“I’m a fair hand with a spanner,” he said as if he hadn’t just said that other thing.
She blinked. “A spanner?” What did a spanner have to do with anything?
“The tool.”
“Ah.”
He’d so upset the balance of what she’d thought was the basis of their acquaintance—her brother’s closest friend…and her sworn enemy—that she’d momentarily forgotten what a spanner was.
She inhaled a bracing sip of air. “I’m staying through the end of summer.”
There.That should set this conversation right.
“Then, so am I.”
He simply stood, shoulder braced against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest, looking utterly unmoved and utterly, damnably arrogant.
“Don’t you have dukely responsibilities to take care of?”
He shrugged an indifferent shoulder. “My secretary can manage without me for a time.”
Certainty sank deep into Delilah. “You’re determined.”
“Quite.”
A roar of frustration wanted release. Why did this bloody duke always arrive to spoil her fun? Truly, it was a near universal constant in her life.
But she wasn’t done fighting. “You’re being absurd, of course. You can stop it now,” she said, punching at a different angle. “You wouldn’t dare join this troupe.”
“Wouldn’t I?”
She was starting to see how he and Archie were such good friends. While Archie proclaimed to the world his openness to a lark anywhere, anytime, Ravensworth kept that desire hidden—which didn’t mean it wasn’t there, lurking, just waiting for an opportunity.
Like this one.
Still, she couldn’t give up. “You’re a—” She lowered her voice. “Duke.”
He spread his hands wide as if that settled it. “See, there you have it.”
But Delilah didn’t see. Not at all. “See?Havewhat?”
She suspected she’d stepped into a trap.
“Dukes run around England doing whatever they please,” he explained, patiently. “Andthis—running around England with a traveling theater company—pleases me. So, to your point, I would dare.”
Delilah was struck speechless. Perhaps for the first time in her life.
“Further,” he continued, “you’re to tell the rest of the company that I’m a carpenter.”
Ah.And here she had him. “Why in heavens name would I do that?”
“So I don’t tell them you’re a lady.”
Of a sudden, Delilah felt like a popped balloon—all the air gone out of her in a great whoosh.
It washewho’d hadherthe entire time.
“This is most ungentlemanly behavior,” she protested. It was worth a try.
