Danford held his gaze for a long time, his expression entirely unreadable. At last, he folded his hands in his lap. “Has Celia told you anything aboutourrelationship?”
“Yourrelationship,” he repeated, suddenly having the urge to slam a fist through Danford’s nose. What the hell did he mean byrelationship?
“She was to marry my brother,” Danford said softly. “And I was convinced it wasn’t a good match.”
Clairemont’s brow wrinkled. He’d heard a great deal about the broken engagement between Celia and the Earl of Stenfax, but not this.
“Why is that? Are you warning me off her?”
Danford’s lips pursed. “Of course not. In the past few months since my marriage, I have come to recognize how greatly I misjudged Celia at first. Though I cannot say I’m sorry she and Stenfax didn’t marry.”
“Why?” Clairemont asked.
“They clearly felt nothing for each other.”
Clairemont felt himself relaxing at that statement. He’d observed Stenfax quite a bit in the past few days at parties and other gatherings. He’d truly begun to despise the other man for his having ever had a claim to Celia.
“What are you getting at?” he pressed.
Danford tilted his head. “She’s been through a great deal.”
Clairemont nodded. “Because of the engagement.”
“Yes, but you must also know that her life was not easy before that either. Let me make myself plain. I willnotsee her hurt. Not just because Celia’s heartbreak will devastate my wife, but because Celia does not deserve anything less than the best.”
The sick feeling in the pit of Clairemont’s stomach seemed to spread outward the more his companion talked. “And where does that leave my request to court her?”
“If I have your vow that you will not hurt her, then I will agree to a courtship,” Danford said at last.
Clairemont stared at him. This protectiveness of Celia made him actually like the man more. And he didn’t want to like him. Danford was a suspect in a vile set of crimes—Clairemont couldn’t befriendswith him. Nor could he say that he wouldn’t hurt Celia and mean it.
Hewouldhurt her. One way or another, that was going to happen before his case was done.
But he cleared his throat and did what he’d been trained to do. Perhaps born to do.
He lied.
“I will do everything in my power not to hurt her,” he said.
That seemed to appease Danford, for he smiled for the first time. “Excellent. Then I approve the courtship, though whether or not Celia does the same is up to you, of course. Shall we drink to it?”
Clairemont nodded as Danford lifted his hand and motioned for a porter to bring then a drink. As they waited, Danford leaned closer, draping his forearms over his knees and examining Clairemont closely.
“You know, you aren’t what I expected you to be after all our correspondence,” he said.
Clairemont jolted at the statement, brought back to reality in a heartbeat. “No?”
“You were never interested in my personal life in the slightest,” Danford continued. “In fact, you seemed quite irritated by my marriage and thought it might interfere with our business.”
Clairemont frowned. That was the trouble in only having half of a correspondence. He only saw what Danford replied, not the duke’s part of the conversation.
“Well, it hasn’t seemed to,” he said. “So I stand corrected.”
Danford laughed. “And there’s that, too. You were always so intensely focused on our investments and where your funds were flowing. And yet since your return you haven’t harangued me at all about what is happening with the canals that are being managed by Perry.”
Perry. Clairemont’s ears perked up. He’d heard of Perry, of course, in some of the correspondence he’d read. Danford often mentioned him as the foreman of one of the canals being finished on the very southern tip of the country. It promised to be a profitable one, for it led directly to the sea and would ensure products could be moved from the middle of the country to a port with ease.
“I suppose I’m still adjusting to life in London,” Clairemont said slowly, judging Danford’s every movement, every flutter of eyelash and length of stare. “And things have gone so smoothly that I’ve let it go to the wayside.”
