“I believe it is time to take you home, Meredith.”
She glanced at the others and mouthed a silent thank you at Felix before letting Darius take her away. Felix gave a playful salute as though she were a general in the king’s army. Was this how Suzannah felt? To be included in the secret circle of these men’s lives? Meredith held a little tighter onto Darius, feeling for the first time, if only briefly, that she belonged here. Belonged with him.
“Do you think he knows?” Warren asked Felix as they watched Darius and Meredith leave, parting the crowds in their wake. Warren had never seen Darius so ruffled before, or so fixated on a woman. And the poor girl had only been in Darius’s life less than a few days.
“That he’s in danger of falling in love?” Felix chuckled. “No, the poor sod has no idea at all. I wager it will take three months before he figures it out.”
“A hundred pounds says that it takes him two,” Lionel countered.
Vincent grinned. “You know how Darius is…it doesn’t take much for him to leap into action once his instincts are engaged. I wager a thousand that he won’t last two weeks.”
“What are you devils up to?” Kit demanded, but he said it teasingly as he joined them. Suzannah was on his arm, and she too eyed them with suspicion.
“Nothing, old boy,” Warren said quickly.
Kit’s darling wife arched a brow in challenge. “Nothing certainly looks an awful lot like something.”.
Warren stifled his laugh with a cough. “We were merely discussing how… protective Darius seems to be over his new ward.”
“She was important to his uncle, and now that his uncle has passed, he feels he must do all he can to assure Miss Montague’s future is secured,” Kit said as if the solution was simple enough.
“One does not throw daggers with one’s eyes over a woman unless one is jealous,” Vincent said. “And Darius is positively hurling weaponry at anyone daring to get too close to her.”
“Which is hardly the best approach when his task is to find her a husband,” Lionel agreed. “Darius is in trouble, and he simply doesn’t know it yet.” He crossed his arms, his brow lowered in thought.
“You believe Darius has feelings for Meredith?” Suzannah asked.
“Yes.” They replied in unison. Suzannah’s eyes widened.
“Then it is good they will be interviewing a chaperone soon. Meredith will need protection from the rest of the world, and him as well.”
Kit chuckled softly. “Darius is too noble to do anything he shouldn’t.”
“Temptation is a powerful thing,” Suzannah warned. “Sometimes, the more something is forbidden, the more thrilling it is to acquire. I seem to remember you had sworn to destroy me, only to kiss me instead. And that kiss led to far more serious things.”
Kit’s lips parted, but he had no rebuttal. Warren saw the exact second his friend realized his wife was right.
“When are they interviewing a chaperone?” Kit asked her.
“Soon.”
“They’d better make it tomorrow,” Kit muttered.
The others laughed. Suzannah was right. The temptation of something forbidden, especially one as sweet-natured as Meredith, could be too much for even the saintly Duke of Tiverton.
Warren, for one, was happy to see the oh so perfect Darius finally falling in love.
Meredith sighed in relief as she slipped her feet into a pair of cozy mule slippers lined with fur. After dancing the entire night, she was exhausted, and her feet were surprisingly sore from her succession of vigorous dances.
“I brought some warm milk and biscuits,” Nell said as she put down a tray on the little table by Meredith’s bed. “I hope it helps you settle down after all the excitement.”
“Nell, you are an absolute angel.”
“You must tell me all about the ball tomorrow,” Nell bargained with a smile.
“Absolutely.”
The maid slipped out of the bedchamber, leaving Meredith to nibble on a biscuit and sip her milk before she took up a chair by the window facing the gardens.
