Page 11 of Centerpiece (Infinite Grace #2)

“The young Duke.” Agreeable put his head in his hands, then jolted and looked up. “I spoke ill of the Count!”

“I asked for your honesty.” Holburn moved forward, sliding his hand into Agreeable’s hair until Agreeable was somewhat calmed. Only a few touches were all it seemed to take with him. “I prefer honesty. But not in public, for obvious reasons. Only when we’re alone.”

“Right,” Agreeable agreed dizzily. “What about in front of your guards? Oh, damnation, those are your guards outside the door, aren’t they? I stayed here all night hiding from guards who didn’t care about a thief?”

Holburn cleared his throat. “I didn’t think a meal and a night by the fire would do you any harm. I was planning to help you in the morning before you ever climbed into my bed, if you recall.”

“You are as sneaky as a thief yourself.” Agreeable shivered for the gentle touch behind his ear. “And a good fuck. And a duke. The Duke. Don’t you have servants enough already? And lads or lasses aplenty to put in diamonds?”

“In my house in the capital, I have servants of my own. No kept lads or lasses.” Another brush of Agreeable’s ear followed that.

It was a compelling, unmanning sort of touch.

Agreeable shivered and shivered. Holburn watched him and burned.

“My family home has servants, but as I said, most are older, and nearly all of whom watched me grow up. Including those guards out there. I would prefer someone who is mine.” Agreeable stopped breathing.

Holburn hesitated, then resumed petting him.

“Someone loyal to me and not the Duke or the estate. Someone in my employ only.”

“And in your bed?”

Agreeable’s honestly confused question brought the return of the twitched half smile.

“You approached me,” Holburn pointed out.

“I didn’t seduce you.” But he took his hand away and the pets with it.

He raised his chin and went as distant as a magistrate.

“You are probably used to exchanging services, but a page has a pay they receive for page duties. In addition, you would receive a little extra for spying, as long as you are loyal.” He said it as if some had not been loyal to him.

Agreeable couldn’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t want to be his.

“You wouldn’t receive payment for what is done in bed, if you chose to return to mine.

That’s not what I offer you now. Although I think.

.. no, I know that I will be tempted to give you gifts.

But I understand if that does not appeal, or if you don’t want to leave your friends.

You’re more used to their attentions?” Some of the distance left him as he peered down, studying Agreeable very closely.

“You are agreeable with all of them, you said.”

“Yes, but...” Agreeable shut his mouth to think. Holburn must have guessed that, because he stepped back and returned to dressing. He also went to the door to speak to his guards again.

The guards had known Holburn was hiding a thief in his room. Or at least that he’d hidden a woman. Who was now in the clothes of a man. And soon would be a man in the clothes of a page. Although the guards would still know. Everyone would know.

But once out of this area, he would no longer be Agreeable. He would be only Remi.

Agreeable watched Holburn lace his boots. “You’re going to take me into the home of the Count?”

Another shrug that Agreeable had thoughts about. “He’s a thief too. Anyway, he won’t question me.”

Agreeable had been questioning him, he suddenly realized, only to fall silent when Holburn shot him an amused look. He saw too much but it spared Agreeable from another stumbling apology and a fit of worry.

“And your wife? You should be kind to her, sir... my lord?” Agreeable’s worry was about to return.

“Your Grace,” Holburn answered then slowly shook his head.

“Only in public. Holburn in private. Do you know how precious you are to fret over Ali’s feelings?

You’re thoughtful of these things in a way that suggests you have been in a loving household.

You’re quick, and loyal, and you’re sweet-looking, whether lad or lass.

Trust me a little more and accept that you don’t need to worry over how Ali will feel about you. ”

Agreeable stared at him for far too long and then felt his jaw go slack. “You’re insinuating that she likes lasses, your wife? The Duchess, I mean. Her Grace. Lasses as well as lads?”

Holburn cracked a smile. “You might have been a good farmer but you were wasted as a thief, Remi.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” There Agreeable went again, questioning a duke. He bit his lip. Holburn crossed the distance to again spare Agreeable’s lower lip the pain.

“Aliette likes what she likes,” Holburn informed him gently. “But you are not obligated to visit any beds you don’t wish to.”

“That would be more of your extortion?” Agreeable didn’t see it this time, but already knew if Holburn explained it, he’d believe every word.

A tap on the door prevented Holburn from answering. He called out, “Come in,” as though Agreeable, as a boy, wasn’t on his bed in his clothes.

Two guards entered, one holding a steaming pitcher, the other with a bowl of pears and bread. Both of them glanced to Agreeable, then away. One of them winked at him.

They were both older, as Holburn had said. One probably a decade older than Holburn, and one with a head of snow-white hair. They were also so very handsome. Agreeable hadn’t noticed that yesterday.

Holburn’s gaze was lit with amusement when he saw Agreeable staring, although Agreeable quickly ducked his head.

Holburn was as clever as the most educated priest. Perhaps even cleverer, for he went around in the world and learned its ways.

Agreeable looked back up to watch him and hardly noticed the guards closing the door behind them.

Holburn, lips curved up, took a roll and brought it over to him.

“I will shave momentarily. Would you like to as well? We’ll have time if Aliette found a distraction.”

“Did she travel all night?” Agreeable asked around bites.

“Oh no. She stayed at a nearby home, a friend of hers. You should know that I lied to you, slightly.”

“I lied to you last night.” Agreeable sighed. “I can’t be mad about your fibs.”

“You didn’t lie. Not really.” Holburn seemed fascinated by the sight of Agreeable eating. “Aliette does take an interest in the running of our household, but not as sternly or strictly as some. She will allow for your training. So don’t worry about that, please.”

Please , he said. Being a duke who said please only made Holburn more dangerous.

Yet Agreeable felt the need to reassure him. “If I don’t work out and end up in the stables, I won’t mind. Do your guards truly not object to knowing you lie with men? Or that your wife might know others?”

Holburn was briefly a sly cat. “You will find that not even the Church objects much to what lords get up to. But Tomas and Von are familiar with my ways.”

Agreeable forgot to finish eating. “Have you... with them?”

Holburn tapped Agreeable’s hand to remind him of his food, then said, “I don’t make a habit of fucking servants. Well, not my own.”

“Extortion again,” Agreeable said wisely, chuffed to have used the word with more ease. “And I do not count?”

“You weren’t my servant when you came to me.” Holburn sighed in contentment once the roll was in Agreeable’s belly. “But if you prefer, I can keep you, diamonds and sweetmeats and all. You would have no page duties.”

His calm voice seemed almost false with his gaze still burning.

Agreeable licked his lips to rid them of crumbs. “You warned me to save the diamonds if another should keep me. Because you think I would eventually have no keeper.”

“Most keepers eventually tire of those they keep. I suspect those people might.” Holburn said it insistently, as if he worried that Agreeable thought himself unwanted.

Agreeable supposed he had reason to think that way.

“Most do tire of me.” Agreeable couldn’t argue it, even if it made Holburn frown.

“Or at least pretend to,” he added, though it did not lighten Holburn’s displeasure.

Agreeable considered him and his not-beautiful face and felt a rare spark of anger for those who thought Holburn was a devil.

He was the angel in the room, to Agreeable’s way of thinking.

Fearsome, as well as a warning, even when he brought good news.

“Please don’t frown,” he went on gently.

“Your advice is wise. I think I would rather learn the ways of a fine house and have those skills if I should need them later, and let you use me as you please for fun. Besides, if you have no one there loyal to you, then I can be that. That’s worth more to you than any fuck, isn’t it?

And I want to help you if I can. I want to. ...”

He wanted to be Holburn’s, but kept that to himself just in time to keep from sounding a fool.

Holburn smiled widely and leaned down as if to kiss him. “A jewel for a jewel.”

Agreeable tipped his face up to meet him, but froze at the quick, low knock on the door. Not even a heartbeat later, the door swung open.

He got a glimpse of the guards in the background, eyebrows raised but looking carefully elsewhere as they closed the door after the woman who strolled in without hesitation.

She was the Duchess, almost certainly. No one else would be so sure of their welcome in Holburn’s room, but she was also dressed as no one else in the surrounding villages dressed.

The wives of the lords or the Count’s mother might wear their finest when amongst each other, but not when they travelled or passed through the villages.

And yet Agreeable was also sure these clothes, no matter how well-made, were not the finest this lady possessed.