Gavin nodded.
“And now you are looking for a wife. This is all good.”
His twin glanced at him. “Are you mocking me?”
Jack held up a hand. “I am not. I’m happy to see you becoming your own man. In fact, I owe you an apology. I have been guilty of misjudging you.”
Again, Gavin sent him a doubtful look.
“My word of honor,” Jack promised. “And to be honest, I have no quarrel with you. Yes, I had assumptions but I’ve changed—for the better, I believe. Why would you have not changed as well?”
Gavin pulled the phaeton over to the side of the road and set the brake. “Do you mean that? Or are you just interested in manipulating me into advancing your negotiations?”
“Both,” Jack said. “I mean what I say and, yes, I would very much like your help because a meeting between our two governments might not happen without you. I have heard that I am now labeled a turncoat because I consider myself an American.”
“Aren’t you? You are quite literally rejecting your heritage.”
“But not my family. Gavin, I’ve never had a pretension to the title. Oh, when I was younger I believed it unfair that because you had made it out of the womb before I did, you should be Baynton. The truth is, I would have been a miserable duke. If I had discovered that Father had wasted a fortune, I would have been bloody angry.”
“I was. However, anger doesn’t solve problems.”
“You should have told me that years ago. Perhaps it would have saved me some time learning it.”
His admission drew a reluctant smile from his brother. Gavin shook his head. “I’d forgotten how blunt you could be...” His voice trailed off as if he was considering something new.
Jack waited, curious about what was on the ducal mind.
Gavin sat up. “I need help. It seems only right that if I help you, you help me.”
“What can I do for you?”
“Did your wife love you?”
This was not a change of topic Jack could have anticipated. “Yes, she did. Surprising, isn’t it? However, she could never have loved me as much as I loved her.”
“I want Lady Charlene to fall in love with me.”
“And you need me because?”
“I don’t know how to go about it. I sent flowers to her last night but they were the wrong thing. I realized when I called on her today. She was gracious, but there was a moment when the silence was awkward, uneasy.”
“Those things happen,” Jack said with a shrug. “I also don’t believe you need to worry about winning the lady. You are a duke—”
“I don’t want her to love me for my title. I watch Ben and Elin and she has such care for him, I’m jealous. Did your wife think that highly of you?”
“I believe so. I also understand what you mean. Hope liked me. No matter how arrogant or ridiculous or headstrong I was, she cared. And often would bring me back to a sense of myself. She could say what others couldn’t.”
“Yes, that is what I see in Ben and Elin. I want that.” He asked, “Do you see yourself marrying again?”
Jack nodded. “Sooner or later, but I won’t settle for just anyone. Hope taught how me good it can be between a man and a woman. I confess, I want what I had. Someday I hope to find love again.”
“I want Lady Charlene. Iwanther.”
There was that little head again—and yet was there ever a man who married without feeling lust deep in his gut?
“Then do what you did today,” Jack said. “Call on her. Take time to know her.”
“Time is the one commodity I don’t have.”
