Page 37 of Her Heartless Duke
He nodded and tucked the letter back into his pocket. Daniel might be his best friend, but he did not need to know everything that was going on in his life.
“Better than what I initially expected,” he confirmed. “Ah, I also heard that Miles has been in attendance at Bennet House the past few days.”
Daniel gave him a strange look. “Yes, but when I asked him if he was courting my cousin, he refused to say anything.” He paused and turned pale. “He could not be courting Olivia, could he?”
“Most certainly not,” Isaac responded a little too quickly. Somehow, the thought of Olivia with his friend was ratherdisturbing.
Well, the thought of Olivia withanyother man, actually.
“How would you know?”
“I know our friend and I know your sister,” he pointed out. “I have never seen a more ill-suited match than the both of them.”
“I suppose you are right,” Daniel sighed in relief. “Olivia would run him ragged with her antics. Fiona might be more to his taste.”
“Ah, to be the man of the house with females in your care,” Isaac grinned at him. “I would not want to be in your shoes, old boy.”
“You ought to try having a woman depend on you,” the Earl of Lancashire remarked with a rueful shake of his head. “But, really, have you not noticed anything… odd about Olivia lately?”
“Odd like what?”
Isaac found it more than odd when she collapsed that day in the ballroom of Anderleigh Hall. She had been white as a sheet and could barely keep her head upright, but then she had insisted that she was perfectly fine.
He had chosen to believe her, then, and after that rather intimate moment they shared, his fears were somewhat allayed. Still, he could not rid his mind of the ghastly pallor he had seen on her when he caught her. Even if she told him she was hot or dizzy, he still could not fully believe it.
He had seen men lose their legs with a healthier color than Olivia at that moment.
Isaac saw Daniel regard him with what appeared to be suspicion.
“I saw you talking to each other at Hyde Park,” his best friend said softly. “You appeared to be quite comfortable with each other.”
“I have known her since I have known you,” Isaac shrugged. “We just talked about some things.”
“Some things, huh?” the Earl remarked. “Well, did she say something… I don’t know, strange, maybe?”
Isaac gave him a pointed look. “Your sister has always been a rather peculiar creature, Lancashire. Are you only just noticing it?”
Actually, Isaac found it odd how she seemed to be chasing her dreams almost as if she was running out of time. It was hardly the kind of thing a young lady of her age should occupy herself with.
“I suppose she has always been a little odd,” Daniel admitted with an affectionate smile at the thought of his younger sister. “After our mother died, Father let her have her way with everything and then, when he died…” he trailed off with a somber look in his eyes.
Isaac had known Daniel for a great many years and the tragedies that struck his family in quick succession. His mother, the Countess of Lancashire, had died just before he entered Oxford. He had scarcely finished his education when his father followed.
And in all that time, with her brother away at Oxford, Olivia had perhaps been mostly alone, if it had not been for Lady Joana Bennet and Fiona.
“Well, what I meant to say was that Olivia has always been a little spoiled,” he continued, straightening himself up. “And perhaps I might have had a hand in her being the way she is.”
Isaac clapped a reassuring hand on his best friend’s shoulder. “Do not blame yourself too much, Lancashire. Others have turned out far worse.”
He grimaced, recalling numerous young ladies who had made fools of themselves over him and their mamas who encouraged them. In a world where titled husbands were prized above everything else, his position as a Duke had predisposed him to the schemes and antics of young ladies and their formidable mothers.
Daniel managed to laugh a little. “I suppose I could have done worse, as far as sisters go.”
“I might only say this once, so listen well—you did well enough for Olivia. She is a fine young woman.”
“Well, she is now of marriageable age,” the Earl sighed. “I had thought that once she finds a suitable match and marries, I might not be so worried about her. Somehow, that thought—it only seems to bother me more.”
“Why?” Isaac felt himself quite intrigued. “Has she told you about a suitor or someone?”