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“Might I remind you that this is my box and I can do whatever the hell I want in it?” he warned Colin darkly.

“Might I also remind you that Evie is my sister and she will never forgive you if you threaten me again?” his friend challenged him.

“Your sister ismy wife.”

“Well, I can always take her back to Blackthorn Estate if you so much as hurt her!”

He heard Evie heave a sigh of frustration as she stepped between them and shot her brother a warning look.

“Colin, do behave yourself, or else I will have Alice throw you out of the theater,” she admonished.

Alice could only shake her head. “I swear he does it on purpose just to get out of the opera.”

Evie smiled at her sister-in-law in sympathy. “Daniel does not care much for the opera either.”

“And yet he gleefully accompanied you tonight,” Alice remarked laughingly. “He has even paid for an entire box. I am afraid that if it was not for me dragging your brother, I would never be able to admire Miss Donatella’s singing tonight.”

“Of course not, my lamb.” Colin turned towards his wife with a most charming grin. “It is just an opera—I would accompany you to the gates of hell if you were of a mind to bring the devil himself to heel.”

“She has already brought you to heel, and that is a far more significant accomplishment, in my opinion.” Daniel snickered, which invited another round of protests and teasing in their small group.

Moments later, Phoebe and Scarlett arrived, followed by Ethan, and the entire box became even livelier, much to Daniel’s irritation. However, he looked at Evie and found her smiling as she chatted with their friends and family.

These people should pray that they remain friends with her.

Otherwise, he had no qualms about throwing them out of the box and enjoying the rest of the evening with his Duchess—well, as much as he could enjoy anything in a damned opera, anyway.

“Oh, look!” Scarlett pointed to the audience below them excitedly. “There is that dreadful Miss Bowen—rumor has it that the line of her suitors extends from her papa’s office down to the street. She claims that he will not accept anyone but a duke or a prince, though!”

“That is… quite ambitious of her,” Ethan remarked with a rakish smile.

“You might not know it, Your Grace, but she might have set her sights onyou.” The redhead laughed airily, especially when she saw the clear discomfort on his face.

“I do not think I can bear Miss Bowen’s attention, though.” Ethan shook his head, his gaze flicking to the young lady who sat quietly through all of this with a polite smile on her face.

Phoebe was Alice’s younger sister and Evie’s closest friend. Daniel knew her to be extremely polite and proper, with not a single hair out of place.

Interesting, he thought to himself with a small smile.

“I have not seen the Earl of Sidmouth, though,” he heard Ethan remark with a twinkle in his eyes. “His sister does love the opera, although I have caught her many times looking everywhere but the stage.”

“And you will not see him again,” Daniel replied ominously. “Not for a very long time.”

Fortunately, Thomas Salsbury had enough wits to take him up on his offer. The night Daniel offered him the ticket, he had packed his bags and his sister, leaving for the Americas on the first ship the following morning.

He heard that the Earl’s sister was not too pleased about his decision, though, but was left with no choice on the matter.

Both siblings had caused too much trouble in theton,and nobody actually missed their absence. In the days that followed, the printing shop that had churned outLady Spalding’s Society Papersleaked out that it was Lady Miranda Salsbury who was behind the scandal sheet and that she had left with unpaid debts and so did her brother.

“I should say good riddance to both of them,” Colin scoffed. “The lady was a nasty gossip, and her brother was a gentleman who could not keep his word. If they had stayed longer, the rest of thetonwould have gone after their heads.”

“So they left because they were destitute?” Alice looked at her husband and shook her head. “Or because they have offended so many already?”

“More like they offended someone,” her husband mumbled, to which Daniel shot him a sharp glare.

He would go to great lengths to protect Evie and exact revenge on any who dared to hurt her, but these were things he did not want his wife worrying about. As much as it might gall him, he knew her compassionate heart would be appalled if she heardthat he had dealt harshly with the two siblings who dared to write such a disgraceful article about their marriage.

In fact, he already considered it a great leniency that Thomas and his sister would be able to make a new life for themselves in another country a whole ocean away.