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“Do you always get what you want?” she asked, keeping her voice low and husky to avoid attracting attention to her femininity.
Julius shrugged. “Almost always.”
They took their seats at the table, Julius ensuring he had a clear view down the street to Stone’s door.
“You possess many faces, Julius.” Audrey’s low comment implied she was not certain if this revelation should impress or disgust her.
He grinned, his attention remaining fixed out the window. “Not to mention, many personalities.”
Audrey harrumphed. “I always thought you got your way because you are the son of an earl, but I am coming to realize you would find alternative methods even if you were not.”
Julius shrugged again, glancing at her. “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
One of the buxom women serving tables interrupted them. Julius placed their orders while Audrey sank into her coat, her hat masking her features from the server. Once they were alone again, she continued their earlier discussion.
“I think perhaps you need to learn an ounce of moderation. Considering …” Audrey gestured toward his injury.
“Perhaps.”
“Heaven help the world if you turned your talents to something useful,” she muttered.
Julius quirked an eyebrow, his gaze flickering to her for the briefest of moments before returning to his observation of Stone’s front door. “A murder investigation is not useful?”
There was a pause.
“I apologize if I sounded condescending. It is courageous of you to pursue justice on behalf of your friends. I meant in a general sense, not this specific situation.”
Julius had the urge to remove his glove to twist his ring, but instead, he stuffed that hand into one of his ample pockets.
“Ah, but if I did that, I might become Lord Snarling, and we would not want that.”
“Lord Snarling … oh! You mean your father?”
Julius gave a brusque nod. When he glanced her way after several seconds of silence, he found Audrey staring at him with a thoughtful expression. He averted his gaze back to the street, uncomfortable with the intimacy of their discussion.
The serving woman returned, planting two mugs on the table with a firm thud, which caused a few drops to spill and run down the sides. She used a towel to wipe them off and walked away to serve another table.
Audrey pulled her mug closer, lowering her face to inhale deeply. Finally, she spoke. Unfortunately, she returned to the subject of his parent.
“Why do you have to become a version of your father? Why can you not be your own man?”
Julius frowned, cocking his head at the unexpected question. He opened his mouth to reply. “Because … because … because … I … do not … know … why.”
He supposed, until that moment, he had thought that maturing meant inevitably becoming his father. It had seemed the natural course, like a line drawn straight from boyhood through to duty. But now that she had asked the question, his mind drifted to his friends and their relations. The Earl of Saunton, brother to one of his closest companions, had inherited his title at barely eighteen. Yet Saunton retained a lightness of spirit, an amiable disposition that made him welcome in drawing rooms and hunting parties alike. He had expanded the influence of his estates without becoming remote or rigid, and if gossip were to be believed, he was genuinely content in his recent marriage.
Julius had never considered that a man might choose the manner in which he bore his title. That dignity and authority need not be chained to severity. That one might wield power and still be beloved.
The clink of porcelain disrupted his reverie. Audrey raised the thick-handled mug to her lips, sniffed experimentally, and took a cautious sip.
“Bah! This is horrible!”
He chuckled. “It is an acquired taste, young lad. The more you drink, the more you will like it.”
She set the mug back on the table with a decisive thud. Some of the liquid sloshed near the rim, releasing a pungent bitterness into the air. Audrey wrinkled her nose.
“Not likely. That is my last sip, I think.”
He burst out laughing. Her down-turned lips and disgusted expression—made more comical by the oversized coat collar swallowing her neck—were so irresistibly endearing, it swept away the weight of his reflections. With the scent of coffee hanging between them and the morning’s tension softened by shared amusement, Julius felt a flicker of something close to contentment.
