Page 55 of Duke of Destruction
David actually shuddered. It wasn’t that often that Percy acutely felt the five years that separated him from his closest friend, but now was decidedly one of them. Passing his thirtieth year—and then a few more after that—had made Percy more keenly awarethat he was not precisely a young buck any longer, something that David, at eight and twenty, likely did not yet feel.
Yes. That was why he was considering marriage, even in passing. Hisage.
David was still regarding him as though Percy had suggested that he give wrestling anacondas a try, just to see how it went.
“Is this about?—”
“No.” It wasn’t a denial as much as an unequivocal refusal to have this conversation.
Percy wasn’t talking aboutthe party.He wasn’t even thinking about it.
“Right.” David drew out the word until it contained many syllables.
It was wonderful, Percy thought sardonically, that one could be the youngest child of one’s parents, and still end up having a little brother. Simply marvelous.
“Not that I necessarily want to indulge you,” David went on, “but what kind of wife are we talking about here?”
“I’m not sure wives can be classified according totypes,” Percy countered.
David gave him a pitying look.
“Of course you can. There’s the marriage of convenience—she’ll stroll around, happy to be a duchess, and won’t want much from you. There’s the political wife, the one who knows everyone and everything. She’ll manage you, but she’ll also smooth your way in Parliament. There’s the Society wife, who will entertain endlessly, make connections that—well, you actually don’t want that one, as you have no aspirations to popularity.”
Percy didn’t necessarily aspire to be popular—what did he care what the masses thought about him? What use was that, aside from boosting his own pride?—but he felt compelled to argue.
“I might!”
There was that pitying look again.
“Oh, very well. I don’t. Please continue with this extremely flattering depiction of the gentler sex.”
David looked ever so pleased to have been asked.
“Well, there’s also the heiress, where you essentially trade your title for her money, but you don’t need one of those, either. You have money.”
“This all strikes me as highly cynical,” Percy observed mildly.
“Nonsense,” David countered. “As you know, I enjoy women of all ilks, backgrounds, and personalities.”
Percy, who generally held that David enjoyed women more than he ought, could not argue with this.
“And I am not speaking here ofwomen. I am speaking ofwives.More specifically, I am speaking of the kind of wife you canget, not the kind youfind. When you go out to seek a wife with the express purpose of being wed, you do so because she can afford you something. Therefore, you look for what she is willing to give—and what you are willing to give in return. Money. Social graces. Political acumen. Leaving you alone.”
David ticked the reasons off his fingers.
Percy rubbed his temples. He wasn’t sure if this actually made sense, or if his friend was just so charismatic that he could sell anyone on almost anything.
“And what about the wives youfind, then?” he asked wearily.
When David looked at him this time, his expression still hinted at pity, but it was different somehow.
“Those are the ones you marry because you love them,” he said. He paused, something flickering in his expression, then resumed his rakish grin. “Allegedly. Reports still differ over whether such a thing truly exists.”
“Right,” Percy said. He had truly lost the plot on whether this was brilliance or lunacy. But that hardly mattered.
What actually mattered in this situation was that Catherine—and yes, he was giving up on the idea that he wasn’t thinking about Catherine—didn’t fit any of these categories. She could, technically, offer him social clout or political know-how, but he didn’t actuallyneedeither of those things. Indeed, he didn’t evenwanther brand of those things, the social capital that swirled around the Lightholders by nothing more than the dint of their ancient blood.
No, Percy had made his own name for himself. The friends he had made, he had made by his own merits. The political allies he held stood by him for his ideals.
