Ashton a perfect match, right up until the moment she rebuffed him. Now he preferred not to think about her at all.
“Ivo?” Adelina was watching him curiously. “Have you eaten something that disagreed with you? You look quite out of sorts.”
“Not at all,” he replied and shrugged off his mood. “I was just thinking about a wager I made and lost.”
Lexy rolled her eyes. “You and your wagers. When are you going to grow up?”
The words rankled more than they should have.Normally, he would have disregarded them, but he found he could not. He had Olivia to thank for that. “Iamgrown up,” he reminded her curtly as he rose to his feet. “And now I must meet with my man of business.”
“Boring estate business,” Adelina teased.
“Very boring.”
With a smile and a bow for Annette, he left them to it. His sisters might think he was never serious about anything, but that wasn’t true. Was it? There were times when he played up his role as a pleasure-seeking rascal, just so that people would not look deeper into his affairs. And yes, he admitted that he enjoyed being that man.
But he had his serious side. His secret life. He was a smuggler, and soon, if luck was on his side, someone with shares in a gambling club.
Even if he could scrape together enough money, the imprudence of going into partnership with the man who may be his father’s bastard was not lost on Ivo, and still, he rather thought he was going to do it. He found he was looking forward to this new venture. A sensible fellow might invest in something more mundane than a gambling club. Bonds, for instance, or one of those textile mills in the north. Ivo had neither the temperament nor the experience for such things. He would be throwing away money he didn’t have. But there was something about a gambling hell that sent that familiar spark of excitement bubbling up inside him.
Perhaps his sister was right after all, and he was yet to grow up. But where was the fun in being sensible and serious all the time? Olivia might demand reliability and sobriety from a prospective husband, but Ivo suspected that she would soon grow bored with such a fellow. A pity he had not thought to tell her so at the time.
Chapter Five
Where are they?” Olivia had hurried downstairs when she heard a coach come rolling up to the front doors of Grantham house. She had been dying of boredom, reduced to playing a game with Edwina and her dolls. Now she could see Humber directing the servants as the luggage was brought in and piled up on the marble floor of the foyer, and already some of it was being taken upstairs to the ducal suite. But there was no sign of the returning travelers.
Justina pulled a face. “Grandmama had them shown into the drawing room. No one else is allowed in.”
“That sounds… ominous. What is she going to do? Send them back to Cornwall?”
“I don’t think she can do that,” Justina said after a moment’s serious thought. “After all, Gabrielisthe duke and the head of the family.”
“Have you heard anything? You were listening at the door, weren’t you?” Oliva gave her sister a knowing smile.
Justina flushed. “There was no shouting, so I didn’t hear anything really, and then Humber saw me and gave me one of his looks.”
Humber’s “looks” were almost as dread-provoking as the dowager’s, but it seemed unfair he should judge Justina for listening at the door after he had eavesdropped on Olivia’s conversation with Northam.
Olivia wondered what her grandmother was saying to Gabriel and Vivienne, but she did not have to ponder for long. Just then, the door opened, and the couple in questionstepped out. Her heart lifted as she cried out, “Gabriel!”
Her brother turned to her, and his dark eyes warmed. Olivia noticed he was holding Vivienne’s hand, although the two of them looked a little shaken. Gabriel and his sister had rarely hugged, but now she couldn’t help but throw her arms around him, her eyes stinging with emotion. Gabriel had to bend down, he was so much taller than her, as he gathered her against him. When he moved on to embrace Justina, it was Vivienne’s turn, who squeezed her so tightly she could barely breathe.
“I wish I’d been at the wedding,” Justina said.
“I’m sorry you weren’t,” Gabriel replied.
“It was rather chaotic,” Vivienne responded with a glance in his direction. “My family is best kept at a distance. Apart from Will.” Sir William Tremeer, Vivienne’s younger brother, was well known to them all, and well liked.
Gabriel glanced about him. “Where are the others?”
By which Olivia suspected he meant Edwina, her youngest sister—she and Gabriel had a special bond. “Grandmama has them taking lessons with the new governess. No doubt they will seek you out soon. Ever since we heard you were coming home, Edwina’s been so excited. We all have,” she admitted.
Gabriel met her eyes, and he saw the questions in them. “Has it been awful?” he asked quietly.
Of course it had! Exiled to Grantham with nothing to do but intervene in her sisters’ squabbles. But Olivia shrugged, playing it down. “We’ve been through worse.”
