Page 73 of The Duke of Distraction
He had to talk to her.“I’ll make sure she understands.”
“I think that’s best.Unless you’ve changed your mind about marriage.”There was no hope in Beck’s tone or even a question.
“This is why I count you among one of my closest friends,” Felix said.“You understand me, and you accept me.”
“I also recognize a bit of a similar soul, although you are much better at hiding it.”
Felix froze for a moment, shocked by Beck’s insightful words.Beck was prone to bouts of darkness and even melancholy.He poured his emotions into his poetry and music.Felix walled off his emotions so they could never be accessed—or seen.Did that make them similar?
That Felix even acknowledged that wall to himself was terrifying, and Felix suddenly wanted to take back what he’d said.“If you could understand me in silence, I’d appreciate that,” Felix said.
Beck laughed.“Whatever you prefer.”
Beck’s line went taut, and he worked to bring the fish in.He grasped the trout and removed it from the hook, then tossed it into the basket on the bank between them.As he reworked his line to cast again, he said, “Is there any occasion in which you would reconsider your anti-marriage vow?”
Felix suppressed a scowl.“It isn’t a vow.I don’t see the point in marriage.I don’t want a wife, and I don’t want children.And I don’t need either.”
“What if you fell in love?”
Irritation roiled inside Felix.“Beck, you’re beginning to test the limits of this friendship, and after I just thanked you for yoursilentunderstanding of my nature.”
“Forgive me.I am, which I don’t expect you to understand, completely enamored of my wife, and will do anything she asks.Including question you about the possibility of marriage.”
Hell.Had Sarah put Lavinia up to this?They hadn’t discussed marriage at all, and he didn’t have the impression she wanted anything other than what they’d been doing.But then they hadn’t discussed that either.Talking, it seemed, was not their priority.
“Have you caught anything?”
Felix breathed a deep sigh of relief at the welcome sound of a feminine voice—Lavinia’s, to be exact.Turning his head just enough to see the path from the house, he caught sight of her and Sarah approaching the bank, arm in arm.
Sarah stopped at the blanket and stared down at her brother.“Are you sleeping?”
Anthony bolted upright.“What?What happened?”
Sarah and Lavinia laughed, and Beck smiled.Felix was still too unsettled to do either.
“May we fish?”Lavinia asked.
“There are only three poles, but clearly Anthony isn’t using his,” Beck said with a sardonic edge.“You’re welcome to it.”
“Brilliant.”Lavinia picked up the pole and prepared the line.
Anthony rose from the blanket.“What if I want to fish?”
Arching her shoulder, Lavinia gave him a saucy look.“You can wait your turn.”She turned to Beck and asked for help with casting.Given how well she hooked her line, Felix wasn’t sure she needed it.But watching Beck put his arms around her and the way she smiled at him explained why she’d asked.
Sarah took a step closer to Felix, having taken over Beck’s line while he helped Lavinia.“You didn’t answer the question about whether you caught anything,” she said, peering down into the basket where there were three fish.“And there is the answer.Did you catch them all?”
He shook his head.“Anthony caught one, and Beck the other two.”
At that moment, Felix’s line tugged.
“I’ve brought you good fortune,” Sarah said.
Beck took his line from her and looked over at Felix pulling in his fish.“About damn time you caught something.It’s your pond!”
“But he scarcely spends time here,” Sarah said.“Seales says he hasn’t fished at the pond in years.”
Felix removed the fish from his hook and deposited it in the basket.“Does Seales even function as my butler anymore, or does he just talk to you all day?”He turned toward Anthony.“You can have my pole, if you like.”
