“No, it doesn’t. What are the two of you doing behind this pillar?”
“Well, depending on your perspective, we are not behind it,” he replied.
The man scowled. “You always have a blasted answer for everything, don’t you?”
“That ismycharm.”
“Heart,” Leonora said flatly, claiming her brother’s attention. She pointed at the couple over yonder. “We are just observing a bit of a commotion between Lord and Lady Hamish from a respectable distance.”
Dare clasped his hands behind his back as Heart stepped forward to follow his sister’s line of sight.
“Oh, that,” Heart muttered, his gaze flicking between the two before stepping back again. “I heard Lady Hamish learned abouther husband’s affair tonight. She must not be taking it well if she is publicly causing such a ruckus.”
“Would any woman take such a thing well?” Leonora demanded from her brother.
Dare flinched, pushing back a memory that tried to resurface. Indeed, no woman would take a philandering husband well. His own father had been an ill-famed scoundrel. But his mother’s distress had been the exact opposite of Lady Hamish’s public lashing out.
Leonora made a dismissive gesture. “Forget I asked.”
Dare glanced at the man. Both he and Heart carried reputations that could shame any ordinary rogue. Heart was even more notorious than him. Though, twenty or so years ago, if gossip could be relied upon. Still, it would explain why Lady Leonora couldn’t so much as blink in his company without her behavior being noted but could also hold her own with any teasing remarks.
If Heart truly was as black as the rumors claimed, she’d been standing in a rake’s shadow since birth, though Dare doubted she had knowledge of her brother’s previous or current exploits.
“No, I can’t imagine any woman would respond favorably,” Dare murmured.
Heart cut him a nasty look. “Come, Leonora, we’re leaving.”
She scrunched her brows. “Leaving, as in you are dragging me away to another pillar? Or leaving, as in going home?”
“Leaving, as in going home,” Heart bit out between clenched teeth.
Dare chuckled, a ray of sun breaking through the shadows once more. Ah, how temptation beckoned for him to step into the full brightness of her light, but he would resist. It would be a repeat of the past, a past that destroyed his family, and he refused to allow that to happen again. Leonora should always shine bright.
“What do you find so amusing?” Heart demanded.
Dare shrugged. “I merely wonder how I would fare if I had a little spitfire for a sister like yours.”
The man took a threatening step forward. “Do not call Leonora a spitfire.”
“Heart.”
Dare winked at her, almost laughing at her glowing eyes, the same blue of a clear summer sky. “What should I call her then?”
He caught her soft sigh.
Heart jabbed a finger at him. “Don’t call her anything if you know what is good for you. Stay away from her.”
“Gentlemen,” Leonora said exasperatedly.
“But what if your sister is good for me?”
“Oh, dear lord,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.
Heart sneered. “Are you saying she can reform a hardened blackguard like you? Don’t make me laugh.”
“I never said anything about reform.”
Leonora cocked her head to the side, suddenly interested in the content of their jabs, and he caught the sparkle in her eyes, the mirth. “Good for you how?”
