Page 26 of Who Wants to Marry a Duke
The wink startled Olivia into a laugh. She hadn’t expected to enjoy this coach ride quite so much. Apparently small talk could be delightful with the right people to share it.
“I know what we should do,” Beatrice said, a mysterious twinkle in her eyes. “We should see if we can guess which of Juncker’s adventures Thorn has also experienced.”
Thorn’s icy gaze would have frozen stone. “First of all, the adventures aren’t Juncker’s. They’re his character Felix’s. Secondly, guessing at how my adventures line up with Felix’s would be rather difficult, since the only one of us who’s seen all of Juncker’s plays is Miss Norley.”
“Fine, then Miss Norley should pick the adventure,” Beatrice said, as if that had been her aim all along. “Then we’ll guess if you ever took part in a similar one, and you can tell us who guessed right. It sounds like quite a fun game.”
“Or an absurd one,” Thorn muttered.
Greycourt lounged against the squabs. “I don’t know, old chap. I think it could be quite entertaining. And we do have a long ride ahead of us.”
Despite Thorn’s objections, Olivia was already mentally thumbing through the adventures in the plays. “How about this one? Felix gets drunk—”
“So far I can safely say that Thorn has done that, and more than once,” Greycourt said, earning him a glare from Thorn.
“Let her finish,” Beatrice chided her husband.
“He gets drunk and mistakes a countess for a courtesan,” Olivia said, “then tries to engage the lady’s services for the night.”
“Half the bucks in London have probably done that,” Greycourt said.
“Ihaven’t,” Thorn said. “Now can we please stop this nonsense?”
“It sounds rather clichéd, I know,” Olivia said, “but it’s really clever in the play. Felix mistakes what the countess says, and she mistakes whathesays, and they go round and round for quite a while.”
“Going round and round does sound like my brother when he’s flirting with ladies,” Greycourt drawled.
“You aren’t even making sense now,” Thorn grumbled.
“Perhaps I should think of a different adventure,” Olivia said. “One that’s not so debatable.”
Then they felt the carriage slowing. Thorn looked out. “We’re at Great Chesterfield, and I’m starving. I had no breakfast. Let’s see if the innkeeper can provide us with sandwiches and a jug of ale.”
“Oh, yes, sandwiches sound heavenly,” Beatrice said. “I’m famished.”
“And no wonder,” Grey said dryly, “you only ate three eggs and sausages this morning instead of your usual five.”
“Nothing but the best for your heir,” Beatrice quipped.
Greycourt’s expression softened as his gaze dropped to his wife’s belly. “Or my pretty daughter, who I’m sure will be as clever as her mother.”
The tender moment roused a strange envy in Olivia. Her father and stepmother had never shown any such depth of feeling for each other, and neither had her father and mother, from what she could recall. Olivia had always assumed that was typical of all aristocratic unions. Indeed, the glimpses she’d had of other society marriages had only confirmed her assumption.
But watching Beatrice and Greycourt together made her wonder if she’d been wrong. Perhaps itwaspossible to have a different sort of marriage. Even with a duke.
Just not with Thorn, who was as prickly as his name when it came to enduring the idea of marriage.
“We do still have a few hours to go,” Greycourt said, “and we have to stop to change horses anyway. So we can have a bit of food at the inn here.” He grinned at his brother. “But don’t think you’re off the hook with our game. We can continue it once we’re back on the road.”
“Great,” Thorn said sarcastically. “I can’t wait.”
Olivia perked up considerably.Thiswas going to be fun.
Chapter Five
Once they returned to the carriage, Thorn tried to derail his companions’ “game.” But it soon became evident it was no use. They were determined to plague him, especially Olivia, who really must have read all of his plays, because so far she’d pulled an astonishing number of adventures out of her memory.
The score was presently two correct guesses for Beatrice, four for Grey, and three for Olivia. The little baggage was proving able to guess his past activities nearly as well as his family could.
