Page 72 of The Duke Not Taken

“There,” she said, and pointed to the dogs.

“You want to sit with the dogs?”

“Is it too improper for you? I’ve gone all the way through the door into impropriety by borrowing your clothes, so I don’t think it could be worse. All I know is that I can’t shake the cold. It’s gone into my marrow.”

“Then we’ll have tea there.”

He watched her study the dogs, neither of which had in mind to move. She stepped over one to stand in between them, and then gracefully floated down to sit cross-legged between them. Bethan shifted around so he could lay his head in her lap, like they were old friends instead of new acquaintances. Merlin lifted his head off the rug to see what the fuss was about and seeing nothing to cause alarm, laid it down again with a heavy sigh.

“I’m afraid my dogs think everyone is here to accommodate them. I apologize.”

“Please don’t—I am very fond of dogs, in all shapes and sizes.” She casually stroked Bethan’s ear. “My family has dogs at Rohalan Palace. Mig and Roo, they’re hunting dogs. Bess, she’s terribly lazy and likes nothing better than to sleep in the sun. Tava, he’s old and blind, but Lulu leads him about. She loves him.” She sighed. “I miss them all so much.”

Joshua would add dog lover to the list of things for which to commend this woman.

He poured tea, handed her a cup, then poured another for himself. He picked up the plate of biscuits and stepped into the pack on the rug. Why not join them? He was fond of dogs, too. But he didn’t go down as gracefully as she had and managed to spill a bit of tea on Merlin. Merlin took no offense.

She smiled as he settled in, their knees practically touching. “Isn’t it strange how we always seem to find ourselves in peculiar places?”

“Passing strange indeed. What on earth compelled you to try and walk to Goosefeather Abbey?”

“I wanted to have a closer look.” She sipped her tea and wrapped her hands around the cup. Her fingers were slender and elegant, and he imagined them on a piano.

Or on him.

He immediately looked down. Unwelcome thoughts like that would only make this afternoon even more interminable than it was. Except that it wasn’t as interminable as he’d been prepared for. It wasn’t interminable at all.

“I had gone once to the abbey, on a ride with Mr. Swann. But he was impatient. He said he didn’t care for ruins, that they were in the past. He said he liked to look forward.”

Pompous bastard. Where did Mr. Swann think the ability to look forward came from? From learning about the past. What made men so bloody stupid? “So you went alone?” he asked.

“Why not? I like to walk, and Devonshire is the only place I’ve ever had the freedom to walk wherever I please.”

The wandering princess. He looked at the tea he’d poured for himself, but he didn’t want it. This august occasion seemed to call for something a little more substantial. He set the tea aside and gained his feet. He went to the sideboard and picked up a decanter of whisky. He held it up so the princess could see it. “Would you like?”

Her face lit with a smile. “An excellent idea, Your Grace.”

He poured generous portions into crystal glasses and returned to the hearth with them. She took a healthy sip; he added that healthy sip to his mental list of things to commend her on.

“Thank you. Nothing warms the heart like whisky, does it? I mean...besides love and that sort of thing.”

“Exactly.” He sipped, too. “I’m curious...what is your interest in Goosefeather Abbey?”

She seemed surprised by his question as she picked a biscuit from the plate and nibbled. “The girls’ school, of course.” Her gaze moved idly around his drawing room, taking it in. “You recall, don’t you? Lord Iddesleigh hopes to make a girls’ school of it and I would like to help. I wanted to see it for myself.”

That damn girls’ school again. He sipped his whisky. “How would you help?”

“I don’t know as yet,” she said. “But I would like to. Why shouldn’t girls be educated like boys? Why shouldn’t they be the ones to discover how to brew kerosene from coal?”

He chuckled. “I don’t think it’s a brew.”

She waved a hand at him. “I’m not suggesting we discuss the education of girls again. The opinions of men were made quite clear at supper.”

Hisopinion wasn’t made quite clear. But there was no way for him to reconcile his belief that girls ought to be educated like boys with his firm desire not to have it occur near him. He had his reasons, as misguided as they might be.

She stared into the fire thoughtfully, and he noticed how the firelight caught the white streak in her hair and made it more noticeable.

“The abbey...it has given me such hope for a purpose.”

---