Page 69 of Who Wants to Marry a Duke
“That doesn’t matter to me.” She dropped his hand to pour herself some coffee. “I don’t care if I’m a pariah. I never did belong in society anyway. Why do you think I like the Juncker plays so much? Because he mocks those who will do anything to fit in and lauds those who have minds of their own. Sometimes it seems almost as if he writes the plays forme. I know that sounds silly, but that’s how I feel.”
A pinched expression crossed his face, reminding her he didn’t much care for his friend Juncker’s plays.
“My point is,” she said hastily, “it doesn’t matter if I’m ruined.”
He stared intently at her. “But having scandal surround you won’t help you establish yourself as a legitimate chemist.”
“Chemists don’t care about society and scandal. They merely care about isolating new elements, doing experiments to prove their hypotheses, and finding new chemical compositions that would help people. Besides, it’s not as if you’ll let me be a chemist once we marry, anyway.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
She sipped her coffee. “You would let me do experiments that might lead to dangerous situations?”
“Your experiments don’tusuallyblow up in your face, do they?”
“Not as a general rule, no. But they could.”
“I see.” He poured himself some coffee, too, and took a sip. “That’s something we would have to work out—what you do in your laboratory.” He stared down into his cup. “And honestly, you and I both have hobbies we enjoy, so we’ll simply have to agree on how far we would allow each other to take those hobbies.”
That was certainly a curious way of putting it. “I don’t consider what I do a ‘hobby.’ I take my work very seriously.”
“Fine. Then call it a pastime.”
“A profession,” she said.
“Duchesses don’t usually have professions,” he pointed out.
“You’re certainly not reassuring me that I’ll be able to continue as a chemist if I marry you.” She eyed him closely. “And what hobbies doyouhave, anyway?”
Alarm flashed over his face. “Nothing that would bother you, I’m sure. Just the usual gentlemanly pursuits.”
“Like drinking, gambling, and whoring?” she asked pointedly.
He fixed her with a dark look. “I would be faithful to you, if that’s what you’re asking.”
That was one of the things she was asking. “You already know whatmy‘hobby’ is. Why can’t you tell me what yours is?”
“As I said, it’s nothing as concrete as yours.” His shuttered expression belied that. “I enjoy going to the theater and going to my club, that sort of thing.”
“Much like my Papa.”
“Notlike your ‘Papa,’” he said fiercely. “I intend to be around for you and our children. I mean to be a proper husband, not a selfish arse.” He caught himself. “Not that I’m calling your father an arse, mind you, but—”
“He is one, trust me,” she said dryly.
And clearly she wasn’t going to get a better answer from Thorn. Perhaps she could live with that, too. As long as he let her practice her chosen profession.
“Speaking of children,” he said, “what if you find yourself with child?”
“That would be a different matter entirely. I’d certainly marry you then. I shan’t make any child of mine suffer the ignominy of being a bastard when it wasmyreckless behavior that brought him or her into this world.”
“And mine. If anything, I’m more culpable. I seduced you.”
She shrugged. “Iwantedto be seduced.”
He took her hand again. “And now that you have been, you will almost certainly wish to do it again. Assuming that you enjoyed it.”
“I did,” she admitted.
