“Are you thereby implying that I somehowbroke the last one?” She sounded rather shrill, but it only seemed to amuse him.
He held up one hand, as if weighing facts. “You were in the carriage.” He lifted the other hand. “The carriage broke.”
He pretended to weigh the scales between the two and gave her a look as if to say,You draw your own conclusions.
“Seriously?” she demanded. “That is truly, honestly,seriouslythe argument you are making?”
She didn’t want to tease him. She didn’t want to banter with him. She knew that it would only make the crash that much harder when things went wrong between them again.
But there was clearly something very seriously wrong with her, because she found that she couldn’t help herself.
“It isn’t personal, Clio,” he said in such absurdly somber tones that shealmostgiggled. “I just only have the one good leg left, you see. I need to know if I ought to be prepared.”
“You are bloody incorrigible,” she muttered, turning away so he couldn’t see her smiling.
There was only so much space to get away in a compressed carriage, however, and he was clearly pleased when he retorted.
“Nobody has ever called me that before, but that’s probably just because they called me things that I cannot repeat in front of a lady.”
She shook her head at him. “That just goes to show what you know about ladies. We hear far more than men think. Besides, I’ve sailed back and forth from the Continent multiple times—andmy brother was a sailor. If you think they’ve invented curses that I haven’t heard, then you are dead wrong, sir.”
He was grinning at her, and it was an impossibly lovely smile.
“What’s your favorite?” he asked.
She pressed a hand to her chest in mock affront. “I am alady, sir! I am not going to use such language!”
“Oh, very well,” he said. “Tell me the circumstances in which you heard it, then, and I shall imagine to my heart’s content.”
He folded his hands beneath his chin in supplication, and how could she resist such a thing?
“Oh, very well,” she mimicked, feigning reluctance. “It was my first trip back from Belgium, and I was in a high dudgeon, because my scoundrel brother had gottenmarriedwithout telling me.” She scowled at the memory. “And as we were crossing the Channel, there was this unexpected squall, and the wind ripped a rope out of a sailor’s hands. He was young—fifteen perhaps? Anyway, the rope managed to wrap around both of his legs, and the knotted end hit him in the—“ She coughed delicately.
Hector blinked, then blanched as he realized her meaning.
“Goodness,” he said with feeling, fidgeting slightly in his seat.
“Just so,” she agreed. “The poor lad hollered like he’d had his arm cut off, and that was the day that I learned every possible word for a gentleman’s … gentlemanly portions.”
“Wow,” Hector said after a pause. “I … my goodness.”
Clio felt remarkably pleased with herself for stunning him speechless.
“Your brother married without telling you?” he asked after a moment. “It’s surprising, given that you and his wife seem very close.”
The reference to the circumstances surrounding her brother’s marriage left Clio torn between rolling her eyes and smiling fondly.
“Aaron, as you may have noticed,” she said, “has strong opinions.”
Hector’s brows inched up his forehead. “You don’t say,” he said mildly.
She snorted. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, you aren’t the only person he considered a threat to my reputation. After he inherited, our elder brother died; Aaron was not initially intended to become the duke—he returned from his time at sea. And he was positively determined that he was the most dreadfulinfluence in the world and that he would, oh, I don’t know, glower me into a bad reputation?”
She shrugged, because she and Aaron had worked through their difficulties, but she still found his initial reasoning to be unbearably idiotic.
“So, he sent me to Belgium, to live with our great aunt. I was quite put out about it. And then he married Phoebe, because healsohad the idea that marrying would change his entire temperament and not make him glower all the time, I suppose. But the strangest thing is that he was right. They’re appallingly happy.”
Hector was watching her keenly. “And you love them,” he said, a hint of marvel in his tone.
