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Jemma looked up. “What on earth can he be planning? Isidore said that he’d alluded to a wedding celebration that included some sort of animal sacrifice—but he can’t be thinking of enacting a primitive rite here. He would be arrested!”

“Not for animal sacrifice,” Villiers said. “As someone who loves sirloin, I can assure you that many cattle have been sacrificed to keep me happy.”

“You know what I mean,” Jemma said. “And Isidore mentioned orgies.”

“Well, that settles it. I knew you were the person to speak to. I shall have to pay him a visit, if only so that I can be part of the orgy planning.”

“Have you participated in many?”

“Orgies or weddings?” he asked innocently.

“I doubt you have been in any weddings,” she pointed out. “Your engagement to my ward was your first and last, to the best of my knowledge.”

“Alack,” he said. “My experience with orgies is just as thin. This will be such an education for me, combining two pursuits I have religiously avoided.”

“You surprise me,” Jemma said. “I would have thought you had indulged in your youth, and then tired of such passionate pursuits.”

“The problem lies in my dukedom, I suppose, or in my spoiled nature. I have always thought of orgies as opportunities to share—and I don’t do that very well.”

“Then I wonder why you have pursued affaires with married women,” Jemma said.

“Rarely. Very rarely, and only against my better judgment.”

“I see.”

“Only when the temptation is so great that there seemed no other woman in the world,” he added gently.

“Ah.”

“In fact, I must tell you that my reputation may be blacker than I deserve. I have, as yet, had no affaires of that nature.” He rose. “I must continue to my appointment, duchess.”

She stayed in her seat for a moment, then looked up at him. “Leopold.”

Only the lowering of his eyelids showed that he registered her use of his personal name.

But she wasn’t sure exactly what to say.

“I almost forgot,” he said. “I brought you a present.”

She rose, unable to find words, unsure what her response should be. “A present?”

He took out a fan and laid it on the table. “A mere token, a nothing. It made me think of you.” He turned to go.

“Wait—”

He looked back.

“When do you go to Revels House?”

“I shall return to Fonthill tomorrow. If Strange’s daughter is still ill, I shall travel on to Revels House in a few days.”

She nodded.

“I shall make very sure that you are invited to the wedding, naturally.”