Dalby?” Iveston
countered smoothly, his brows raised in mock admonition.
How to Daz zle a Duke
79
Sophia smiled and did not look the least contrite. Miss Prestwick
looked appalled. Iveston felt the stirrings of a smile tease the cor
ners of his mouth. “But as to marriage, knowing it was to be forced
upon me at some distant point, I have not anticipated it eagerly.
Until recently. Having seen two of my brothers so blissfully wed,
I can now begin to imagine wanting a bit of bliss of my own.”
Oddly, most oddly, the moment the words were out of his
mouth he felt the truth of them. He’d been avoiding marriage for
almost as long as he could remember. But Blakes and Cranleigh
were so nauseatingly blissful that it did make the whole concept
of marriage slightly more bearable. Indeed, even attractive.
But of course, both Blakes and Cranleigh had married for
love. As the heir to a dukedom, he didn’t suppose he’d have that
luxury. In truth, he hadn’t ever considered it. His entire idea
concerning marriage, and he did have just the single idea, was to
avoid it for as long as he possibly could, which surely was a most
reasonable position and very much as Tannington had stated
it. Though it did sound rather harsh when expressed, merely
proving the point that some things should never be expressed.
An idea Miss Prestwick was clearly a stranger to. She seemed
unable to keep herself from expressing all over the room.
“How beautifully phrased,” Sophia said.
“If nonsensical,” Tannington said.
“Perhaps not so much nonsensical,” Penelope Prestwick said
with all the studiousness of a Latin tutor, “as highly emotional. I
do believe, indeed it seems quite obvious, that the best marriages
are made without undue emotion. Emotion makes everything so
very cloudy.”
“If one dislikes clouds, that is a disadvantage,” Edenham said.
Little Miss Prestwick sat back on her chair and closed her
mouth into a fi rm and very sultry pout. It was quite charmingly
done, which was quite odd of her, wasn’t it? She wasn’t the charm
ing sort at all, quite the opposite.
80 CLAUDIA DAIN
“I thought everyone preferred a day without clouds,” Mr.
Prestwick said, very nicely coming to the aid of his sister.
“Cloudy nights can be quite romantic,” Edenham said,
“though I don’t presume to think there is a universality of opin
ion on that. Perhaps it is an acquired taste.”
“As so much is,” Sophia said mildly.
“And the longer one lives, the more tastes one acquires,”
Ruan said. “Or perhaps it is only that one learns to be adept at
pretending to have wide and varied tastes.”
It wasn’t so much that Ruan was staring at Sophia, but that
Sophia reacted so unusually to his remark. She came quite close
to bristling. It was a fact well established that Sophia did not
bristle.
“To what purpose, Lord Ruan?”
“To please a man, Lady Dalby,” Ruan answered promptly. “A
woman will do much to please a man.”
“Only if a man has already done much to please her,” she
countered.
“My mother often gets into these sorts of conversations,”
Dalby said casually, looking about the room. “I learned early on
to only listen to every third word. I kept my innocence until
nearly the age of ten.”
Sophia laughed and broke the brittle spell that had risen up
between herself and Ruan, patting Dalby on the knee. “At every
third word, you would have formed very strange ideas indeed. I
know for a fact, Markham, that you are still very much the in
nocent about very particular things.”
“But not in regard to pleasing a woman,” Dalby replied, his dark
eyes alight with humor, “because I learned that from Father.”
“A most adept teacher,” Sophia said.
“Most,” Dalby agreed. “Father made certain I understood
that the way to please a woman is to give her what she wants.”
“And so we are back to where we started,” Edenham said.
How to Daz zle a
countered smoothly, his brows raised in mock admonition.
How to Daz zle a Duke
79
Sophia smiled and did not look the least contrite. Miss Prestwick
looked appalled. Iveston felt the stirrings of a smile tease the cor
ners of his mouth. “But as to marriage, knowing it was to be forced
upon me at some distant point, I have not anticipated it eagerly.
Until recently. Having seen two of my brothers so blissfully wed,
I can now begin to imagine wanting a bit of bliss of my own.”
Oddly, most oddly, the moment the words were out of his
mouth he felt the truth of them. He’d been avoiding marriage for
almost as long as he could remember. But Blakes and Cranleigh
were so nauseatingly blissful that it did make the whole concept
of marriage slightly more bearable. Indeed, even attractive.
But of course, both Blakes and Cranleigh had married for
love. As the heir to a dukedom, he didn’t suppose he’d have that
luxury. In truth, he hadn’t ever considered it. His entire idea
concerning marriage, and he did have just the single idea, was to
avoid it for as long as he possibly could, which surely was a most
reasonable position and very much as Tannington had stated
it. Though it did sound rather harsh when expressed, merely
proving the point that some things should never be expressed.
An idea Miss Prestwick was clearly a stranger to. She seemed
unable to keep herself from expressing all over the room.
“How beautifully phrased,” Sophia said.
“If nonsensical,” Tannington said.
“Perhaps not so much nonsensical,” Penelope Prestwick said
with all the studiousness of a Latin tutor, “as highly emotional. I
do believe, indeed it seems quite obvious, that the best marriages
are made without undue emotion. Emotion makes everything so
very cloudy.”
“If one dislikes clouds, that is a disadvantage,” Edenham said.
Little Miss Prestwick sat back on her chair and closed her
mouth into a fi rm and very sultry pout. It was quite charmingly
done, which was quite odd of her, wasn’t it? She wasn’t the charm
ing sort at all, quite the opposite.
80 CLAUDIA DAIN
“I thought everyone preferred a day without clouds,” Mr.
Prestwick said, very nicely coming to the aid of his sister.
“Cloudy nights can be quite romantic,” Edenham said,
“though I don’t presume to think there is a universality of opin
ion on that. Perhaps it is an acquired taste.”
“As so much is,” Sophia said mildly.
“And the longer one lives, the more tastes one acquires,”
Ruan said. “Or perhaps it is only that one learns to be adept at
pretending to have wide and varied tastes.”
It wasn’t so much that Ruan was staring at Sophia, but that
Sophia reacted so unusually to his remark. She came quite close
to bristling. It was a fact well established that Sophia did not
bristle.
“To what purpose, Lord Ruan?”
“To please a man, Lady Dalby,” Ruan answered promptly. “A
woman will do much to please a man.”
“Only if a man has already done much to please her,” she
countered.
“My mother often gets into these sorts of conversations,”
Dalby said casually, looking about the room. “I learned early on
to only listen to every third word. I kept my innocence until
nearly the age of ten.”
Sophia laughed and broke the brittle spell that had risen up
between herself and Ruan, patting Dalby on the knee. “At every
third word, you would have formed very strange ideas indeed. I
know for a fact, Markham, that you are still very much the in
nocent about very particular things.”
“But not in regard to pleasing a woman,” Dalby replied, his dark
eyes alight with humor, “because I learned that from Father.”
“A most adept teacher,” Sophia said.
“Most,” Dalby agreed. “Father made certain I understood
that the way to please a woman is to give her what she wants.”
“And so we are back to where we started,” Edenham said.
How to Daz zle a
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