Wolfe didn’t join the toast. “You never finished explaining. You were viewing paintings and mistook the duchess for a maid. Why did you mistake her?”
Eamon shrugged. “I didn’t expect a duchess to be rushing about in drab gowns or escorting visitors through the house.”
“Or to be young and pretty?”
“To be honest, no.”
The duchess wasn’t comely in the conventional sense, which these days tended toward wisps of women with painfully fair skin and pencil-thin limbs. This duchess was relatively tall and had wonderful curves hidden by the ugly purple gown. Instead of perfectly tamed locks, dark wild waves had cupped her head, threatening to tumble loose at any provocation.
She had the body of a lover, but her blushes told of her inexperience. She’d shared a bed with her middle-aged husband and produced a child, but Eamon suspected that was the extent of her carnal understanding.
“You said she was a country gentleman’s daughter,” Eamon prodded. “Were there no daughters of the duke’s noble cronies he could marry, if he was looking for an heir?”
“It was a love match, according to my grandmother. The duke’s first wife was a sprig of the aristocracy with a long pedigree but weak constitution. She passed away within a year of their marrying, leaving the duke heartbroken.”
“Poor man,” Eamon said feelingly. “I will guess the rest. He realizes years later he’s beginning to age and looks about for a companion. Stumbles across Miss Arnott and hears angels sing.” He had definitely heard them humming in the background when she’d turned her startled gaze to him at the window.
“Caroline Arnott,” Wolfe supplied. “If you are fishing for her Christian name. Not that you are in any position to use it.”
“Certainly not.” Eamon feigned shock. “I address her as Duchess.”
“I’m surprised you weren’t tossed out on your ear for that. You grovel and call her Your Grace, if you deign to speak to her at all.”
“Because I am a lowly creature not fit to be trodden on, I know.” Eamon grinned and lifted his glass. “To beautiful women met at the wrong place and time.”
That, Wolfe conceded to drink to.
“I will be cataloging her art collection for her,” Eamon said.
Wolfe coughed and quickly set down his goblet. “You’ll be what?”
“Cataloging her art. No, I do not intend to put any paintings under my arm and walk out with them,” he added in irritation at Wolfe’s suspicious gaze. “She showed me two dodgy Rembrandts she thought were genuine. Someone deceived her—or the Aylesmores in general—and I have to wonder how sound the rest of the collection is. If I can find something that will bring her some much-needed cash, then I will.”
“You sound like an honest man. Wanting nothing more than to help a long-suffering widow.”
“Even a scoundrel can turn his hand to a good deed,” Eamon said easily. “Speaking of good deeds, where the devil has McCormick got to these days?”
“Tutoring.” Wolfe resumed his usual somber expression. “Maths. To youths who care nothing about it.”
“Poor fellow. Well, we must all make a living.”
Eamon waited for Wolfe to announce how he was keeping his own head above water, but the man drank and didn’t answer.
“I intend to win the wager, you know,” Eamon said quietly.
“Eh? What wager?”
“How soon he forgets. Have you erased your memory of that evening at Waterloo, when we were certain we wouldn’t make it back to our regiment alive? We vowed to marry and pool whatever moneys we gain to raise our families.”
“Ah, yes, that bit of foolishness.” Wolfe’s frown became a scowl. “You’ll never win it chasing a penniless duchess, Stone. If she’ll even speak to you again.”
“One never knows,” Eamon said. “One never knows.”
Wolfe huffed and downed the rest of his brandy, but Eamon sipped in thoughtful silence.
Hayden McCormick, at that moment, was exiting a house in Upper Brook Street in extreme disgust. “Bloody Sassenach ingrates,” he muttered under his breath.
He’d been asked to leave by the snobbish father of the household, whose two unruly boys refused to settle down and learn the numbers their father believed would put them at the top of their classes when they entered their prestigious school.
