Page 4

“You wound me, Aunt.” Crossing a hand over his heart, he released an exaggerated sigh.

“Tish tosh.” She wiggled her damned fan two inches under his nose. “Miss Caruthers is an orphan with barely two farthings to rub together, nephew.”

“She doesn’t appear destitute,” he said dryly.

“Lud, Ian, you of all people should know things aren’t always as they appear.” Aunt Edith angled her blasted fan in Miss Caruthers’ direction. “Her uncle, Gideon Stapleton, paid for her gown. Do you suppose he’ll also provide her a marriage settlement?”

“I’m sure I don’t know.” An neither did he care a jot.

No settlement, not a sixpence to scratch with, and Miss Caruthers dispensed her favors like flour to a baker. If Stapleton didn’t dower the chit, her fate was certain: demimondaine or courtesan.

“She’s part Roma, you know.” One eyebrow lifted in speculation, Aunt Edith sent him a side-eyed glance.

“I was unaware,” Ian murmured extending his elbow in a broad hint.

That explained Miss Caruthers’ exotic appearance. He regarded her through hooded eyes. He’d heard Romani women were remarkably creative and responsive between the sheets. His groin tightened.

Damnation.

Aunt Edith slipped her hand into the crook of his arm. “It’s said gypsy women can cast love spells. Think she knows any? Not that I believe any of that flim flam, mind you.” She leaned closer to him and lowered her voice to a covert whisper. “Ian?”

He bent his neck, and the blasted ostrich feather tickled his cheek.

“Perhaps that’s why you cannot take your eyes off her? She’s enchanted you?”

Now Aunt Edith was making a May game of him. He straightened, drawing his eyebrows together in an irritated scowl. Damn it. She thought him enamored of the chit. “I assure you, Aunt Edith, I am not under the influence of any incantation.”

She tilted her head upward, a mischievous glimmer in the center of her silver eyes. “Course with her looks and figure, she mightn’t need it. A marriage settlement, I mean.”

Ian’s gaze roamed over Miss Caruthers, then her bevy of suitors. Devil a bit, Aunt Edith might very well be right. Why that irritated him all the more, he couldn’t say.

She rapped his arm with her fan. “No, I don’t believe she’ll have need of a magic charm or a marriage settlement at all. No, indeed.” Nodding her head in Miss Caruthers’ direction, a devilish smile on her lips, she murmured, “Her kind marries for love.”