Devil blinked. "You recently landed a windfall — Gabriel checked. He was jealous. In fact, he proposed that, if the breeze did blow that way and you became one of the family, that he should conscript you, and Dexter, too, into the business."
Luc knew which business Devil was referring to; the Cynsters ran a combined investment fund rumored to be fabulously successful. He inclined his head. "I'd be happy to consult, if Gabriel wished it."
Devil eyed him shrewdly. "So what's the rub?"
Luc explained, much as he had with Arthur; Devil, however, was less easygoing than his uncle.
"Do you mean she thinks you're marrying her for her dowry?"
Luc hesitated. "I doubt she thinks I'm marrying her only for that."
Devil's eyes narrowed even more; he sat back in the chair, his gaze unrelenting. Luc met it without flinching.
"When are you going to tell her?"
"After the wedding — when we're at Calverton Chase and things have settled into some semblance of normality."
Devil thought long and hard. Louisa, as if sensing her father's disaffection, crawled to him, grabbed hold of the tassel trim of one large boot, and hauled herself up, waving and batting her block. Distracted, Devil lifted her onto his lap where she sat propped against his chest, green eyes wide, the block once more in her mouth.
Devil leaned back. "I'll agree not to say anything, and warn the others not to queer your pitch on one condition. I want your assurance that you will definitely tell her — specifically, in words — before you and she return to town in the autumn."
Luc raised his brows. "Specifically, in words…" He turned the phrases — with the particular emphasis Devil had given them — over in his mind. Realized just what Devil meant. His expression hardened. "You mean…" — he spoke softly, distinctly—"that you expect me to declare myself — to her — b
efore we return to town?"
Devil held his gaze — and nodded.
Luc felt his temper rise — felt trapped, caught, not just by Devil, but by fate.
As if sensing his thoughts, Devil murmured, "All's fair in love as well as war."
Luc allowed one brow to rise. "Indeed? Then perhaps you can advise me — how did you tell Honoria?"
Silence greeted the question — a stab in the dark, but Luc sensed he'd struck true. Devil's gaze didn't waver from his, yet he couldn't tell what was going on in the mind behind the eyes.
Sensing the clash between her father and him, Louisa squirmed around to stare up at Devil's face, then she looked across at him, her block firm between her pudgy hands, lips parted as those huge eyes searched his face. Then she flopped back, with force, and pointed her block at him.
"Dgoo!"
It sounded very like "Do!" — a dictate handed down by some imperious empress. Startled, Devil glanced down, a grin dawning.
She turned her head, pointed the block at him, frowned direfully and repeated her stern order. "Dgoo!"
It came out with even greater force — as if to underscore that, Louisa repeated it, then grabbed her block with both hands, wedged a corner into her mouth, and, with every sign of dismissing them — mere ignorant males — from her mind, settled her cheek against Devil's waistcoat and chewed, and pondered other things.
At less than one year old, there was absolutely no possibility she could have understood any of what they'd said. Yet when Devil raised his head and met his gaze, Luc widened his eyes in instinctive fellow feeling.
The tension, the battle of wills, that had raged, restrained but nonetheless real, between them moments before, had evaporated, replaced by a wary sense of unease.
Luc broke the ensuing silence. "I'll try to do as you ask…" — he drew breath—"but I won't promise, at least not as to when."
They were talking about a declaration, not of financial status, but of emotional reality — a reality neither of them, it seemed, had yet put into words. Almost certainly for the same reason. Neither of them wished openly to acknowledge the vulnerability they both knew to be fact — and in both their cases, there was no one, in truth, who could force them to it.
Except that Devil had used the misunderstanding over his wealth to pressure him, and he — with Devil's daughter's help — had now turned that pressure back on Devil.
Acknowledging that, Devil grimaced, then inclined his head. "Very well — I'll accept that much reassurance. However" — his green gaze steadied—"you asked for advice, and on this subject I can claim to be an expert. The longer you leave it, the harder it gets."
Luc held that compelling gaze for some moments, then nodded. "I'll bear that in mind."