“So, it’s love at first sight, is it?” Alano asked.
Douglas glanced at him, surprised. “Is there such a thing?”
“I’ve not enough fingers to list the girls I thought I loved, lad. But I’ve never gone and married one.”
Douglas shook his head, either negating Alano’s words or his own actions—he wasn’t sure which.
“Is this something you’re set on doing, then?”
Douglas smiled. “I think I am, yes.”
“Are you going to tell him, or her, that you’re a Scot as well? Or are you going to leave that a secret?”
“He’s the one with the antipathy. Perhaps Sarah, being half-Scottish, will not mind a husband from Scotland.”
Alano shook his head.
“You were nervous enough about meeting a real duke. How are you going to feel being married to the daughter of one?”
It was just like his old friend to bring a little realism into the day.
“I’ve managed up ’til now well enough,” Douglas said. “What have you always told me? Something about feeling the part, and looking the part, and soon you’ll be acting the part. The Duke of Herridge saw me as a gentleman.”
Alano nodded. “You look and act the part, lad,” he said. “But I noticed you’re still carrying that notebook around with you, as if you’re afraid to make a mistake.”
Douglas looked away. “It’s the other side of the world, Alano,” he said. “From where I’ve come from to where I want to go. It’s not that far in distance, but everything else is different.”
“You’ve come all this way on your own, lad. Nobody gave it to you. You didn’t inherit it. Every penny you have is a penny you earned. Don’t you ever forget it. Those fops in their fine homes cannot measure up to what you’ve done. The Duke of Herridge got his title and his money from his father, and his father before that, and his father before that. He didn’t make it all on his own, like you.”
Douglas smiled. “I thought you said that nobles looked down at those in trade.”
Alano snorted and reached for the bottle he was corking. “To their detriment. They’d make their own way if they knew what was good for them,” he said. “Instead, they marry for money or live in genteel starvation. Not like you, lad. You were destined for great things from the moment I met you.”
Douglas picked up a bottle already corked. Despite the number of servants he hired, Alano would always perform this chore himself, convinced that no one else, including Douglas, could do the job competently enough.
“You’ve always believed in me, Alano. All these years. Why?” He’d always wondered, but today seemed like the day to ask.
Alano looked surprised. “Why?” he asked, his eyebrows rising. “Because you were the most obnoxious boy I’d ever met. And you’ve grown into a man with the same stubborn streak. You get an idea in your head, and you won’t let go of it until you see it through. As a boy, you just needed direction, lad, that was all.”
“And as a man?” Douglas asked with a smile. “What do I need?”
“A swift kick, I’m thinking.”
After that comment, Alano ignored him for a few minutes. He held an empty bottle below the cask, released the stopper, and watched as the wine filled the bottle. When the level was just below the neck of the bottle, he replaced the stopper, placed the bottle inside the curious leather cradle strapped to his knee, before grabbing a cork from the press beside him. He made a great show of concentrating his attention on hammering the cork into the bottle.
Finally, Alano turned to Douglas. “Does she know that you’ve just come to London? Does she know this place will be all topsy-turvy when she gets here? I’ve not yet had time to get the furniture for the front hall, let alone the dining room.”
He reached for another bottle, but his expression was so thunderous that Douglas wondered if Alano would rather toss it in his direction instead.
“She has a house,” Douglas said.
“And what am I supposed to be doing with this one?”
They’d known each other for two decades, had encountered hurricanes together, not to mention floods, earthquakes, and on one unforgettable occasion, a village filled with angry pygmies. In all that time, Douglas had never felt as flummoxed as he did now, when faced with a domestic crisis.
“Are you going to be like the peerage, then, since you’re wedding into it? Keep this place for when you come to London?” Alano looked up, his sudden smile robbing the words of their sting.
“It sounds like a reasonable solution,” Douglas said. “There’s no need to sell it right away.”
