“Enough!” Percy shouted.
“Oh, my,” Hamish said. “It’s worse than we thought.”
“Indeed.”
“What the bloody hell are you two talking about?”
“Should we tell him?” Renard asked.
Hamish shrugged. “He’s not smart enough to figure it out on his own.”
No one would find their bodies in the Thames if he weighed the corpses down. “I’m going to kill you both.”
Hamish cocked a brow. “You’re in love, idiot.”
Percy sputtered. “That’s . . . That’s . . .”
“True?” Renard said.
“Honest?” Hamish offered.
“Impossible.”
The men weren’t listening. They continued to prattle on over the likelihood the woman was a seamstress from London, or a Scottish lass, or something akin to a bullfighter from Spain.
Percy would have sliced them open with his tea plate if the word hadn’t shaken him badly enough he had to sit back down on the divan.
Love. Such a meaningless word men spouted whenever it suited the need to disarm a woman. But, hearing it now, annoyance and indifference weren’t the first emotions that sprang to the surface. This time, there was a warmth, a kind of contentment, and a face.
Did he love Danny?
It was true she was clever and disarming. He relished her company when able and thought of her constantly when apart. He’d chalked his single-minded thoughts to the rarity of their friendship and pent-up desire, but he didn’t crave her body—well, hedid, but not physical connection alone. He ached for her mind and easy company, the sound of her laugh, andthe unmitigated certainty with which she saw the world in an optimistic light.
Good God, he was in love.
“Damn it!”
“Ah, see? He’s figured it out.” Hamish shook his head, his expression pitying.
“This is terrible.” Percy stared at his hands. This couldn’t happen. Affection and connection were risky, but love... Nothing good would come of losing his heart. “She’ll get hurt.”
“Confident, isn’t he?” Renard crossed one leg over the other and leaned back in his chair. “No certainty she’ll say ‘yes.’ Women are unexpected like that, especially if she’s a lady.”
Percy heard the Duke of Lux’s words and hope flared. “That’s right! She’d refuse me.” Of course she would. He may have had a fancy title and fortune now, but Danny knew what kind of man he really was. Her own fortune and standing in society were greatly coveted. She’d have no shortage of suitable offers. Hadn’t she hinted as much? She enjoyed their friendship. Mutual pleasure wasn’t the same as true affection.
“No luck there,” Hamish said. “If it’s the lady I think it is, she’ll have him.Onlyhim, if Charlotte’s insight is correct, which it always is.”
Percy turned to him sharply. “What do you mean?”
“If the gossip rags are to be believed, you’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time with Lady Daniella Deime.” Hamish nodded when Percy frowned. “Charlotte and Daniella struck up a friendship after meeting at the Leishires’ ball. I overheard one of their conversations in which the lady asked after a mysterious man she’d met at that same ball, a man she was convinced was an acquaintance of ours.”
Percy reined in the desire to cut his friend’s tongue from his mouth hearing Danny’s name on his lips, and the unspoken closeness of their acquaintance. “Get to the point, Hamish.”
Hamish’s brows rose in a maddening expression of superiority. “The lady has turned down nine proposals since then, I hear. It doesn’t take my wife’s sharp mind to make the connection.” He gave Percy a pointed look. “I wonder if her refusals have anything to do with a certain mysterious man?”
Nineproposals? The numberwasscandalous. And yet, the number wasn’t near staggering enough for a woman as fine as Danny. The men of England were morons.
“She turned them all down?”
