“It is the way for every household, I am told.”
“Not every household. Not those that are fair minded in my opinion.” The Duke’s words caught her interest, but she didn’t have long to think about it, for Lucy was back at his side, holding up papers for him to see. “What do we have here? Now, this one really must be a mouse with this tail.” He clapped his hands together and knelt down beside her.
“No. It’s a rat!” Lucy said quite happily, leading the Duke to look up with wide eyes at Julia.
“They have rats here!?” he asked, his tone panicked.
“I wish I could say they did not.”
“Right, up you come, Lucy. No sitting on this floor if there are rats about.” He lifted her easily into the nearest chair, leaving Julia to watch on.
He would make a good father someday.
That thought shocked her to the core more than any other she had yet had of him.
* * *
“Why did you come?” Julia’s question caught Edward’s attention.
He turned to face her from where they sat in the carriage. They had been at the orphanage for hours, and he was now giving her a lift home, though in truth his thoughts were much with the orphanage they had just left and the plight of the children there.
“What do you mean?” Edward asked distractedly.
“I mean that there was no one from thetonthere to see us together.” Julia tossed a look to the ceiling of the carriage, as if pleading with the heavens for help. “You stayed regardless, why?”
Edward struggled for words. For some reason, he had set out to spend time with Julia that day, wherever she ended up. The way those brown, almost amber eyes, were turned up to him, made him hesitate in his answer.
They really are the most striking pair of eyes.
“Your Grace?” she encouraged him on.
“Perhaps I just wished to know you better. If we are to complete this ruse properly, I must know the real you, Julia.” At his words, she looked a little suspicious.
“You have dropped my title.”
“That I have. You should drop mine too.”
“What? I cannot do that!” she said hurriedly, leaning forward off the carriage bench with apparent panic.
“Why not?” He mirrored her action, leaning so far forward that they came a little closer together. He was startled when she didn’t lean back from him. It made a thrill pass through him, knowing they were so close together.
“Because you are a duke!”
“A duke that you are supposedly betrothed too. You shall call me Edward, not ‘Duke’ and not ‘Your Grace’.”
“I cannot do it.”
“Do you want this ruse to work?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows.
“Oh, arguing with you is insufferable!” She threw her hands in the air.
“I think you like it really. There is a pleasant blush on your cheeks at this moment.” He motioned to her cheeks, watching as her lips parted and she turned a deeper shade of red.
“That is the heat of the day.”
“It is autumn and there is a wind sneaking in through that window.” His words only made her shift in her seat, narrowing her glare all the more. He laughed, rather loving the way he could always manage to get under her skin. “Anyway, let us speak of our next event. There is an assembly at Almack’s assembly rooms we must attend tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow?” Julia said uncertainly. “Very well.”