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Bloody help her.

Rafe slumped, his apologetic gaze catching hers.

“There’s no use fighting it, Your Grace. He was born this way. The Duchess did what she could, but we have yet to be able to fix him.”

“I beg your pardon!” Bash stared between the two of them in outrage. “There is nothing that needs fixing.”

Rafe arched a brow. “Are you certain of that?”

“I’m a bloody delight.”

“You’re something,” Rafe and Theo said in unison.

Their gazes clashed. Rafe’s grey eyes lit up. Theo’s heart leaped.

She immediately chastised herself. None of that, Theo.

“Until we meet again, Miss Dawson.” Rafe’s gaze turned heated.

She dipped her chin, biting her lip to prevent her foolish smile. She caught Bash rolling his eyes in her peripheral vision.

“Good day, gentlemen.”

Then she walked back to her cottage while they trotted off to the stables.

Until we meet again.

31

Rafe

Rafe followed Theodora into her cottage. She eyed the satchel at his side. “I brought some things from the kitchen. It’s not exactly fair of me to always be imposing on you. I should be the one doting upon you but not being able to…” Bring her to the castle, spend nights there where they would have every comfort fit for a duke. Instead of providing her every indulgence of his station, he was left relying on her and being a burden.

She snorted and arched a brow. “Do I look like someone who wants to be doted on?” Her lips curved, and she took the satchel from him, walking over to her worktable. “I don’t expect anything, Rafe. I’m not your mistress. I don’t require payment or baubles or being spoiled.” She glanced up from where she was laying out the food he’d brought. “All I want is your respect.”

“And orgasms.”

“That goes without saying.” She smiled down at the repast: cold roast chicken, a loaf of hard-crusted bread, wedges of cheese, jars of pickles and olives, and a selection of individual-sized cakes. “My, my. A feast fit for a duke.”

He chuckled.

Her gaze flitted up to his, eyes searching. “Things are moving forward well with the quarry leases. We’ve received payment.”

Some of the warmth that had hit him upon entering her cottage slipped away. “Excellent. And the timber as well, you had said. It looks as though we are well on our way to recovery.”

“That we are. Now all that is left is waiting. The next year or so will require more frugality, but this is probably the best outcome we could have hoped for.”

“Thanks to you.”

She poured them each a glass of the Madeira he’d brought. She lifted her wineglass. “To your exceptional steward.”

He lifted his. To the most exceptional woman he’d ever met. “I probably hadn’t even needed to make the journey back,” he murmured. “Not with you in charge.”

Her head tilted, and she perused him. “I hadn’t…I hadn’t expected you to actually come.”

And then he said something that surprised them both. “I’m happy I did.”

But then her surprise melted into a knowing smirk. “It would appear your well-endowed estate isn’t the only thing I’m exceptional at…handling.”