Page 75 of The Duke Not Taken

He looked down. “You were saying,” he said at last, and dragged his fingers through his hair in an attempt to return to himself. “Lady Aleksander has not yet found the gentleman to make your prince.”

“Was I saying so? I don’t think I did. Because Lady Aleksander has introduced me to any number of gentlemen who would satisfy Wesloria and the crown,andmy mother. But none satisfy me.”

“I take it that none of them have surprised you,” he said, harkening back to their all too brief conversation the night of the lunar eclipse. “Not even Mr. Swann.”

“Mr. Swann? Not at all.”

“No? I should think the intimate knowledge of kerosene would be a bit surprising.” He could feel the corner of his mouth tip up in a slight smile.

“Verysurprising, but in an academic way. I prefer my surprises to be a bit more risqué than that. He did, however, surprise me with a horse.”

Joshua blinked. “A horse.”

She nodded against her knee. “The gift of a whole horse. But I didn’t accept it. What am I to do with a horse?”

What, indeed? Had no one ever told Mr. Swann that gifts of jewelry or expensive perfume were generally more suitable when a gentleman wanted to make an impression? “Now I understand. You don’t wish to be surprised for the sake of surprise. You want it to be meaningful.”

“Well, of course. No one wants a bad surprise, do they? Although I’ve had plenty of them in my life. Once, when I was a girl, and my father was on tour in the southern region, near the sea, the palace there had not been used in some time. I insisted on having the nursery opened. I was quite bored, I think, and Justine was off learning her history lessons and whatnot. They opened the nursery for me, but there was hardly a thing to entertain me, and I was young enough that I was still inclined to tantrum when I was displeased. I fell to the floor in a fit of pique and was bitten by a spider. It made me quite ill. My father said he thought I was lost to them and commanded that the entire palace be swept by hand.”

“I am sorry to hear it.”

“I was sorry for the spider, really. I surprised it by falling on it.” She smiled a little. “Accidentally.”

“Of course.”

“Funnily, the incident did not curb my appetite for tantrums. Not then, anyway. It wasn’t until much later, when I understood that young gentlemen didn’t care for them and my mother threatened to send me to Astasia Castle in the mountains until I was married. A fate nearly worse than death, I assure you. I suppose we all grow up eventually.”

He smiled. “Eventually. What of my good friend, Lord Clarendon? Did you find him surprising?”

“Lord Clarendon.” She wrapped her fingers around her bare toes. “Not surprising. But I found him to be a kind and decent man who desires Miss Carhill above all others. Didn’t you see the way he looked at her over supper?”

“I couldn’t avoid it no matter how I tried.”

She giggled. “Where is he now? You said he was your guest.”

“He is my perpetual guest, stopping in when he pleases with no regard for my convenience,” he said with a wry smile. “At long last, he has gone to see after his own estate. But he threatens to return by week’s end in time to escort Miss Carhill to Sunday church services.”

“What a kind and decent thing to do.” She yawned. “And terribly predictable.”

Joshua wanted to yawn, too—he couldn’t imagine a more boring or proper courtship than the one Miles was intent on performing. Amelia was right—it was predictable. “What about Mr. Cassidy? Or Lord Frampton?”

“Mr. Cassidy was too timid, and Lord Frampton was unremarkable. I can’t even recall what he looks like.”

Joshua privately agreed with both assessments. “I never thought Mr. Cassidy timid. I would say he is a quiet man.”

“Youare a quiet man. He is timid one. Maybe not when it comes to sporting or gaming...but I doubt very much he would have had the courage to rescue me on the balcony.”

He could feel something like an invisible rope wrap itself around them and tether her to him. It felt fierce, like a swollen river current carrying her toward him so fast that if he wasn’t careful, she would slam into him. “There is something to be said for timidity,” he said quietly. “Or a lack of impulse.”

“How boring life would be if we were all timid and lacking impulse.”

The pull grew more taut. Joshua felt hot. He was too close to the fire, that was what. Hot on one side, cold on the other. A little fuzzy in his brain, too. But the rest of him—the rest of him was alert, ready to spring at the slightest provocation.

The princess pulled the old hunting coat more tightly around her.

“Still cold?” he asked.

She nodded.

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