“I have just realized something,” he said.
“What?” Walter replied, seeming just as confused by his brother’s actions.
But Henry ignored Walter, his attention fixed on Thalia. “I have no idea if you are ticklish or not.”
“No!” Thalia yelped, half-laughing, half-scolding. “No! Do not dare! I amnotticklish and?—”
He tickled her, realizing also that he had never tickled anyone in his life. She shrieked as he did so, wriggling to try and escape the ticklish touch, fighting to swallow the laugh that spilled from her mouth between yelps.
“Stop it!” she gasped, her hands grasping at his lapels. “I beg of you, stop it. People are watching.”
There was a note of anger in her voice, though not the usual kind. This was gentler, more shocked than truly furious.
He stopped at once, a smirk upon his lips. “My apologies. I just had to know.” He glanced from his wife to his brother. “Can I fetch anyone a fruit ice on this fine day? I saw some inveryunusual colors on the refreshments table.”
“Bring me the strangest you can find,” Walter accepted.
Thalia gave a small, breathless nod. “A red one, if they have it… as long as it is not cherry. I cannot abide cherry.”
“I am learning so much about you,” Henry said, bringing Thalia’s hand to his lips to steal a kiss before he turned and walked off to the refreshments.
It is the playfulness she likes. Indeed, I fear I have been much too serious for far too long.
If he was ever going to propose a change to the terms of their deal, he needed her to fall in love. He needed to make her mother’s wish come true, for if he could not do that, then they were better off apart.
His friends had been right from the beginning; it was high time he courted his wife.
Walter gave a low whistle. “It seems my brother isverymuch changed. I doubt I have seen him so playful in… Goodness, I doubt I haveeverseen him so playful.” He looked at Thalia with a smile. “What on earth have you done to him, Duchess?”
“I… do not know,” she replied, as amused as she wasbemused. “It must be the fresh air; he has been cooped up in his study for days.”
Walter chuckled. “Ah, so he is not completely changed then.”
He offered his arm to Thalia, which she took without hesitation, surprised to discover that she felt no threat from Walter whatsoever. If she had ever seriously suspected him of being her attacker, all of that had vanished the moment she met him.
No one who dressed and behaved so loudly could be stealthy enough to attack her. Moreover, she had this sense that she would know her attacker if she saw them, the sight of them bringing back her memory of the night she fell. Like seeing the diary.
She had no such feeling about Walter.
“I confess, I have worried about my brother over the years. When he wrote to tell me he was married, I did not know whether to be glad for him or sad for his bride,” Walter saidas they slowly walked the terrace. “He has always been solitary. Serious. And those traits do not make for a good husband.”
Thalia sighed. “I was happy enough with the arrangement.”
“I have often wondered what he would be like if he had been raised by a different father,” Walter continued. “If we both had. He was forced to be serious, disciplined, diligent, which is somewhat ironic when you consider who he was training to replace.”
Thalia nodded slowly. “He has told me about your father.”
A funny look of wry amusement flickered across Walter’s face for a second. “I was actually the lucky one,” he said, the expression changing into one of relief. “The spare son with no demands made upon him, able to live however I pleased. I was the favorite once.”
“Yes, Henry said.”
Walter laughed. “I was foul to him when I was a boy. It is one of only two regrets I have in my life. Three, perhaps.”
“Is that not boyhood, to be at odds with one another?” Thalia said kindly, warming more and more to this interesting man.
Walter shook his head. “No, I was far fouler than the usual brotherly struggles. I was a terror. He was secretly thrilled when I was sent to Harrow instead of Eton, but then I was thrownout of Harrow and ended up at Eton, ruining the end of his education there. Then, of course, he went to Oxford, and I began my revels, causing trouble, getting into scandals. He was surprisingly kind to me during that time, and… our relationship softened. I learned to respect him, albeit a little late.”
“They do say it is better late than never,” Thalia said, her heart aching.
