Page 110 of My One and Only Duke

“I’ll take them both in hand, and your siblings as well, though Stephen has some wild oats to sow first. Do you mind very much being a duke?”

He loved that Jane would ask him such a blunt, personal question. She was no longer the minister’s accommodating daughter who had spoken vows in prison, though she had become exactly the wife Quinn needed.

Did he mind waltzing with earnest young women, playing cards with peers, and driving Jane in the park at the Fashionable Hour? Did he mind the theater, the social calls, the subtle overtures from ambitious members of Parliament?

“I will never be fond of opera.” Ned loved all the drama and caterwauling. “The rest of it is no great burden, as long as my greatest treasure remains safe. Take away my coin, my fine clothes, my fancy house, and the title, and I will contrive. If anything should cost me your love—”

Jane offered him a lemony kiss that turned into several kisses. “You say the loveliest things, and you express my own sentiments. Let the title be hanged, as long as the man I love stays by my side.”

The coach rocked to a halt, though even Ned had learned not to intrude on Their Graces until the door opened from within. Quinn handed his duchess down and escorted her into the house with all the dignity inherent in her station.

In other words, he scooped her into his arms and carried her up the steps, straight to the ducal apartment, while the footmen smirked, the chambermaids blushed, and Her Grace of Walden mooed against the duke’s elegant, lacy cravat.