“But I’m a bastard.” Daffin lowered his voice.
Rafe laughed. “You’re in good company. We’ve all been bastards a time or two.”
Grimaldi shrugged. “Please. Half the men in this town are bastards. Who cares? You’re Daffin Oakleaf, the Bow Street Runner, as far as I’m concerned. I will continue to treat you as I always have.”
“But it means Regina will be scorned,” Daffin insisted. “She won’t be allowed at Society events.”
Grimaldi rolled his eyes. “She doesn’t attend them now. She deserves to be with someone she truly loves. You’re a good man, Oakleaf. You make Regina happy. That’s all that matters to me and, most importantly, it’s all that matters to Regina.”
Daffin glanced around at the others again. Surely they would help him make Grim see reason. “She won’t be accepted into fine households. She’ll be treated as an outcast.”
“Nonsense. I’m a marquess, and you’ll both be quite welcome in my house,” Grimaldi said.
“And I’m a viscount,” Rafe added, “and you’re welcome in mine.”
“I’m merely a lowly knight, but you’re welcome in mine,” Cade said.
“I’m a duke, and you’re welcome in mine,” Hobbs said, with a resolute nod.
Daffin stared at all of them. “Truly?”
The men nodded their agreement.
Daffin gulped. Did he really have a chance to win back Regina? “Do you think Regina feels the same way? What if her feelings have changed?”
Grimaldi groaned. “Her feelings haven’t changed. She’s been moping around the house like a lovesick fool. She adores you.”
Daffin took a last, fortifying swig of ale. “There’s one thing I haven’t told you yet.”
“What’s that?” Grim looked positively bored.
“Your uncle refused me already,” Daffin said, feeling smug this time. “I asked for her hand and he refused me. He told me Lady Harriet felt the same.”
“Yes, well, there’s one thingIhaven’t toldyouyet.” Grim looked similarly smug.
“What’s that?” Daffin asked.
“Lady Harriet and Nicole have been berating Uncle Edward all morning for allowing you to get away, and he’s more than given his assent. Especially after Regina laid into him.”
“Really?” Daffin asked, looking at his friends in awe. His heart pounded in his chest, while joy unfurled in his middle.
“Yes, really,” Grim replied. “Now get up, leave here, and go do the right thing by asking my cousin to marry you, damn it!”
Pulling his hat from the table and clapping it on his head, Daffin leaped from his chair and raced for the door.
***
The other men glanced around at each other, raised their mugs, and clinked them together, trading smiles and laughs.
“Another success,” Rafe shouted, lifting his mug high in the air.
Thomas Hobbs shook his head. “You chaps always know the right thing to say. Why is that?”
“I suppose it’s because we’ve got a great deal of experience between us,” Grimaldi replied.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Hobbs said, “for I shall need your help when the time comes for me to take a wife.”
“Why’s that?” Cade asked, clapping the younger man on the back.
