Page 20 of A Scandalous Kind of Duke

“Ah, but it wasn’t senseless. You see, most of the fellows bet you’d propose to someone early in the Season. ‘Man of action, the Duke of Dammerton,’ they said. ‘He makes a decision, he goes after it, wastes no time.’ But I knew better,” St. Blaise added smugly. “‘Oh no,’ said I, ‘in the case of his second marriage, my dear brother Polly will not seize the moment. In the case of his second marriage, my dear brother Polly will hesitate and vacillate and ruminate and mastur—’”

“When I marry again,” Leo cut in smoothly, “it will be on my own schedule, not yours.”

“But why not now? Come, use your famed eloquence to answer me that.”

Leo used his famed eloquence to say, “Sod off.”

Juno listened with half an ear, unbothered by their crude language; she had experience enough of men and the manner in which they expressed their feelings.

But how interesting to glimpse this other side of Leo, and how fascinating to consider his life as a duke, the male aspect of it, wagers and so forth, and how very intriguing to return to the question of why he was here, and what his stolen glances meant, and if he too felt a certain fluttering, and whether they might—

He shot her a look, but before she could decipher its meaning, her hand was moving and her teacup clattered into its saucer.

“Oh, how silly not to see it before,” she said. “That’s what you wished to discuss, isn’t it? You’re engaged.”

CHAPTER6

Giddy laughter rippled through her. Juno pressed a hand to her mouth to keep it in. She shoved her cup and saucer onto the table, where they rocked unsteadily.

Her intuition led her astray sometimes, but this took the prize! To think she’d fancied Leo intended to seduce her, when his only intention was to wed.

Her head swam. Her mouth felt dry and her knees shaky, as if she’d narrowly avoided being hit by a speeding carriage. How mortifying if she had expressed her lascivious thoughts. Thank the heavens she’d not said a word.

“Tristan,” Leo said, sliding his cup onto the table with an enviably steady hand. “I’ll give you five pounds if you leave us now.”

“You wish to be alone with Miss Bell? Hmm, not a good idea. I should stay to chaperone.”

“Ten pounds.”

“Twenty.”

“Done.”

St. Blaise bounded to his feet, winked at Juno, and strolled from the room. She followed him to the doorway and watched him hurtle down the stairs.

When she turned back, Leo was standing, imprisoning her with an inscrutable stare.

She forgot, sometimes, how compelling his eyes were, that promising blue of the morning sky in summer, the forget-me-nots in spring, the distant Alps in winter, and all those other sights that made her soul expand.

Suddenly, every inch of him seemed sharply defined, as if outlined by every fragment of the room’s light.

Just as suddenly, she became aware of a fizzing in her muscles, as though she had run down a hill and the wind itself was swirling through her limbs.

What an odd reaction. She could not account for herself at all. It was hardly a surprise for Leo to be engaged. No sooner had he divorced his first wife than everyone was speculating about the identity of his second.

But two years had passed since the divorce, and the knowledge that he would remarry had faded into the walls like a dull painting one hardly noticed anymore. Suddenly that painting was very interesting indeed: the portrait of the lady he meant to marry. The future Duchess of Dammerton.

She freed herself from his gaze to focus on the debris of their unfinished tea. Leo was right: Her tea service was looking tired. And what of it? All her furnishings were shabby and mismatched.Shedidn’t care.

“He fancies you,” Leo said. “St. Blaise. Is he bothering you?”

“Will you protect me? My own knight in shining armor!”

That sounded like flirting too, albeit with an edge. She must not flirt with him, or he would run away and hide. She must not flirt with him, when he was soon to be wed.

“I don’t know why he called today,” she said. “To me, he is no more than a prop. I know you don’t like him much, but I didn’t think you’d care.”

“I don’t care.”

---