Page 23 of Never Dare a Duke
“You shall find out. After all, we have to make this fascination with each other look real.”
“Thatis definitely teasing,” she admonished him.
He laughed, and she saw the Delane brothers watching with astonishment. It was a good beginning.
He turned and began to walk back toward the gardens, inclining his head to her. She realized she was supposed to go with him. They walked sedately for a bit, she very conscious of his presence, he remaining quiet, as if her presence was all he wanted from her. She was thinking too much about him as a man rather than the subject of her investigation, admiring the smooth, determined way he moved, as if he knew every inch of the vast property. But if they didn’t talk, she would learn nothing about him.
“Were you raised here, Your Grace?” she finally asked.
He glanced at her with curiosity, and she waited with disappointment for him to say that conversation wasn’t part of their arrangement.
“I spent much of my childhood here, yes.”
To his own surprise, Christopher felt inclined to answer her questions. He usually deflected such discussions, preferring to know a person better before revealing anything of himself.
And after all, what did he know about Miss Shaw and her motives toward him? But he wasn’t going to discover them if he offered nothing of himself. “And my cousins lived here as well,” he added.
“How many cousins do you have?”
“My aunt Flora had one son, Daniel Throckmorten.”
“Ah, the one who just married.”
“They heard about that all the way in Durham?” he asked dryly.
“It is not every day that a man wins a wager against a woman’s mother. I hope for their sakes that they are very happy.”
“They are,” he said, his tone softening. “And I never would have believed it of my rakish cousin.”
“He is not as reserved as you?” she asked, her gaze taking in the expanse of roses and the two gardeners working among them.
“He would laugh at your suggestion that I am reserved.” And why had he said that? It was the image he strove so hard to project.
“Ah, then you are one way with the public and another with your family,” she said. “That is not so unusual.”
He couldn’t seem to stop watching her, where she seemed to see nothing but the scenery, as if she were just passing time. Her arms moved briskly at her sides as she walked, no mincing steps for her.
“So you like to keep yourself apart from Society,” she said, when he had not spoken. “Is that the mark of a secretive man?”
“A cautious one.”
“Then you have had reason to be so. How sad.”
The path they trod now wound its way through a series of trellises spanning overhead, draped with ivy and twining vines. The sun dimmed, the air grew cooler.
“You do not strike me as a very cautious woman, Miss Shaw,” he said.
She glanced up at him in surprise. “When caution is necessary, I exercise it. But here, amidst the cream of theton? Why should I be?”
“And that is what is perplexing. I am still curious about your offer to help me.”
Now she looked away. “You must be used to dealing with people who want something from you. I do not want anything besides your companionship, and the gratifying feeling of being useful. So tell me about your other cousins.”
Suspicion always lingered too much in him, and he pushed it away. Miss Shaw was surely an eccentric, and that was all. “My aunt Rosa has two daughters younger than I, and a son, Matthew, who has since died.”
The dappled sunlight revealed the sadness on her face. “You have my sympathy, Your Grace. How did your cousin die?”
“He was an army officer, serving the queen in India. He died a hero, although that does not ease his parents’ pain. They have only just emerged from mourning, along with Matthew’s widow. And besides my sister and myself, that is the last of my cousins.”
