Page 73 of Earl on the Run (The Duke's Estates 2)

“Harriet, Ferrington,” Cecelia replied. She might be hiding a smile, but she was very good at being unreadable. She waited. Harriet thought she was interested in what might be said next. So was she. What was there to say about blatant kisses?

“We were discussing the wedding,” said the rogue earl, taking the bait Cecelia had dangled.

“Were you? It seems it will prove an interesting ceremony.”

She was certainly laughing inside, Harriet concluded.

“Before…” Ferrington seemed to realize he had nowhere to go with that sentence. “Fine day for a walk in the garden, eh?”

Cecelia looked up. Clouds were gathering. “Do you think so?”

He shrugged and offered one of his beguiling smiles. “You told me once, when in conversational doubt, fall back on the weather.”

“Conversational doubt?” The duchess’s smile escaped this time. “I can’t remember using any such phrase.”

“That was the gist,” he answered. He held out the parasol, like an actor covering flubbed lines with a bit of business.

Harriet took it in the same spirit and snapped it open. “Have you come to see me?” she asked Cecelia.

“Yes. Though if you are occupied…”

“Lord Ferrington was just going.”

“Oh, is that what he was doing?”

“A…uh…fond farewell,” said the rogue earl. He grinned at them, bowed, and took himself off.

Cecelia laughed.

Harriet turned to walk in the opposite direction, half hiding behind her parasol.

“I keep coming upon you kissing Ferrington,” said Cecelia, falling into step beside her.

She might have said Cecelia seemed to appear whenever it happened, but she chose not to.

“And giving every appearance of enjoying it?” The duchess made this a question, and she gazed at Harriet like a lady whowouldhave an answer.

The silence stretched. Finally, Harriet murmured, “Yes.”

“Well, that’s good.” Cecelia nodded and smiled. “Passion is an important part of a marriage.”

Cecelia would know, Harriet thought. She’d seen the way the duke looked at her. And vice versa. She could imagine…all sorts of things she mustn’t think about. Because in her case, there wasn’t going to be a marriage. She had to set things right very soon. Even though she had no alternate plan. And the thought of relinquishing her rogue earl was becoming more and more distressing.

Eleven

“I should like to learn more about my responsibilities as earl,” Jack said to the duke and duchess at dinner that evening. This was part of preparing to be married to Harriet, and anything to do with that happy event cheered him. “People speak of ‘managing the estate.’ What does that entail precisely?”

The duke gestured at his wife. “Cecelia is the expert in that regard. You could do no better than consult her.”

He’d said such things before, and Jack was always surprised at the ease with which he admitted it. Few men of his acquaintance would have done so.

“There are times when I think she loves dusty old records and documents more than she loves me,” Tereford added.

“AndIwonder if you married me in order to have your work done for you,” replied the duchess.

They laughed at each other. Clearly this was an old joke between them. Jack realized living beside the Terefords had given him hope for his future. Though they were of the highest rank, they had never been stuffy or disapproving. He’d watched for signs. Time had passed, and he’d seen none. They’d convinced him his great-grandmother was wrong. He could be accepted by English society as he was. Lady Wilton’s harsh tutoring was not required. “I’m ready for a new job,” he declared. “I can’t bear idleness.”

The duchess nodded as if she approved.

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