“Griffin!” Lady Sara asked as she ran up to her brother and bussed his cheek. “What are you doing here?”
Esmeralda expelled her deep breath and stepped away from the duke.
“I didn’t know you were going to join us today,” Lady Vera said, brushing the air beside his other cheek while Napoleon barked once and then started sniffing around his feet.
“Neither did I, but I hope my arrival won’t spoil your afternoon.” He reached down and patted Napoleon on the head while he asked, “How are you, Miss Josephine?”
“Very well, Your Grace,” she said with a curtsy. “Did you get here in time to see the juggler?”
“I missed him. Was he good?”
“He was exceptional. What’s in the basket?”
He held up the wicker hamper. “I’m not sure, but I was told it’s refreshments for us to enjoy. After the puppet show is finished, we’ll find a place to spread the blanket and see what’s inside.”
“Excuse me, Your Grace, I don’t want to interrupt your afternoon on this fine day, but I didn’t want to pass by without stopping to speak either.”
Esmeralda looked around to see a tall, slender young man walking up to them. Like the duke, he was dashing in a black cloak secured around his shoulders and his hat held under his arm.
“No, Mr. Lambert,” the duke said with a nod and a gaze of scrutiny. “You’re not. I’ll introduce you.”
Esmeralda had heard of Mr. Peter Lambert, nephew to the Lord Mayor. He was a handsome fellow with straight, neatly trimmed dark brown hair. His brown eyes weren’t remarkable in any way, but she noted that, when he smiled, it showed in his whole face, making him appear friendly and cajoling. He wasn’t quite as tall or broad-shouldered as the duke, but a fine-looking man just the same. Most important of all, he wasn’t on Lady Evelyn’s list of possible suitors for the twins. No doubt she didn’t consider his social standing high enough for the twins.
After introductions were made, Mr. Lambert and the duke started chatting about how lovely the day was, about Napoleon’s name, and about the rise in footpads accosting people on the streets. Esmeralda watched the twins’ reaction to the man. Lady Vera seemed to dismiss him outright without a second glance. He wasn’t Lord Henry, so she was completely uninterested in him. Lady Sara was taking a different approach. She made eye contact with Mr. Lambert when she spoke to him, and his gaze kept straying back to her.
Instinct told Esmeralda that though she’d had a difficult time telling the twins apart, Mr. Lambert was having no problem seeing a distinct difference in the two sisters. It was quite clear that he’d seen something in Lady Sara that he hadn’t seen in her twin.
“There’s been a lot of talk about your sisters making their debut this Season,” Mr. Lambert said to the duke.
Even before the duke frowned suspiciously and his eyes narrowed and twitched, Esmeralda knew Mr. Lambert realized he’d brought up a subject that should not have been mentioned.
He quickly added, “Not bad talk, of course, Your Grace. No, nothing unflattering about them at all or anything of the sort. Because they are twins. I mean, that is to say, we don’t often see twins. That is what everyone, well, some, are talking about. So that’s what I was referring to, you see. Twins.” He glanced at Lady Sara. “To see if they really look very much alike. It’s the rarity of it that has people talking, er—about how rare it is to have twins debut the same Season. Nothing else.”
The confident young man was suddenly stumbling over his long-winded explanation so badly Esmeralda might have laughed at how horribly he managed his attempt to explain what he was trying to convey if she hadn’t felt sorry for him. Too late he realized that saying people were talking about the twins would make the duke automatically assume he was referring to the gossip swirling about possible mischief concerning them.
Luckily for the gentleman, Lady Vera spoke before the duke had a chance and said, “We are used to people staring at us because we’re twins and are quite prepared for it. It doesn’t bother us at all and, sometimes, it’s actually quite nice to be the center of attention.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I was meaning, Lady Vera,” Mr. Lambert hastened to say. “Everyone has been eager to see if you and Lady Sara are identical. And it’s really quite astonishing how much you do look like each other.”
“We’ll say good day to you now, Mr. Lambert,” the duke said tightly.
“Of course,” Mr. Lambert replied nervously. “I didn’t mean to keep you from your outing.”
By the time he said good-bye and walked away, the puppet show had ended, so they headed over to a nearby tree together. The twins talked quietly to each other. Josephine had stopped to study something she saw lying on the ground while Napoleon sniffed around the closed picnic basket.
“Keep an eye on that man,” the duke said in a soft voice to Esmeralda as he shook out the blanket.
She picked up the ends and helped him spread the thick woolen covering on the cold, hard-packed ground. “I will, but Mr. Lambert appeared to be a nice man.”
“Any man can be nice when he wants to.”
“I know.” Esmeralda glanced over at the twins. They weren’t paying any attention to what she and the duke were saying to each other, so she added, “He made it clear he wasn’t talking about the gossip that immediately came to your mind and his. Surely you saw how horrified he was when he realized what he said could be misconstrued by you?”
The duke’s mouth narrowed with a grimace. “And it was.”
“I think he’s harmless. He wouldn’t be a very good mischief-maker if brought up the mischief to the brother of the young ladies he intended to harm, now would he?”
“All the same, I don’t know him well, so watch him.”
