“I am happy,” Dominic said. “Percy spoke yesterday. That is nothing short of a miracle. It would be greedy to want more.”
Austin shrugged. “Fine. I suppose I cannot talk sense into you. Just know that if you do not romance her properly, I might try to take her for myself.” He winked at his friend.
Dominic glared at the other duke. “If you lay a hand on my wife, then I will end you. By the time I am finished with you, you will not have a title, home, or coin to your name.”
Austin drew back. Uncertainty flickered over his face for a moment. “I was jesting.”
Dominic took a deep breath. He knew his friend had not meant any harm, but the comment had struck a nerve in him anyway.After a moment of strained silence, Dominic finally spoke. He was careful to make his tone a little lighter.
“Selina has more sense than to fall for the likes of you anyway. Besides, I thought your sights were currently set on a certain young widow. Lady Hartwick, perhaps?”
Austin smirked, the relief clear in his eyes. “Yes, indeed. In fact, in a few months, the two of us might go to Paris together, for a week or two.”
Dominic chuckled. “If that is the case, then you must visit Monsieur Beaumont’s patisserie. Deena has been singing its praises in her letters to me.”
“How is your sister doing?” Austin asked.
“She is happy in Paris. Flourishing, even, now that her homesickness has faded away.”
“I am happy to hear that,” Austin said. “I am glad you sent her to Paris instead of marrying her off to that rogue.” There was only a hint of anger in his voice. Despite Austin’s rakish ways, he was careful to keep from ruining young ladies’ reputations, and he looked down on men who were more reckless.
“She is much too young to be married off,” Dominic said. “She was barely eighteen at the time. Besides, nothing actually happened between them. I merely found them talking alone in the library.”
Austin did not look impressed, but he simply took a sip of his drink. “Well, I am happy she is doing well in Paris. Although I hope to see her in London in a year or two. After all, she has not met Selina yet, and I am sure the two of them will be fast friends.”
Dominic smiled. “I am sure they will be. Selina has a way of making most people like her, after all.”
“She has certainly endeared herself to your family.”
“Percy deserves to be happy,” he said. “I am sure my grandmother is also feeling smug about being such a good judge of character, so that is an added bonus as well.”
Austin snorted in reply.
Dominic ran his fingers through his hair. “I have been too harsh with her. She has been through a lot, after everything that happened with her brother, and then her godmother being horrible… then marrying into a broken household. She has handled everything beautifully, and I have acted incorrigibly and callously.”
“You? Callous? Perish the thought.”
Dominic rolled his eyes at his friend. “I want to do something for her to show my appreciation. I just do not know what I want to do yet.”
“I am sure you can think of something to show her that you care about her more than just what she can do for Percy,” Austin said, arching an eyebrow.
“Of course I do,” Dominic said, frowning. “She is my wife, not the nanny.”
“Then perhaps you should start treating her like it.”
After the picnic, Selina found the dowager duchess in the drawing room. The older woman had just returned from afternoon tea with the Countess of Sterling. “I want to do something,” she said to the dowager duchess. “I want to do something nice for Dominic and Percy.”
The older woman chuckled. “Yesterday, Percy spoke for the first time in a year. Anything you do for them now will pale in comparison.”
“It is only a small gesture,” Selina said. “But I think they will be happy with it.” She produced a folded—up piece of paper from her pocket and held it out to the dowager duchess. “This is what I want. Do you think it is possible?”
The older woman took the note, opened it up, and grinned. “I think it is very possible,” she said. “Not only that, but I believe both of them will like it very much.”
Selina grinned. “Good! I am glad.”
A discreet knock on the door made both women look up. Selina’s maid, Jinny, stepped inside, curtsied, and said, “Your Grace, I am here to inform you that the duke requires your presence tonight,” Selina’s maid told her.
“He did? Did he say why? Is everything all right with Percy?” The last she had seen, Percy was in his mother’s room with his nanny, who had been reading a story aloud to him.
