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She was already turning when Adam walked in.

He stopped, his eyes going to Daniel, then to Juliet, then to the barrow smear on her cuff and the one on her temple, and his expression blanched. He looked back at Honeysett, his brows furrowed.

“You are early,” Adam said.

“Is that so? I hadn’t noticed.” Daniel spread his hands.

Adam’s expression was deadpan. “It is ten-forty.”

“Eleven is a concept, not a law.” Daniel turned to Eloise, who was vibrating at the door with the effort of not running out of it. “Well? Go on, then.”

Eloise looked at her father with enormous hope.

Adam crossed his arms. “What have I told you about⁠—”

“Uncle Daniel.” The words came out very fast and very earnest. “Thank you so much for my present. May I please be excused to find it?”

Daniel blinked, then laughed. “Oh, of course you can!” He pointed toward the hall, and Eloise was gone before his arm came down, her footsteps already rapid on the flagstones.

The governess who had been hovering in the corridor went after her at a trot. “My lady, don’t run so fast!” she called to her.

Now, Daniel turned to Adam, who was glaring at him. “What?” He asked innocently.

Adam sighed. “You have already given her the spotted colt for her birthday. What is it this time?”

“Books.” Daniel shrugged back, serene despite the mischief glinting in his eyes. “Educational books. They’re well bound, too.”

Adam sighed. “With illustrations, I take it?”

“Oh, very lovely ones.” The marquess grinned back.

“Honeysett—”

The marquess lifted a finger. “She will be very enriched by them.”

Juliet was glancing between the two men, trying to keep her amusement from fully showing on her face. When she glanced at Adam, their eyes locked and her pulse started to flutter all over again. His eyes dropped to her left hand, where the gold band sat, and came back up to her face before she could decide what to do with that information.

She looked at Daniel, curling her hands behind her back. “Eloise called you Uncle Daniel,” she remarked, now looking between them both. “I was not aware you were related.”

“Oh, we are not.” Daniel waved her question away as he settled himself in the armchair. “Adam’s father and mine were at school together. We were placed into each other’s lives before either of us could weigh in on the matter. After long enough, the line between family and habit becomes rather… theoretical, wouldn’t you say?”

“Annoyingly so,” Adam conceded, in a tone that Juliet had come to understand was how he expressed affection when he was not directing it at Eloise.

Daniel grinned at him. “He means it warmly.”

Any outsider would surmise the opposite.

Still, Juliet smiled.

She saw Adam’s eyes narrow even further as he glared at the other man. “I mean it accurately.”

“This is what love looks like in our corner of the aristocracy,” Daniel told Juliet, his tone conspiratorial. “You will adjust.”

Juliet chuckled. “Oh, I am learning by the second.” When she glanced at Adam, she found his gaze on her.

She turned away from him almost instantly, her pulse kicking.

“Is there anything you could tell me about the duke’s younger days?” she asked, ignoring Adam when he turned to look at her with shock. “Seventeen years of material, I believe you said.”