Page 24 of Is This Real or Just Pretend?

“Given that it was only a few months ago, yes,” Alex drawled.

Phoebe had accused her of only caring about turning a profit instead of investing in social causes. It was a fair enough point, and since then Alex had taken on more charitable projects, including securing a new building for the girls’ school where Phoebe taught.

“Well, it was awful fighting with you,” Phoebe continued. “And you know you can be rather… intimidating.”

Alex pursed her lips. It was true enough. And hardly the first time someone had said that, but it hurt coming from her own sister. Phoebe was supposed to know her better. To understand her in a way others couldn’t. “I see.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if Freddie felt the same, even though she might not show it.”

“And I suppose you want me to be the one to do something about it?”

“Well, you are the eldest.”

That was also an all-too-familiar refrain. And yet, she could feel the resignation washing over her. “Fine. I will make more of an effort with Freddie. And make sure that she isn’t marrying an obnoxious American man purely for my benefit,” she added.

Phoebe suddenly reached out and squeezed her hand. “You are a good sister, Alex.”

She stared at their joined hands for a moment and squeezed back. “So are you.”

Phoebe flashed her a smile then looked around. “Now where did our menfolk disappear to?”

They had reached the entrance of the Egyptian Gallery. Alex followed her sister’s gaze, but she was right. Lucien and Will had vanished.

Upon entering the Anglo-Roman Gallery, Alex got caught up in a conversation with her sister. Lucien had tried to keep an eye on her, but then he came upon an old Roman tomb and was thoroughly distracted. When he finally looked up, Alex was nowhere in sight.

“We seem to have lost the ladies,” the Duke of Ellis said, suddenly by his side.

It was the first words he had uttered to Lucien directly since they arrived.

Before his unexpected ascension to the dukedom, Will Margrave had been neighbors with the Atkinsons—and a close friend of Alex.

Lucien hadn’t interacted with the older boy very often, which was something of a relief given that he was nearly as intimidating as Alex.

Especially when he was in a lather over something.

But as the duke gave him an apprising look, Lucien might as well have been ten years old again.

“Your Grace.”

“Don’t call me that,” he clucked. “Margrave will do just fine.”

“Yes, Your—Margrave,” Lucien said weakly.

“You’re a good sport for coming along today,” he continued.

“I like this museum,” Lucien answered honestly.

“And Alex?”

Lucien’s eyes widened at the rather direct question, but before he could answer, Margrave sighed.

“You needn’t keep up the pretense with me,” he explained. “I know of your little arrangement. Alex came to me last month with a similar proposition before she knew I had fallen in love with Phoebe.”

Lucien stiffened. Alex certainly hadn’t mentioned that . And he couldn’t ignore the absurd bloom of jealousy in his chest. “I see.”

“I thought it was a terrible idea then and told her as much.” Margrave narrowed his eyes. “My opinion has not changed, though I suppose I can’t fault you for going along with it. I’m sure she dangled something quite appealing in exchange for your participation.”

Lucien didn’t care for the man’s tone, but he was right. “She promised to find investors for a London branch of my supper club.”

“Ah,” the duke replied with a thoughtful nod. “Well, you could certainly do worse. And there are a fair number of men who would do a great many things to be associated with Atkinson Enterprises in any capacity.” Then he narrowed his eyes again. “You do know she’s behind it all, don’t you?”

“Yes, I’d gathered that.”

“That’s not to say that her father contributes nothing. He pulls his weight, of course. And I’m sure the firm would still be successful without Alex, but she is the driving force behind their greatest triumphs.”

“A very admirable accomplishment for a lady,” Lucien responded.

“It is because she is a lady,” the duke insisted. “She thinks differently from the rest of them. She doesn’t see the world the same way. That is an asset.”

Just as Lucien began to respond, Margrave raised a finger. He might not like being called a duke, but he damn well seemed to like acting like one.

“And yet, despite all that, she is not appreciated as she should be. Though she would give me hell if she heard me say this, I am very protective of her. People often misinterpret Alex’s demeanor.

If she were a man, we would call her stoic.

Strong. Principled. Likely, she would be hailed as a genius.

Instead, she must be happy with her father’s appreciation, admiration from the select few who know the truth, and that great big pile money she has accumulated.

But because she refuses to smile and simper at will, she is called cold and unfeeling.

So she hides herself away in that office because it is familiar.

Because there she is the one to make demands. ”

Lucien felt a flush at the back of his neck at the thought of Alex demanding, well, anything of him. “I’m aware of that,” he rasped.

The duke arched a brow. “Are you? Good. And here I was worried because I was under the impression you’ve been carrying a torch for Freddie all these years.”

Now the flush spread to his cheeks. “I didn’t—that is, I don’t—”

But Margrave waved away his hopeless dithering. “You needn’t bother denying it. Obviously Alex knows. Though I don’t think she has truly considered all the ramifications involved in choosing you to act as her suitor.”

Lucien swallowed. That could refer to any number of things: his personal connection to the family, the veritable chasm between their respective positions in society, Freddie .

“But now I’ve said my piece,” Margrave continued. “So then, why don’t you tell me about this supper club I’ve been hearing about.”

Lucien stared at him, thrown by the subject change, until the duke gave a nod of encouragement and he found his bearings. Or at least enough to do his little spiel while they walked through the rest of the gallery.

Margrave listened carefully and made a few polite hums of approval at the appropriate points. “I can see why Alex approached you,” he admitted with a trace of reluctance.

Before Lucien could respond to this, Phoebe walked over to them with Alex a few steps behind. “There you are! I thought we had lost you.”

“Ah, I’m afraid you won’t be able to rid yourself of me that easily, my dear,” he said smoothly. The man’s entire demeanor appeared to lighten in her presence.

While Phoebe beamed at her fiancé, Alex subtly rolled her eyes.

Then she looked to Lucien and he shot her a private smile.

A moment of understanding seemed to pass between them, and as the duke moved beside Phoebe, it felt perfectly natural to offer Alex his arm.

She hesitated only a moment before she laced her arm through his and they followed a few steps behind the couple.

“I’m happy for them, of course,” she began as they entered the Egyptian Gallery. “I’m not so shrewish as that. Only I wish they weren’t so very public about it all the time. It’s growing rather tiresome.”

“Entirely understandable.”

“Then again, I suppose it’s far preferable to the dramatics they both indulged in before they stopped being so dunderheaded.”

Lucien chuckled as he stared at the couple just ahead of them. “I find that hard to imagine.”

Just then Phoebe leaned her head against Margrave’s shoulder and he looked down at her with such fondness that Lucien’s heart ached with a strange kind of longing.

“Neither of them were very convincing either,” Alex replied dryly. “Both moping about for weeks on end yet refusing to simply admit their feelings to the other.”

“It can be a difficult prospect,” Lucien replied, feeling a bit defensive. After all, he had never declared himself to Freddie.

Alex cut him a glance. “I suppose.”

“I understand you approached the duke first about feigning a courtship,” Lucien said, deliberately changing the subject.

She turned to him in surprise. “He told you about that?”

“I think he was evaluating my intentions.”

Alex huffed. “That’s absurd. He knows you’re no threat.”

Though that was a perfectly true statement, Lucien couldn’t help feeling a little offended by her dismissiveness. “Right.”

Alex shot him a wry smile. “I’m sorry. Did you wish to be a threat?”

“Of course not,” he insisted, but her smile only deepened.

“Margrave is overly protective sometimes. He sees dangers where there are none.”

“That isn’t such a bad quality in a friend.”

“No,” Alex said on a sigh. “I suppose not.”

Another thought occurred to him then. “Who would you have gone to if I turned you down?”

Alex tilted her head in consideration. “I’m not sure. Perhaps one of the fellows at the LaSalles’ salon,” she said with a shrug that set him on edge. She could have easily aligned herself with an unscrupulous schemer.

The image of Benjamin Chisolm came to him and Lucien’s arm tightened instinctively around her own. “You should exercise more caution than that.”

She looked up at him. “Goodness, you’re as bad as Will! I would have at least discussed any potential candidates with Madame LaSalle first. I’m not quite so naive. Besides, the point is entirely moot now.”

“It is,” he agreed. And Lucien was thoroughly glad for that. At the very least he might have kept Alex from aligning herself with some duplicitous knave.

Your intentions are hardly selfless here .

No, they were not. But he would not cause any harm to Alex either.

Of that he was certain. And yet, he couldn’t ignore the fleeting sensation that it was not Alex who was the more vulnerable party in their little arrangement.

But it did not matter. Lucien needed this to work.

Even if he lost everything in the process.

It was a risk he had no choice but to take.