“Really? How tiny the world is.”
“Hm.” Less interesting than one other detail. “Only one title among all your brothers-in-law?”
“Yes and no. Tristan is an earl’s bastard, but Ben will one day be a baron.”
“Ah.” Still miles above himself, then. Of course the duke liked those men. They shared more with him than Rowan ever would.
She patted his arm. “Do not worry. Samuel can be intimidating, but as Mrs. Garrison would say, have courage, dear Rowan.”
Dear Rowan.He liked that.
“Your brother doesn’t scare me.” Almost the truth. Mostly the truth. Damn it all, he didn’t want a duke to scare him.
“Of course not. And he’ll positively adore you once we figure out a way to retrieve my mother’s letter.” Her fingers drummed a nervous rhythm where they rested on his forearm. “If only we could rob Mr. Haws without robbing you.”
“I’m delighted you are not currently planning any criminal activities against me.” The letter. He’d forgotten about it. Damn. How to tell her he had it but could not give it to her? How to ask her brother for her hand, knowing he had the key to that man’s freedom?
“As I have previously suggested, if we can find a way for him to leave our hotel for another, I can—”
“You will not.”
“I’m quite capable.”
“I’m quite aware. But I am, apparently, terribly anxious concerning your well-being, and if you attempt robbery someplace I cannot intervene, I might very well swoon.”
She snorted. “You? Swoon? I’m sure you didn’t even swoon whenyou acquired that.” She tilted his hat back and traced the curve of his scar with the tip of her gloved finger.
“I didn’t. I spent the entire first minute—someone counted, I’m told—after acquiring the scar, making sure I left a reminder of the encounter on my opponent’s nose.”
“Broke it?”
“There’s still a bump.”
“You’ve seen him since then? The boy, man now, I suppose, who attacked you? Who is he?” Beneath the brim of her bonnet, she was all pursed lips and narrowed eyes. That lovely hand on his forearm had become a fist.
He jiggled her arm until that fist loosened. “Will you poke him in the eye for me? You’d have to poke an entire fleet of gentlemen to have a proper revenge. One fellow did the cutting, but even more gathered round to keep his actions hidden from the adults, intent on teaching me my place.”
“I’ll discover every bit of bad talk about him, all of them, around Town and implement it—”
“As Mr. Haws is implementing your mother’s letter against your brother?”
She sighed, her head dropping back on her neck with a groan. “Why must you be a voice of reason when I was cooking up such a delightful scheme?”
“I am successful.” And with her, he was happier than he ever knew possible. “No need for revenge. Unless, of course, you find my scar objectionable, then I’ll be hunting down the Marquess of Elkington and making him pay.”
“Elkington. I know him. We danced once. Oh, do not growl. He is easy to read.”
“And how does he read?”
“Like a treatise on proper womanly behavior. Quite boring and in many ways offensive.”
That put a bounce in his step.
“Oh, up there! See?” She broke away from him, running ahead down the path and around the corner. His pulse spiked when shedisappeared, and he jogged to catch up, found her pointing up at a large row of townhouses.
Not a row of multiple houses. One house the size of many.
Bloody hell. Was that where she—
