The majority of his days—and nights—were spent mingling with Polite—and Impolite—Society. Everyone wished a word, and he, well, he had two-fold for all of them. As it was, duke though he may be, he considered himself a businessman first.
He held his wife in his arms, both their gazes averted up. Their embrace not sexual but somehow intimate in a whole new way that scared the everlasting hell out of him.
Her quiet voice cut through. “Some years ago, Lord Landon invited me on an outing.”
Lord Landon.Again.
“Didhe?”
She nodded. “Phineas has always been a very dear part of the family.”
She’d mentioned as much.Severaltimes now.
Wait a moment…
“Phineas?”
“Yes. Lord Landon’s Christian name is Phineas.”
Fortunate for Argyll, his trusting wife failed to pick up on his amused shock at the notorious Lord Landon’s given name.
“Phineas escorted me to Chatsworth to seethis very one.” She pointed her finger three times for emphasis.
His wife really had been truthful when she’d mentioned being familiar with scoundrels. An annoying tic pulsed at the corner of his eye. What manner of brother let a bloody sister near a rake like Landon? Certainly not a good one. And also, the sort who let his sister sneak about and end up married to a far more caddish rake than the marquess—caddish rake being Argyll.
“He’s always been so very good about paying each Kearsley sister special attention.”
“Such is the way of a rake,” he snapped.
Daria frowned. “Phineas has never behaved untoward.”
Phineas again? A muscle in his jaw snapped to attention.
“He married your sister, did he not?”
“Yes, not very long ago in fact. Which I did mention.”
His gaze drifted to the ceiling, the window, anywhere else. “It wasn’t a question, Daria.”
“Oh.” She hesitated. “Rhetorical queries are tricky for me.”
Argyll’s lips pulled. His previous agitation left him…and with Daria’s next question, appeared to find its way to her.
“Why does their being married suggest he behaved less than gentlemanly?”
One day he’d recall he’d married the only truly pure-hearted woman in the kingdom.
With that in mind, he enlightened her. “Given Landon married your sister, it is safe to say theirs was not always a platonic relationship.”
“How does that have anything to…?” Her words trailed off.
Daria slapped a palm against her mouth. Her visible shock was so real as to be adorable.
She found her voice. “How dare you turn something beautiful into something torrid, Your Grace?”
He also refrained from mentioning that was the very nature of his work. “Your Grace, am I?”
Going up on tiptoe, she surged forward so fast that he edged back.
