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“Then allow me to make it pleasant once again.”

“By leaving?”

“Miss Kendall, I have already told you. I cannot leave. If I do that, then you cannot watch my every move and ensure that I do not ruin every young lady within the radius of three hundred paces.”

She smiled at that, but it was only a small one. She didn’t like that she had done so, especially knowing that the Duke had heard, but she couldn’t help herself. She felt quite ridiculous about it all.

“Your Grace, I can see you are enthusiastic about being in my vicinity, but I am chaperoning my sister. I must give her my full attention.”

“Then you can give her yours. I shall give you mine.”

“Are you flirting with me?”

“If that is what you want me to do, certainly.”

Emma groaned. She most certainly did not want him to, but it was clear that he was not leaving and so she had to accept her fate and allow him to follow. There were worse people, she thought, to be stuck beside.

“Your sister seems pleased with him,” the Duke noted after a while.

“Please refrain from thinking about my sister.”

“Well, since you asked me so politely. I shall think about hers instead.”

And then, in spite of herself, she laughed. It was a ridiculous thing to laugh at, and it was not that funny, but there was something about the way he said it, or even the way he had seemingly come to her with intentions of flirting even though it would not work. Whatever it was, it made Emma laugh, and as she went to breathe in again, she did the worst thing she could have possibly done.

She snorted.

Immediately, the Duke of Lupton followed suit, exploding into laughter at her. Emma froze, her face turning a startling shade of red, but that only made it worse. He laughed harder, gasping between his fits. “Perhaps you are not quite the perfect lady I thought you. I confess, I find it rather a relief.”

She did not know how to respond to that. She understood that she was not perfect, but it was such a foolish thing to mock her for. When he, at last, calmed himself and they continued on their way, she laughed softly.

“I suppose that you have a secret of mine too now,” she said. “That makes us on equal footing, yes?”

“In what sense?”

“That you might leave me be, and I shall leave you in return.”

He was quiet for a moment. She saw a difference in him in an instant. He was pensive, thoughtful, and if he had always been like this, then perhaps she might have been happier to speak with him.

“Is that what you want?” he asked, apparently surprised into sincerity for the first time since they had met. “Do you truly find me so despicable? Hate me, even?”

“I do nothateyou,” she replied without thinking. “You are a rake, and not the sort of gentleman that I dare know too well, but that does not mean I hate you.”

“I understand, Miss Kendall. My apologies.”

Without another word, he left. Emma was pleased about this for the first few minutes, continuing on her way and listening to her sister and the Baron again, but soon she thought about the Duke again. She hated that she was thinking about him at all, but she decided that it was because he had been so infuriating and nothing more. He was, after all, the most persistent gentleman that she had ever met, even compared to those that called on her during her first season out in society.

When they returned from the walk, Lord Rosendale took his leave and Emma and Sarah were alone together for the first time since their arrival. Emma took the opportunity to speak with her.

“Might you show me your room?” she asked. “I would so like to see it.”

Sarah nodded with a smile, and they left to find it. It was larger than Emma’s and painted a pale blue. It was a beautiful room to stay in, and Emma felt a small pang of jealousy at that. Her own was nice enough, painted a pale green and on the perfect side of the house to receive a lot of sunlight, but she missed her sister even so.

“I missed you last night,” Sarah said absent-mindedly, sitting on the edge of her bed. “It’s strange, because I have so longed for my own room, but one night without you was enough for me to realize how wrong I was.”

“I feel exactly the same. It is a shame that, given how taken you are with Lord Rosendale, we shan’t be living together for much longer.”

Sarah blushed a bright pink, laughing softly.