Page 30 of Her Notorious Rake
“Well, I’m afraid you are still in danger of that,” Theodore chuckled.
Dalton snorted, shaking his head.
“Tell me, does this have to do with a certain…country dweller?”
Dalton’s eyes flashed, and he nearly bit out a reproach. But he kept his lips pursed, leaning back in his seat. “What would give you that impression?”
“Oh, perhaps it would be due to your evident fascination with her.”
Dalton scoffed under his breath.
“Come, it is certainly no coincidence that the moment you met Miss Hayesworth, you lost taste for your old ways.”
“And perhaps it is mere chance?”
“I don’t believe it,” Theodore shrugged.
They sat in silence for another few moments, until at last Dalton broke the silence, attempting to change the subject. “My uncle means to see me…marry my distant cousin, Celeste.”
Theodore’s eyebrows rose. “How vulgar.”
“She is a sweet girl, of course. But he must think me a fool.”
“Then marry Miss Hayesworth.”
Dalton nearly sputtered his last sip of coffee. He cast his old friend a hard look. “For heaven’s sake—”
Theodore waved his hand. “I jest, I jest.”
Dalton sighed, running a hand over his face. “My reputation is hardly what it could be. It wants for decency, and no respectable family would care to see their sweet daughter tied to a rake like myself.”
“But you aren’t a rake,” Theodore tilted his head. “Are you?”
Dalton scowled. “Not a—why, of course I am.”
“It is a part you play. ‘All the world’s a stage’…”
“Pray, don’t go and—” Dalton gestured wildly in the air. “Don’t go and attempt to philosophize about my intentions. It is a fruitless matter.”
“I hardly think so. And I hold true to my statement. Itisa part you play.”
They lingered in the coffee shop for another half-hour until they withdrew, together striding through the streets, enjoying the fair weather. As they hurried down the walk, the door of a bookshop just ahead opened and two young women exited, one of whom he at once recognized. Gemma. He caught his breath, pulse leaping.
She stopped short as well, her eyes going wide, and the young woman arm-in-arm beside her, ducked her head as if to hide a smile.
Dalton reached up, touched the brim of his hat and bowed. Gemma and her companion curtsied, and it took much longer than it should have for Dalton to recall what he ought to say next, to recall what propriety dictated. “Miss Hayesworth, permit me to introduce you to my good friend, Lord Longworth. We’ve known one another since our university days.”
Gemma curtsied again, and Theodore bowed.
She blinked, and seemed to shake herself, before gesturing to the young woman beside her. “And I must introduce my friend, Miss Harcourt.” Prudence curtsied as well, smiling shyly.
Dalton couldn’t help but note the dark smudges under Gemma’s eyes, as if she’d been exerting herself far too much. “Did you find what you seek?” He nodded to the bookshop door.
Gemma’s features shadowed, and she shook her head slightly. “Regretfully, we have not.”
“And pray, what book is it that you wish to find?” Theodore spoke up, studying Gemma with a crease between his brows.
She flushed. “A book that is evidently rare and scarcely in print anymore. On astronomy, by David Gregory.”
