‘Of course not. I promise you that it is at the forefront of my mind all the time.’ He took a sip of tea, the fragile cup looking tiny in his large hand.
‘Our plan cannot be to wait for Robert to turn up and demand an end to our engagement.’ As much as the idea pleased her, she was doubtful it would happen. ‘There needs to be more to it.’
‘There is no need to sound frantic; I want to marry you as much as you do me, which is to say not at all. We will not leave before we have it all worked out, even if that means we must try every ice on the menu.’ He placed the cup back down in the saucer, his movement precise. ‘Although I am willing to bet that I am right. He will come and he will want to fight me for you. Perhaps he will suggest an elopement.’
The hope in Christopher’s eyes was impossible to miss. ‘You are placing a lot of faith in a man you have never met. He is not the sort of man to pick up a sword or a pistol and ask you for the name of your second. I cannot believe he would suggest an elopement either.’ She was about to pick up her spoon, when she added, ‘And I like that about him. I would not want to marry a volatile man.’
‘I do not mean that we will actually take to arms over you. I mean that he will use whatever sway he believes he has over you, to make his case. I know the nature of men, and I have seen you. A man would be a fool to turn away from such a prize.’
Her heart gave a strange lurch at his words before reality sank in. ‘You are.’
‘If I were the marrying kind, we would already be on our honeymoon.’
She couldn’t help her eyeroll. He really was the most audacious man she had ever met. ‘We only became engaged two days ago.’
‘Precisely.’
‘You are absurd.’
‘No. That is how beautiful you are. Now tell me, how are we supposed to eat this?’
There was no time to dwell on his quite astounding compliment. No one had ever called her beautiful before. She was no antidote. She had a mirror and could see that, with the right hairstyle and outfit, shewas attractive. But next to her more bubbly sisters, she did not feel it. If it wasn’t self-indulgent, she might ask him to repeat himself, but she had manners and besides, the quizzical look on his face quite distracted her from it as he regarded the sweet treat in front of him. ‘To eat it, you use a spoon.’
She picked hers up to show him and he frowned as if the utensil were an exotic concept for him.
‘Really? The ice is not solid then?’
‘I fail to believe that this is the first one you have ever seen.’
‘It is the closest I have ever been to one.’ He tapped it dubiously with the edge of his spoon, his eyes widening ever so slightly when it slid into the food. ‘And the very name for it suggests it is hard.’
‘I would have thought ices were frequently served at Glanmore House. It is the sort of food one would use to show off.’ His eyes gleamed with amusement. ‘Not of course that I am saying your family is pretentious,’ she floundered. ‘I mean only…’
‘You can say what you like about my family. I am not easily offended. In fact, I did not know my brothers all that well until recently.’ He took a tiny piece off the top and tried it. ‘Goodness, it is extremely cold.’
Laughter gurgled out of her. ‘What were you expecting?’
‘Not something this odd and delicious.’ He took a bigger scoop. ‘This is wonderful. How is yours?’
‘It is as lovely as always.’
‘Cherry is your preferred flavour then?’
‘I have it every time. I know that is boring of me.’
‘Not at all. If you enjoy it, why not have it?’
Her heart fluttered oddly, which had to be due to the temperature of the food she was eating and not because of what Christopher had said. She did not need his permission to enjoy having the same flavouron every visit. Yet, it was something her family teased her about and somehow hearing someone tell her that it was not silly or dull warmed something inside her.
‘How is it that you did not know your brothers well until recently?’ she asked. She could not imagine not knowing every detail of her sisters’ lives whether she wanted to or not.
‘My parents died when I was very young. I do not remember them at all. Guardianship of my brothers and me fell to our aunt, Miss Dunn. She was a horrible woman who loathed children and should not have been put in charge of a picnic let alone five boys.’
‘It is unusual for there not to be a man involved in the guardianship of male heirs.’
‘Oh, there were male trustees put in charge of running the dukedom until Tobias came of age. They would have had overall responsibility, I suppose. But they did not want to deal with children and therefore we were left to her. Fortunately, I was quite young and managed to escape the worst of her abuse, but she raised us apart from one another and punished us for any minor infraction in her long list of rules. We may have been close as children had it not been for her; as it was, I only really spent time with my…’ He cleared his throat, patting his chest a few times as if something were stuck there. ‘Sebastian. One of my older brothers spent time with me when I was a child. He is the one I remember the most from that time. The others…’ He shrugged, and a smile that did not show his dimple crossed his face. ‘I did not see as much of them. Sebastian left, moving to America for reasons I am not sure I ever knew, but by that time Tobias had reached adulthood and had Miss Dunn removed from Glanmore House. I have not seen her since.’
‘What did His Grace do with her?’
