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“And when you were splattered with mud this morning, you kept your tongue very civil for an army man.”

“If Eve asks, tell her I have treated you exceptionally well.” Colm slapped him on the back. “I have no desire to be on the receiving end of her next well-deserved condemnation.”

“Your mother has called Father to account a few times, and Grandmother certainly delivers her fair share of criticisms to all of us, but that was a stinging rebuke for the ages.” Duke shook his head in amazement. “Eve is truly remarkable.”

“I hope you told her as much.”

Duke couldn’t help the hint of smugness that tiptoed into his smile. “I believe I managed to deliver the message.”

Colm’s laugh echoed around them as they reached the stairs. “I hope your next message will be something similar to ‘I’ve lost my heart to you entirely, Eve O’Doyle. Marry me, or I will waste away in a state of desperate, unmitigated longing.’”

“Unmitigatedis not a very romantic word to include in a marriage proposal.” Duke shook his head. “I’m certain I can think of something better.”

Colm paused and turned to look at him. They’d made it halfway up the stairs to the first landing.

“Then, youareplanning to propose?” Colm asked.

“Things haven’t reached that point yet.”

“Why on earth not?” Colm actually sounded a little offended, though whether on Duke’s behalf or Eve’s, he wasn’t entirely certain.

“Your parents have offered me an escape from home, but I don’t yet know how much of an escape from my parents this change of residence will afford me. Until I know how often I will see them and how much grief they will still manage to cause, I cannot tie her to that life.”

“If it helps, life at Fairfield and the London home is entirely peaceful the vast majority of the time,” Colm said.

“But those times when it isn’t are because my parents or our grandmother is here.”

Colm sighed and nodded.

“Once the dust has settled and I know what the landscape will look like, I can ask her if she’d be willing to share a future with me—assuming, of course, it hasn’t proven so awful that the question is rendered moot.”

Colm began making his way up the stairs once more, and Duke kept pace with him. “I will hold out hope that everything works out so well that I find myself with another cousin sooner rather than later.”

“You have hundreds of cousins on the Greenberry side.” Duke knew full well, as did most everyone in Society, that the Greenberrys of Cornwall were an enormous family.

“If you include second cousins in the count, I probably do.” Colm tossed him a smile. “But on the Seymour side, it’s only you and me now.”

“I miss Luke and Róisín.” Duke looked over at him as they continued past the first landing, aiming for the second, the floor on which all the bedchambers were located. “I can’t even imagine how much you miss them.”

“I sometimes feel as though I lost my entire family when my brother and sister died. My parents haven’t been the same since then.”

“You joined the army almost immediately afterward.”

“That is not a coincidence,” Colm said quietly.

“I never thought it was.”

They continued upward in silence, the sort that accompanied comfortable deep thought.

After a moment, Duke spoke again. “Thank you for volunteering to stay at Fairfield when your parents and I leave for London. Eve seems less worried knowing Nia will have time to recover.”

“I lost a lot of friends in the war, Duke. I don’t intend to lose any more.” Colm seldom spoke with any specificity of that time in his life. “And these friends you’ve allowed me to share with you have fast become like brothers and sisters. I’ve needed that.”

They reached the second-floor landing, where they were greeted by Grandmother’s shrill voice. “This is unacceptable, Penelope. I should no longer be surprised at how often you let your own pride undermine you. Shameful.”

Colm sighed. “I don’t know how my mother endures their treatment. Anytime Father attempts to intervene, she pleads with him not to, which frustrates him and confuses me.”

They stopped in the corridor, both looking warily ahead at the family gathering. Duke’s and Colm’s parents stood with Grandmother, no one looking happy about the arrangement.