“Have your sisters-in-law managed to find you a young lady to wed yet?”
He’d just taken a bite of his pie and coughed it straight out. Luckily, it missed the duchess because his hand caught it. Shaking the pie off his fingers, he looked up at her again.
“Sorry, that was hot,” he muttered.
James was now laughing softly under his breath. Zach glared at him.
“Now, I want you to listen to me, Zach.”
“Yes, Duchess. I always hang on your every word.”
“You’d be the only one,” Dev said.
“That woman is the perfect match for you, and it’s about time you stopped this ridiculous courting ritual you have both been playing and did something about it.”
Thankfully he didn’t have more pie in his mouth, but he did cough. A large hand hit him hard between the shoulder blades.
“Better?” Dev enquired as he handed his sister a pie and James two.
“Much, thanks,” Zach wheezed.
“Just out of curiosity, in case I and everyone else in society is unsure, Sister. Which woman are you speaking of?”
Eden tsked. “Mary Blake, of course.”
“I beg your pardon?” Zach looked at the duchess.
“Leave him alone, Eden. Not everyone wants wedded bliss to be their lot in life,” Dev said as he mounted his horse with ease while clutching two pies.
“I was merely speaking the truth, Dev.”
“Possibly, but he’s clearly not ready to hear it. There is none more blind than those that don’t want to see, Sister dear.”
“Very cryptic that statement,” the duke said around a mouthful of food. “And true.”
“Right here, in case you’d forgotten,” Zach said from beneath them. “It’s Warwick that’s put you up to this isn’t it?”
Could Mary really be his future?
“No, we have eyes, young Deville,” the duke said. “But enough of that. How are those reprobates you call brothers? Forrest is, of course, excluded from that. He’s a true gentleman.”
“I’ll be passing that on to them for you,” Zach said, still reeling from what they’d said about Mary.
“And now our brief interlude of peace is over, and we must return to the menagerie. Good day to you, Zachariel, and perhaps my wife is right, and it is time to see what is before you.” The duke lifted his hat, as did Dev. The duchess nodded serenely and then they left, leaving him off balance.
“What was that about?” Zach asked Bobby.
“Sounds to me like they have your number, sir.” He grinned.
“That’s how I heard it!” Bessie called.
“Well hell,” Zach muttered, mounting. “Good day to you both. I shall be back for a cherry pie tomorrow.”
Had members of society been watching him and Mary and wondering? Surely not. It had to have been Warwick who had spoken to his family on the matter. And when next he saw him, he’d be having words about that.
Pleased to have that right in his head, Zach trotted through the streets, eating the last of his pie.
Mary had been worried he would stop her from being involved in Alexius. Part of him wanted to, but he knew that was not his right to do so. If someone forbade him, he would be angry and refuse. But the danger she could be in made his back clench.
