Page 10 of A Scandalous Kind of Duke

The drawing was not lewd, and even her terrible choice of male model could be forgiven, as she’d changed the features so much. But their expressions! The mermaid’s fierce, hungry possessiveness, the sailor’s confused longing, knowing the siren would drag him to his death, but wanting her anyway.

It was only a drawing, he told himself. Just charcoal lines on paper. Yet those feelings had coiled off the paper and nestled under his solar plexus, turning it peculiarly cavernous and achy.Sehnsucht, as they said in German, that intense yearning for he knew not what.

And there was Juno, the mastermind of this sensation, blithely nibbling on a chocolate truffle, pausing to savor the taste, to meet his eyes, smile wickedly, and pop the remaining morsel into her mouth.

“Or will you be looking for another position abroad?” This time, the question for Hadrian came from Livia, bright-eyed, coltish, and looking much younger than her twenty-three years.

“He’ll be looking for a wife,” Sir Gordon inserted sternly.

Stunned silence clattered through the drawing room, chased away by bright laughter.

“Oh ho,” Phoebe laughed. “You’re in for it now, Hadrian!”

“This is hardly the time to discuss this,” Hadrian protested. “Mother, please ask—”

Lady Bell raised her palms in surrender. “Do not appeal to me, my boy. I wash my hands of the lot of you,” she cried, laughing too. “If I have failed in my duty as a mother, then so be it! To have raised five children to adulthood, and only Phoebe married.”

“And Phoebe does not even speak to her husband,” Hadrian pointed out.

Phoebe widened her eyes. “Oh, are we meant to keep talking to them after we wed?” She aimed a walnut at her elder brother. “And do not use me to deflect attention from yourself, you beast,” she said, and let the walnut fly.

Hadrian caught it with lightning-fast reflexes. “Then I shall use Juno as a distraction,” he said unrepentantly. “Come, Father, why not nag Juno to get married instead of me, as she is next in age? Haven’t you heard? She is nearly twenty-eight.”

Sir Gordon eyed his eldest son over the top of his glasses. “Because you are my heir, and while I am happy to hand down the law firm to Daniel—”

“And I am happy to take it,” said Daniel.

“—you will inherit the baronetcy. Besides, Juno has made her own choices and followed through on them with admirable resolve.”

“I have made my choices too.” Hadrian turned serious. “My current position does not allow for married life.”

“Then find a new position.”

Father and son locked eyes in a silent battle. Tension sliced the room, softened only by confusion. None of Hadrian’s siblings knew what his work for the government entailed, but Leo and Sir Gordon knew, and there was very little paperwork involved.

From the corner of his eye, Leo caught Juno giving him a curious, thoughtful look. He knew she had questions about his marriage; he sensed them at times, teasing the edges of their conversations like a breeze teasing the ribbons on a bonnet. He also had questions, but he dared not ask. If he asked Juno why she had not married anyone, she might ask him why he had married Erika. Leo would rather be boiled in oil than discuss Erika with Juno, so he would have to hurl himself out the window to avoid answering and it would all get rather awkward after that.

It was Livia who broke the tension, saying, “I do want to know about Juno, though. You never give a satisfactory reply.”

Juno froze like a thief, hand poised to steal another truffle from the red Venetian glass bowl. “Reply to what?”

“Why you are not yet married,” Livia said. “I’m sure there are many men who want to marry you.”

Juno’s lips quirked. “And I’m sure men want to marry me for the same reason they want to dance with me: for a chance to bump up against my glorious bosom.”

This scandalous sentence was greeted with shrieks of delighted laughter. Even Lady Bell fought a laugh as she said, “Juno Bell, behave! One does not speak of such things in polite society. Whatever will Dammerton think?”

She flashed him her crooked smile. “If Leo were to be shocked by anything I say, that day has long since passed.”

Leo raised his glass in a mock salute. “I confess I near fainted the first time I heard her speak that way, but I am now made of sterner stuff.”

Such was the effect of her years among the bohemians of Europe: a lack of restraint in word and gesture, bawdy humor, and her matter-of-fact attitude toward bodies, nudity, and other topics that proper English ladies avoided like a groping drunkard at a ball.

Juno selected a truffle and leaned back, seated properly now. “Besides, marriage requires a great effort. My art and ambition consume all my time.”

“But what about when you have achieved your ambitions and can rest on your laurels?” Livia persisted.

“By then I shall be so old my bosom will be resting on my laurels too, and what man will fancy me then?”

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