Dandy sat at his feet, gazing at him with her big brown eyes, silently begging for more pocket cheese.
“Traitor,” she grumbled at her dog.
“I prefer to think of her as having discerning taste.”
“Do you? Hmm, I rather like to call it having no loyalty. Who saved her from a frigid end in the stables?”
“Who saved her from a frigid end in the carriage?” Aunt Pearl added.
“You, of course,” Addy conceded. “I’ll forever be in your debt for rescuing my darling Dandy.”
“By that logic, you are also in my debt, Miss Fox,” Marchingham drawled.
Drat the man.
“Perhaps you have already collected what you are owed,” she dared, keeping a tranquil smile in place.
Addy was referring to what had transpired in the music room, of course. There was nothing she wanted more than to shock a response out of him. How could he have kissed her as he had, only to reemerge with such elegant nonchalance, as if her presence were of no consequence to him?
He reached into his coat. “I don’t think I have.”
Surely he didn’t havemorepocket cheese, did he? Dandy wriggled with excitement, then licked her chops.
“Stay sitting,” Marchingham ordered Dandy in a voice that was authoritative and yet far from sharp. “Behave, little mongrel.”
“Dandy isnota mongrel,” Addy countered, insulted on her dog’s behalf.
He extracted another small hunk of cheese, not answering her. As the duke lowered his hand toward Dandy, Addy was compelled to warn him.
“Take care when you feed her, Marchingham. She has very sharp teeth, and she tends to bite.”
His blue gaze burned into her. “It would seem that she has a great deal in common with her mistress, in that case.”
Addy’s mouth fell open at the jibe and the way Dandy gently took the piece of cheese from the duke’s fingers, rather than ravenously devouring it along with a few bits of his flesh.
“Are you intending to vex me at every turn?” she demanded.
Aunt Pearl coughed delicately. “The hour is late. I do believe it is past time for me to retire. Addy, do you care to join me?”
“Of course, Aunt Pearl. I’ll take Dandy for her small walk in the gardens first and then retire for the evening as well.”
Her aunt rose from her seat and pushed her spectacles up the bridge of her nose. “Good evening to you both.”
As Aunt Pearl began to take her leave of the library, Addy turned her attention back to her stubbornly treacherous dog. Dandy was still seated before Marchingham, giving him her undivided attention.
“Come to me, Dandy,” she ordered the pup.
Dandy refused to comply. Instead, she rose on her hind legs and placed her paws on the duke’s knees and gave a small bark. Addy was familiar with her dog’s forms of communication by now. She knew what Dandy was requesting—more pocket cheese.
“Come along, you naughty girl. No more cheese for you today, pocket or otherwise.”
The duke surprised her by patting Dandy gently on the head. “Her name was Mittens.”
He was gazing down at Dandy, stroking her sleek fur, seemingly lost somewhere in his own thoughts. Marchingham was telling her about his dog, she realized.
“Mittens,” she repeated. “You must have been a very young lad to have named a dog so frivolously. I would have thought her name would be Queen or Princess or something equally lofty.”
“I was four, and I don’t expect I was sufficiently lofty just yet,” he said with a small smile, glancing in Addy’s direction even as he continued patting the dog’s head.
