Chapter Twenty-Four #2
To answer that properly, I must first and most reluctantly discuss those distracting dimples …
The light knock on the door had him guiltily jumping out of his skin.
“Leo?” The sound of Portia’s voice made him stuff her essay back into the box and shut the lid. “Sorry to disturb you but you have a visitor.”
He flung himself into his chair, pushed the box to the furthest edge of his desk and yanked open a ledger in a pathetic attempt to look consumed with something other than her. “What visitor?”
She swung the door open to reveal M’Lady Whiskers hanging from the doorknob and smiled. “Her worshipfulness couldn’t get in.”
He smiled too, widely, so that his distracting dimples showed, as the imperious Persian dropped to the floor and sauntered in as if she owned the place.
She gave Barkington her customary hiss, leaped up onto his desk, then promptly curled into a ball right on the ledger he had pretended to be reading.
“Don’t mind me, M’Lady. I was only working. Your sleep is so much more important.”
“Good luck moving her now.” In the spirit of the awkward truce they had fallen into, Portia did not cross the threshold of his study and instead leaned against the doorframe.
“She’s pretty much taken over my bed and if I try to reclaim any more than the sliver of the mattress she has deigned to leave me, she can be quite rude about it. ”
“To be fair to M’Lady, she had declared that room hers long before you moved into it and if she’s granted you a sliver then she has clearly agreed to tolerate you—which is a rare honor indeed.
Trust me, Emilia isn’t allowed anywhere on the sofa if the cat is on it, and she despises Abigail so much since the incident with the bird that she’s taken to hissing at her whenever they collide.
But M’Lady adores me.” To prove that, he scratched the spot under the Persian’s ears and she immediately vibrated loudly as she purred.
“I think it’s because she cannot resist a man with dimples.
” Like the pathetic fool he was, he then grinned some more in the vain hope that they still worked their magic on his reluctant wife.
“Or maybe it’s just because you are a man and your cat dislikes all women?
Perhaps she sees us all as rivals for your affection?
Or perhaps she’s just nasty to everyone, irrespective of their sex, and it is only you that she tolerates?
” She pushed herself from the frame. “I shall leave you to…” That was when she noticed the box on his desk and blinked, first in disbelief and then in wariness. “Is that my…”
“It is.”
She rushed forward, went to touch it, and then stopped herself. “Can I…?”
“Of course. It is yours, after all.”
The beaming smile she offered him then took his breath away. “Did you get it back for me?”
He gave her a noncommittal shrug, not wanting to admit that he had, but also still wanting her to be pleased that he had at the same time. Because he was pathetic. “I knew how much it meant to you.”
“Oh Leo.” That came out as a sigh. “Thank you.” Then she frowned. “Are the contents still in it or has everything been confiscated?”
He shrugged again and focused on stroking the cat rather than lie to her hopeful face. “You’d have to check inside to see as it certainly wasn’t my place to.” How the blazes had she lied so effortlessly when just this tiny fib was making his buttocks clench?
She lifted the lid and a delighted bubble of laughter escaped.
“They left all my papers!” Then she rummaged to the bottom and giggled as she pulled out an old friend.
“And my poison pen!” She hugged the pen to her chest and gazed at him as if he were suddenly her hero.
“Thank you. I cannot tell you how much this means to me.”
“You are very welcome.” Then, because he rather liked being her hero, he added, “You should also know that I did some digging and discovered that it wasn’t your fault that the authorities found Equitas.
It was actually Sir William who was followed.
” He retrieved the watchman’s statement from the drawer in his desk that he had liberated from the official files and slid it over to her.
“Nolley got a warrant to do so from Lord Corston.”
She quickly read it and a bit more of the sadness in her eyes dissipated. “That is a huge weight off my mind. I’ve barely slept worrying about this. I am surprised I haven’t kept you awake too with all my fevered pacing from dawn to dusk next door.”
He had heard her pacing while he had stared listlessly up at his ceiling endlessly mulling all his own worries.
He’d lost count of how many times he had wanted to just fling open that flimsy door that connected their rooms to try to sort everything out between them.
“You didn’t disturb me. I’ve slept like a log.
” His buttocks clenched some more. “But you can rest easy now.” If only the causes of his insomnia could be banished with the arrival of a box!
Hurt, lust, and unrequited love combined made deep sleep impossible.
She stared at the watchman’s statement some more.
“Can we keep this between us, Leo?” Her eyes lifted to his sheepishly.
“Only, William has always been particular about security and would be devastated to learn that he had compromised it with an uncharacteristic bit of carelessness. Equitas is his life.”
“As you wish.”
“And thank you again. For everything.” There was something different swirling in her expressive dark eyes now. Something tender and affectionate that filled his aching, wounded heart with hope. “You have been so—”
“Leo!” His mother’s shrill shout effectively spoiled what was promising to be another nice moment. “You’ve just received an express!” She burst through the door waving a letter. “From the king!”
“What?” He held out his hand in disbelief, convinced his mother had got it wrong, but the second he saw the enormous Royal Seal he realized that she hadn’t.
“Open it!” His mother bounced with excitement. “Open it this second!”
“I would, Mother, if you would actually give it to me.”
She handed it over and he cracked the wax. Then almost groaned aloud. “We’ve been summoned to London.”
“We?” All the delight on Portia’s pretty face had now melted into horror as his mother snatched the missive back. “Surely you mean you?”
“No, it clearly states the both of you.” His mother squealed with glee before she read.
“His Majesty King George IV and her Royal Highness Princess Sophia request that the Duke of Debden present the new Duchess of Debden to the court of St. James’s on Wednesday the twenty-seventh day of June.
” Then she frowned. “That is cutting it a bit fine! It gives us just ten days, half of which will be taken up with travel and preparation, and Portia’s new gowns aren’t even back from the modiste yet!
But if I send her a message now with the good news, I am sure that she can rush some to us before you have to leave.
And of course, she is going to have to make a court dress!
” Then she clapped her hands. “Oh my goodness, this is so exciting!”
His mother hugged her, completely oblivious to the fact that Portia’s stunned expression was the exact opposite of excited.
“I’ll also send for the hairdresser immediately.
And get the staff to start making all the necessary arrangements and…
” She squealed again. “There is so much to do and not enough hours left of today to do it all in!”
They both watched her practically sprint out before Portia finally spoke. “Can’t you politely decline?”
“I might well be a privileged duke, but I am nowhere near important enough to refuse the monarch. This is a summons, not an invitation.” He didn’t like it any more than she did, but a royal summons was a royal summons.
“We are going to have to leave first thing on Sunday morning if we stand any chance of getting all the way to Mayfair in time.”
“But Leo…” Fear mixed with her panic. “We cannot pretend to be a happily married couple in front of the king if we aren’t likely to remain a couple for very long. Surely it would make getting an annulment so much more difficult?”
Clearly, he had pathetically misread her gratefulness as affection if she still preferred the idea of an annulment over staying married to him. “I cannot ignore the king’s summons and neither can you.”
She opened her mouth to argue but his mother came back. “When I said that there was a lot to do, Portia, I did not mean that only I had to do it. This is all about you, so come along, dear, and stop dawdling!”
Then she grabbed his reluctant wife’s arm and dragged her away.