Page 21 of The Odyssean Duke

She curtsied. “Your Grace. May I introduce my mother, Lady Dowell? Mother, this is the Duke of Rothbury.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” Stephan said.

Lady Dowell smiled, a mischievous gleam in her dark green eyes. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well. I imagine you would rather speak to my daughter than me, however.”

Stephan frowned. “It is true that your daughter is pleasant company.”

Was that what he was meant to say? Stephan had the notion that she had implied something with her words, and he had misunderstood her entirely.

“I shall leave the two of you to talk,” she said.

Stephan watched the woman as she departed. As awkward as the encounter had been, being alone with Evelina made him feel as though he could finally really breathe. Well, they were not quite alone; there were dozens of other couples in the garden, but they seemed to be paying him little mind.

“Are you enjoying the garden party, Your Grace?” Lady Thornwall asked.

Your Grace. He clenched his jaw. It would be too brazen to ask the lady to call himStephan, even though he might prefer that. The title was just another reminder of the man he was supposed to be and of all the responsibilities weighing upon his shoulders. A longing for the sea rose once more inside him.

“I told some other ladies that it was marginally less enjoyable than the war,” Stephan admitted.

“And is it?’

“Yes.”

Lady Thornwall’s lips twitched in amusement. “You have not given me that impression. I have been watching you for some time, and?—”

“Have you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

Lady Thornwall smiled slyly. “Do not think too much upon my actions, Your Grace. I only watched you because you are, at present, the most interesting man here.”

“I cannot discern if that is a compliment or a chastisement.”

“You may treat it as both.”

Stephan hummed. “Well, I suppose that would make you the most honest woman that I have met.”

“And what am I to glean from that, Your Grace?”

“That you are the only unmarried woman here who is not playing a role.”

“Have you spoken to every unmarried woman here?” the Dowager Countess asked, a note of disapproval in her voice.

Stephan paused and reconsidered his words. “I suppose I have not. Forgive my presumptions.”

That seemed like the appropriate reply. Stephan was a little cheered by the thought. He might have spent most of the party stammering over his words and trying to recall how a gentleman was supposed to behave, but with this lady, everything came quite easily. Maybe it was because he knew the Dowager Countess of Thornwall was also a little unconventional.

“I may,” she said.

“Youmay?” he asked. “No, I cannot endure that uncertainty. What can I do to persuade you to forgive me?”

Lady Thornwall placed the tip of her finger to her chin and acted as though she was deep in thought. Stephan suspected she already knew the answer and was simply enjoying baiting him.

“I have wondered something about you,” she said, “and I cannot make sense of it. If you tell me what I want to know, I might forgive you.”

A cold wave of foreboding swept over his shoulders. “Yes?”

“What are you so eager to have an heir so quickly?”

CHAPTER 9