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The older woman looked at him with a knowing smile. “You never drink before bed.”

Daniel set the bottle down with a glare. “Is there a reason for your visit at this ungodly hour?” he snapped.

“Oh, nothing,” she replied breezily. “I merely wanted to ask if there was anyone who had caught your eye at the Hortons’ ball.”

“I thought I had made it clear that I will not be fulfilling my duties as a duke in that aspect,” he retorted sarcastically. “So, you will have to forgive me for disappointing you, Duchess.”

To her credit, Caroline Stanton, the Dowager Duchess of Ashton, did not look the slightest bit fazed by his harsh tone. Lesser men would have quailed, but she stood there serenely, her back ramrod straight.

But then again, she had to be made of sterner stuff for her to outlive the bastard she had married.

“But you did dance with Lady Evelyn,” she pointed out calmly. “You never danced with anyone before that.”

He looked at her as if she had lost her mind. Pray tell, who would he dance with at a ball like the one they had just attended? The Dowager Duchess knew better than anyone the kind of women that Daniel dallied with—none of whom could be seen in public.

“You never even danced with the Marchioness before,” she pressed on. “I just found it… mostunusual.”

And why the hell should he dance with the Marchioness of Cobham? The woman was already married, and that matter between them was more transactional than anything.

“What is so unusual about it?” he bit out. “The wholetonknows that Lady Evelyn Fitzroy is under my protection for most of this Season, along with Lady Wellington. It would have been far moreunusualif I had simply ignored her.”

“I see,” the Dowager Duchess sighed. “So, it was simply like that, I suppose.”

“Correct.”

She smiled sadly at him as she walked over and patted his face gently, causing him to flinch slightly.

“I just hoped that you would not allow that awful man to dictate how you live your life,” she told him softly. “He is gone now, dear boy, but you still insist on tormenting yourself.”

He did not say anything more, and Caroline walked out of his study with the same quiet grace that she had entered with. Years of marriage to one of the most contemptible men had not cowed her. She was indeed an admirable woman.

However, if she carried on pressing him about finding a young lady to bind himself to for the rest of his life, he feared that even he would lose his patience with her.

And with Evie taunting him at every turn, his temper had become very short, indeed.

She waited until she heard the door to the study close, mostly keeping out of sight until the Dowager Duchess walked out and disappeared down the corridor. As soon as she was gone, Evie resumed her anxious pacing just outside the study.

I am not going to bed without resolving what happened between us.Even if I have to go into the dragon’s lair myself.

After the ball, the carriage ride back to Ashton Hall had been steeped in an unusually heavy atmosphere. Occasionally, her grandmother and the Dowager Duchess tried to break the tensesilence, but they were largely met with monotonous replies. In the end, both of the older ladies simply sighed and gave up.

When they arrived at the mansion, Evie avoided her grandmother by feigning fatigue and begged to be allowed to retire to her rooms posthaste. Her grandmother had looked at her strangely for a moment before bidding her to rest well.

But how am I supposed to rest after what just happened?

Evie had never been kissed before, but she had a vague idea that when ladies had their kisses stolen, they did not have the same effect that Daniel’s kiss had had on her. Oh, she had heard them giggling about it, almost as if such a scandalous thing was like a secret prank of some sort.

She had never seen one so wrecked by the aftermath of it the way that she had been.

That kiss had been everything she had ever thought a kiss should be—andmore.

And right now, what stood between her and the answers to the questions roiling in her mind was a heavy oak door.

Courage, Evie, she told herself, taking a deep breath.Fortune favors the brave. Here goes nothing.

As she gathered the courage to face Daniel, the door to the study suddenly swung open, and the object of her conflicted thoughtsstrode out of the study with a determined gait. For a moment, all she could do was stare at the broadness of his back and the way his linen shirt stretched over his muscles.

When she finally came to her senses, his strides had already put some distance between them.