“I think we’ll take this one and this one,” the Duke decided at length.
“I thought you were going to buy me one book.”
“I can’t choose between the two. They’re both very good,” he pointed out. “I think you ought to have both of them.”
“You can’t buy me this many gifts,” she protested.
“It’s only two books,” he said. “Does that bother you?”
She felt slightly uneasy. “A little,” she admitted.
“Why?”
“This isn’t a real relationship,” she explained. “We both know that. I don’t want us to forget it.”
“We won’t forget,” he said. “We agreed we were going to enjoy ourselves while we were doing this, though, and it’s a pleasure to discover we have a common interest. Don’t you feel that way?”
“I do,” she admitted. It was certainly preferable to fighting all the time.
He handed her the books he had chosen for her. She looked them over and pretended to consider, but the truth was that although she had impressed him with her interest in and knowledge of the subject, she didn’t know anywhere near enough about philosophy to have an opinion on the books in her hands.
“It’s all right if you don’t read them,” he said, “but I think they’ll be good for you to have, regardless.”
“No, I’m going to read them,” she replied. “I’m interested now.”
He grinned. She wasn’t sure if he believed her or not, and she wasn’t sure he believed that she would understand the books if she did read them—but his doubt made her feel all the more determined. She felt the need to prove that she could keep up with him.
“I’m surprised you’re interested in this sort of thing to tell you the truth,” she said.
“And why is that?”
“I thought you were only interested in having a good time,” she explained. “I know you care about your duty to the dukedom, but I thought your life was all about having as much fun as possible when you are not seeing to your responsibilities.”
“Well, I consider this sort of thing to be fun,” he explained. “I used to read a lot of philosophy at university. I was a part of a few debating societies, and these were the topics we usually discussed. In fact, I’ll bookmark a couple of chapters in each of these books that were of particular interest to me. If you do read them, I would be eager to see whether you and I agree on our opinions about the subjects.”
“It would be a rare thing for you and me to agree about something,” Edwina laughed.
“It certainly would. But I think we’re coming to learn more about one another and finding more things that we agree about. Wouldn’t you say so?”
“It’s odd. I wouldn’t have said that I would agree with you about anything at all before.”
“Which only goes to show that I can surprise you every bit as much as you can surprise me,” he pointed out.
“I suppose you’re right about that.”
He held out his hand for the books. “I’ll go purchase those,” he suggested, “and then I think we had better get back outside. Your poor brother doesn’t appear to have realized that we came into this shop, and he’s supposed to be chaperoning.”
“Oh—you’re right,” Edwina realized. “I don’t think he’s going to be very happy with us.”
“It’s not as if we’re on our own in here, of course,” the Duke observed. “The bookseller is here.”
But the bookseller hadn’t been paying them any attention as they’d looked at the books they were interested in, and there had been several prolonged moments during which he hadn’t been able to see them at all.
Edwina was only now realizing it, but she had been on her own with the Duke for a considerable amount of time. She was rather surprised that she had allowed that to happen and even more surprised that she didn’t find herself regretting it.
Actually, it had been rather nice.
Being alone with the Duke meant that she was able to be herself with him for once. She didn’t have to worry about what any of her family members would think about the time they were spending together. She didn’t have to worry that her father would see them conversing and think a romantic connection was being made or that her brother would assume the Duke was doing something rakish and inappropriate and that Edwina couldn’t fend for herself.
