“Thank you, kind sir,” she said with a curtsy. “And you look quite handsome, Duke. Somehow you even managed not to wrinkle your cravat. Beau Brummell would be proud.”
“Who’s that?” he asked.
“Doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t like him. I certainly don’t.”
“Sadly, I fear my hair is probably still ‘thrashed into wildness.’”
“True,” she said, approaching to smooth a lock here and a curl there. “Although the look of it is growing on me, actually.”
God, but she tempted him. If the door weren’t open and if his mother hadn’t sent her here, he might have given in to temptation and kissed her again. Her eyes meeting his told him she might actually want him to.
But when he did no such thing, she colored and turned for the door. “In any case, pay me no mind when it comes to fashionable hair. That’s Eliza’s purview. And speaking of Eliza, she would like to see you, your mother, and Rosy all together, to make sure your attire is harmonious.”
He followed her out of the study. “God forbid our attire not be harmonious.”
“All I can say is Eliza has some idea that families should have harmonious attire, especially for important occasions like this one. She says it leads to harmonious family relations. She’s convinced that the lack of it is what tore our family apart years ago.”
“And not the multiple mistresses, I take it?”
Diana shrugged. “I’ve been told my parents were on speaking terms once, long ago. So she might have the right of it. Who really knows?”
“Who really knows, indeed.”
Certainly he was no expert in how to hold a family together. Father had seemed to argue with Mother as often as he’d shown her affection. Grandfather and Mother were always at odds over Father. And lately he and Rosy . . .
No, that relationship was improving, thanks to Elegant Occasions. So he would watch her being launched into high society and applaud her all the way. Because getting her and Mother well-settled would at least set them on the path to harmonious family relations.
And take a hell of a large load off his mind.