Page 23 of A Virgin for the Rakish Duke (Romancing a Rake #3)

After everything I give, he still insinuates that I am in league with his enemies. I should like to shake him! The man is infuriating. I must be strong from this point on. Do not give in to my desire and simply make the best out of this arrangement.

They walked up the lawn, seeing Edmund Hamilton standing at a carved wooden table. Harriet recognized Eloise de Rouvroy and Simon Winchester—both looked somewhat surprised to see Harriet and Jeremy.

“We were about to send out a search party. Couldn't think where you could have got to,” Edmund called out.

“The path was somewhat overgrown. We lost our way,” Jeremy grimaced.

“Did you perhaps crawl through the woods?” Eloise asked archly as Harriet and Jeremy reached the table, which almost creaked under the array of food and drink it bore.

She was looking at Harriet's hair. When she reached up, Harriet's fingers felt a stray blade of grass. She tugged it free, blushing.

“I tripped,” she offered.

“As I said, the path is quite overgrown,” Jeremy restated, pulling a chair out from the table for Harriet.

“My dear Lady Harriet, I am most terribly sorry. If I had realized the state the path had gotten into, I would never have recommended the shortcut,” Edmund said, pouring tea and offering sugar lumps.

“How peculiar, though. Eloise and I took the shortcut and arrived just a minute or two ago. We did not see you two,” Simon pressed, face creased in mock confusion.

“The wood is perhaps larger than it looks. And with more than one path,” Jeremy smiled back, the expression not touching his eyes.

“Yes, that would explain it,” Simon replied, eyes as hard as Jeremy's above his false smile.

“Still, you are here now. Safe and sound,” Edmund clapped once, resuming his seat. “Allow me to make introductions.”

He went around the table, introducing all to Harriet and Jeremy.

There was no one else present of Jeremy's rank, possibly why Edmund had offered the invitation in the first place.

Harriet allowed herself to be drawn into conversation with Master Nigel Barker, a merchant in the textile trade, while keeping an eye on Simon and Eloise.

Jeremy talked with Edmund, a conversation both men seemed to find engrossing.

“I do hope you will persuade your fiancée to church on a regular basis, Lady Harriet,” Edmund suddenly spoke to Harriet.

“I intend to, Reverend,” Harriet laughed, “the church is so very beautiful. Danbury's is rather modest by comparison.”

“And I was just telling your betrothed that I have an excellent theological volume written by a previous Duke of Penhaligon. The 3 rd Duke. That would be your… great, great… great-grandfather , Your Grace,” Edmund said finally with a beam.

Jeremy smiled too, but Harriet saw the tightness around his eyes.

She thought of his reluctance to take up his previous enthusiasm for art.

Unwilling because he feared living up to the example of one who came before him.

Now he discovers another ancestor who left his mark.

It must be as confining as living with an overprotective brother.

“I come from a family of accomplishers, Reverend,” Jeremy said wryly, “every generation produces excellence.”

“Including the current one,” Harriet swiftly added, taking Jeremy's hand, “His Grace is an excellent businessman with a grand plan in mind.”

“Do tell us!” Simon Winchester said instantly, clapping his hands.

“Yes, do, Your Grace. The devil makes work for idle hands after all. An achievement is by definition an accomplishment, and accomplishment is a godly virtue,” Edmund gushed.

Jeremy caught and held Simon's eye, clearing his throat.

“It is a… somewhat sensitive matter,” he said slowly, “I would not wish to go into detail until it is further developed. I will say that it involves property.”

“An emerging area of wealth. Land and property,” Simon nodded sagely, “I myself have long wanted to invest in some project or another in the field of property ownership. Some creative enterprise, perhaps. But it is dashed hard to find the right opportunity. Or the right partner.”

Jeremy cocked his head to one side as though considering some new facet of Simon's character.

“A partner… my lord?” Eloise asked with almost genuine curiosity.

Harriet glanced at Jeremy as he looked at her. She saw the same conclusion on his face that she had just reached. There was a game at play here. A public conversation that hid a private one.

“Do you have need of a partner then, my lord?” Jeremy asked openly, “I myself have never considered it.”

“I have the funds but not the expertise. I am still a novice when it comes to such things,” Simon said with a cavalier wave of the hand, “I think I would benefit from being a partner with someone of greater knowledge than I. Take the Winchester Opera House, for example,” he leaned forward, elbows on the table, and face intent.

Jeremy also leaned forward, eyes never leaving Simon's face.

“Now, I think my parents would be willing to sell. To me. If...” he raised a finger for emphasis, “I was partnered with a man with sufficient business acumen. They might never trust such a stranger with their treasured sanctum on his own, but they trust me, their flesh and blood. They trust my character and doubt my experience. It is quite the conundrum, is it not?”

Jeremy looked to Harriet expectantly.

He waits for me to voice an agreement. This is part of his paranoia. That rascal Simon has spoken up at exactly the wrong moment. First, he appears in the woods, and now speaks of Jeremy's dream as if it were his own. How am I to earn his trust now?

She refused to say anything, refused to play Simon's game. Eloise was watching her coolly, eyes roving from her to Jeremy and growing colder by the second.

“I was surprised to hear of your betrothal,” the French lady said into a moment's silence between the four.

Edmund had drifted into his own conversation with a gray-haired gentleman on the other side of Jeremy. Around them, polite conversation was taking place. The air was almost humming with tension between the two couples, though. Simon gave Eloise a narrow-eyed stare, which she returned defiantly.

“Why is that? Harriet asked innocently.

“Because I did not think Jeremy would ever marry,” she said.

“I came close over a year ago now,” Jeremy noted.

“And when did you meet, the two of you?” Eloise asked. “When I came to Essex from the house of my father in London, I understood you were a bachelor. I wrote to… a friend, and was made to believe it, très certainement.”

“We have known each other since childhood,” Harriet put in, staunchly and quite truthfully.

“But only shared our true feelings a short while ago,” Jeremy finished.

“My parents are impressed with Lady Harriet,” Simon nodded, “though they are worried about your former... bachelor lifestyle.”

“Behind me. A thing of the past,” Jeremy shrugged.

“I'm glad to hear it. Tell me, what do you think of the merits of what I said about partnerships?” Simon continued.

“It very much depends on the men,” Jeremy replied.

“My parents are of the belief that two heads are always better than one.”

Jeremy sat back, watching Simon shrewdly, then looking at Harriet. She was conscious of Eloise's eyes on her and prayed Jeremy would not give the game away either in word or expression.

If his quest fails, then my brief window of freedom closes. I return to a life sheltered in Oaksgrove. It is in my interests to stop it from failing.