Caroline stood. She walked around the table to bend over Hollis and give her a hug.

“Farewell, darling! My love to Beck. See you next week, then?” Hollis asked as Caroline started out of the room.

“If not before!” Caroline called over her shoulder.

She grabbed her bonnet from the console where Donovan had placed it and walked out into bright sunlight. She looked up, blinking at blue sky. She didn’t love Prince Leopold. Just because he was the only man in a very long time to have filled her imagination, or to have failed to notice her facade, or had seen past it, didn’t mean she loved him or held him in any sort of particular esteem. So why did the thought of him leaving England unsettle her so? Why should she feel a little bit bereft, a little bit remorseful and a little bit heartsick?

Because she was a fool, that was why, with a terrible habit of being attracted to rakes. She would think of the kiss often, but she would not miss him a moment after he’d gone.

She convinced herself that was true and even believed it...up until the moment he climbed into the coach that would ferry them to Arundel.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN


A lady generous in spirit and in person is adding to her household, and happily, it is not another dog. In this circumstance it is the addition of two new chambermaids. It is expected the lady and her lord will entertain many over the coming weeks of summer, beginning with the first garden party of the season.

Ladies, apply a toilet mask to your face each night liberally coated in sheep fat. After two weeks of night use, skin will revive its youthful vigor.

—Honeycutt’s Gazette of Fashion and


Domesticity for Ladies

LEO COULD COUNT on one hand the number of times he’d actually felt a woman’s disdain for him. Actually, he didn’t even need his hand, for he counted exactly zero times. Until today.

Today, when he’d stepped into the coach in front of Clarendon Hotel, Lady Caroline’s gaze had turned to ice. Leo had expected their first meeting after that kiss to be interesting, but he hadn’t expected that. It was almost as if she had determined she was the injured party, when in fact it was she who had taken liberties with him.

She folded her arms and glared at her brother. “What is the meaning of this?”

Beck blinked with surprise. “The meaning of...?”

She slid her gaze to Leo.

“Prince Leopold? Well, His Highness is to Arundel, like us, and I offered him to ride along.”

“What? He has his guards. Shouldn’t they be the ones to escort him?”

“They are escorting us, Caro. They are riding behind, but the coach is obviously more comfortable for the prince.”

“For heaven’s sake, Beck,” she said irritably, and began to fluff the many, many flounces on her skirt.

“God as my witness, I never understand you. What is the matter? Has he offended you?”

Lady Caroline’s face turned pink.

“Je, please tell me if I have offended you, Lady Caroline, and I will do my utmost to atone for it. When last we spoke, I had the impression you esteemed me quite a lot.” Leo smiled.

Caroline’s color deepened. “I do beg your pardon, Your Highness, if that was the impression I gave you. I was being polite.”

“Ah,” he said, his smile deepening. “Then I must commend you—you were zealously polite.”

“It’s called civility, sir.”

“Is that what it’s called.” He gave a shake of his head. “I am forever learning proper English.”

“What have I missed?” Beck demanded of the two of them.

“Nothing!” Caroline said, and looked away from Leo.

But Leo did not look away from her. He rather enjoyed her discomfit. He was the one who was always back on his heels when they met, and he didn’t mind that, for once, she was the unsteady one. He liked how it turned her cheeks an appealing shade of pink, and how it made her green eyes sparkle so brilliantly with vexation.

“It is clearly something,” Beck said, sounding confused.

“Really, Beck? Have you forgotten that you started it by seeking the advice of His Royal Highness about what to do with your poor, burdensome, unmarried sister?”

“I didn’t ask for his advice,” Beck corrected her. “I know precisely what needs to be done. You’ll see.”

Lady Caroline rolled her eyes. But Leo was interested in what Beck thought needed to be done.

“I’ve some prospects for you,” Beck said.

That caught Caroline’s attention. She looked at her brother curiously. “Who?”

“Ladley, for one.”

She laughed. “Your old school chum? Robert Ladley has never passed a whisky or an ale he didn’t drink.”

Beck’s brows dipped as this was news to him. “I beg your pardon. Ladley was sober enough to go with all due haste to fetch a doctor the night you almost died.”

“I didn’t almost die, and is it not true that very recently you had to have the help of two footmen to haul him out to a hackney?”

Beck’s brows sank deeper. “One time.”

“Who else?” Lady Caroline chirped, having dismissed the Earl of Montford as a prospect.

Beck sniffed. “Lord March.”

Leo didn’t know Lord March, but Lady Caroline clearly did. She slowly turned her head and pinned her brother with a look that made even Leo cringe.

“He’s not as bad as you think,” Beck said quickly. “I know what is said of him, but just because Hollis prints it doesn’t make it true.”

“She happens to be exceedingly accurate in most things. Keep thinking, Beck. And really, this seems neither the time nor place to discuss my dismal marriage prospects. We’d not want to make the drive tedious for His Royal Highness.”

“He doesn’t mind,” Beck said confidently, when, in fact, Leo did indeed mind. “You mustn’t think of him as a prince, really, Caro. He’s more like...like an uncle.”

“An uncle?” Leo said, incredulous.

“My point is, you’re like family now,” Beck said. “You are the brother of Prince Sebastian, married to Eliza, and Caro, you have always said you and Eliza are more sisters than friends. God knows she and Hollis treat me like an outnumbered brother.”

Caroline stared at Leo. Leo stared back. He could feel the tension between them, could feel it fill the carriage and press against the walls, could detect the scent of desire mixed pleasingly with her perfume. “Fine,” she said. “He’s my uncle.”

“I am not your uncle,” Leo said. “I am no one’s uncle,” he added for Beck’s benefit, but neither of them appeared to be listening to him. Lady Caroline had positioned herself so that her gaze was on the window and the passing scenery of trees and rolling hills dotted with sheep. And Beck, upon seeing the same rolling hills, launched into a tale about a hunt he and Norfolk had participated in several years ago where the dogs had been thrown off the trail of a fox by a dead deer.

It was enough to put a grown man to sleep.

After what seemed an hour of mindless chatter, Leo felt himself sliding off into dreamland when he was suddenly jolted by a strange bounce in the carriage. He sat up. Beck was leaning forward, straining to see out the window as the coach rolled to a halt.

“What the devil? Stay here, the both of you,” Beck said sternly. He flung open the door and hopped out, then slammed the door shut behind him. Leo could hear him calling up to the driver, asking if it was a wheel.

Caroline slowly pushed herself upright, her gaze locked on Leo.

Leo leaned back against the squabs. The sound of men talking, or perhaps even arguing, faded into the distance.

“Shouldn’t you step out and see what has happened?” she asked. “Perhaps lend a hand?”

“Thank you for the suggestion of how I ought to behave, but I believe I’ll remain here and discover why you are treating me like a leper.”

“I’m not treating you like a leper.”

“No? Feels a bit like it. Whatever you may call it, you are treating me quite differently than you did the last time we met. You do remember the last time we met, do you not?”

The color in her cheeks returned. “Yes, all right, I was ill behaved when last we met, but I was terribly cross. I beg your forgiveness.”

“Interesting.” He sat up and braced his arms against his knees, leaning toward her. “What a strange thing you do when you are cross. Is it always so?”

“Obviously not. It depends on the person and the injury.”

He nodded, amused. “I don’t know if you are complimenting me or not.”

She frowned. “It won’t happen again. I lost my head, that’s all. My actions were in no way an indication of any...regard for you.”

“Ah. But the color in your cheeks just now and the enthusiasm in your kiss would suggest otherwise. Are you certain you don’t have a bit of regard for me?”

She clucked her tongue. “Completely certain.”

Leo leaned forward in the small space between them. Lady Caroline pressed back. He placed his hands against the bench where she was sitting, on either side of her knees. “May I offer a bit of advice, Caroline?”

Her lips parted and she drew a slight intake of breath. “I’d really rather you not.”

He lifted one hand and touched his fingers to her jaw. “My advice—”

“Which I just said I’d rather not have—”

“Is that you not kiss a man in anger. An angry kiss can be an enjoyable kiss, and certainly yours was, I won’t deny it. But it’s not as enjoyable as a happy kiss.”

She blinked. Her eyes had landed on his lips, and he could feel desire stirring in him. “I suppose I’ll have to take your word for it. I understand you’re an expert.”

“I do know a little about it,” he agreed. He couldn’t help himself—he touched a dimple in her cheek with the tips of his fingers.

“And I know a little about rakes,” she said as he tilted her chin up just slightly. “I know one instantly.”