She clucked her tongue. “Missed opportunity.”
“Ducks might like my carpet,” he protested. “I’m thinking of having some delivered. I’m an excellent bird nanny.”
“You are an indulgent bird nanny,” she corrected. “Don’t think I missed how plump Dancer has become.”
“I didn’t know he was the castle partridge,” Theo protested. “I thought he was a hard-luck partridge, scraping by on his last feather.”
She lifted her chin. “Dancer has all his feathers.”
Theo nodded slowly. “That should have been a clue.”
Virginia patted his chest. “You’re not ready to be a bird nanny.”
He sighed. “I suppose I won’t have time anyway. Once I inherit the marquessate, I’m to become an automaton like my father.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Why don’t you become Theodore?”
“I’m already Theodore.”
“Exactly.” Her gaze softened. “I don’t see a reason for you to change.”
“That’s because you’ve never had the pleasure of one of my father’s detailed and lengthy discourses on the topic,” Theo said dryly.
“Disappointing,” she said. “I’d assumed your father to be intelligent.”
“He is intelligent,” Theo said. “He is one of the most respected and powerful—”
Why was he arguing? He didn’t have to prove himself or his credentials to Virginia. She had already accepted him exactly as he was.
It was a bewildering concept. Theo had spent his life living up to other people’s standards. Virginia didn’t give a hot fig what people like Theo’s father thought. Perhaps in part because she literally couldn’t tell, but more importantly, she had decided it was outside her control. People would think as they would.
The high regard that mattered the most to Theo was Virginia’s. It would destroy him if the woman he loved lost her faith in—
God save him. He was inlove.
His body froze in place. His pulse began to gallop as if a thousand enemy soldiers had surrounded him with muskets. Their shots came too late. He had fallen, damn it all. And it terrified him.
Theo had walked away from London. He’d been carried away from war. He did not want to lose Virginia.
What the devil was he going to do about it?
Lady Beatrice had been selected for him at birth, although their personalities had always been wrong for each other. He gazed down at Virginia. No one had ever felt more right.
Theo grimaced at the impending confrontation. He and Lady Beatrice weren’t children anymore. They would discuss the matter like adults, and Theo would make her see. She had never wanted him. He had never wanted her. The only logical solution was for both of them to find a better match.
He tightened his jaw. Lady Beatrice would not understand why Theo would follow his heart rather than increase his connections. Theo’s father would not understand, either.
His heart skipped. His father and Lady Beatrice would be the first in a long line of obstacles and resistance. People would talk. Theo’s name would appear in the scandal columns. He would lose the one thing he’d worked his life to maintain: his impeccable reputation.
Even if the full truth of Virginia’s past never came to light, her emergence as his wife would cause a firestorm. Caricatures would be just the beginning.
Theo clenched his fingers. He didn’t care what people said about him anymore, as long as Virginia was by his side. She was worth everything.
The trick would be convincing her he was worth the risk, too.
“You said your London Season was unfruitful,” he began, then winced. Subtle transition to the topic of marriage? Not in the least. But now that he’d begun… “Have you considered marrying in the years since?”
Virginia blanched. “I will never wed.”
