Page 14 of An Inconvenient Duke

But now she knew she would find a way, that it would be the little things that would guide her through…like her aunt’s antics and her maid’s concern.

With a grateful squeeze to Alice’s arm, Dani stood and made her way downstairs.

Harriett was a wonderful woman, kind and generous, always loving, although her lack of propriety even in the most obvious circumstances entertained Dani to no end. It used to embarrass the daylights out of her. Those stories her aunt so dearly loved to tell at parties were enough to make a young lady faint from mortification. All apocryphal, all just odd enough to keep the attention of even the most bored lord, they usually involved one of Harriett’s escapades from her younger and more exuberant days when she’d been one of society’s most sought-after ladies. As an earl’s beautiful daughter, she’d taken society by storm.

But then she married Viscount Bromley, and her life went horribly wrong.

When she was a girl, Dani had thought her great-aunt so very odd, relishing being the center of attention and flirting with the young dandies rather than sitting sedately with the matrons her own age. Harriett had come to stay when Dani was fourteen. At the time, she’d thought that her parents had taken her aunt in when the old viscount left for Ireland because Auntie was too irresponsible to stay by herself. Only later did she discover the truth. That Dani’s mother had surprised Harriett with an unannounced visit to find that the viscount had beaten her to within an inch of her life. A beating that hadn’t been the first.

Mama had spent the next sennight nursing Harriett back to health until she was well enough to travel. Once her aunt was safely ensconced with them in Bedford Square, her father paid a visit to the viscount. Dani would never learn what Papa said to him that day, but her great-uncle left England and never returned.

Since learning what happened, Dani had come to understand her aunt in a completely new way. She loved and supported Harriett however she could and greatly admired her strength and resilience.

If not her stories.

“Good morning, Auntie.” She glided into the morning room to find Harriett at the little card table by the window with the breakfast dishes already in place. Her aunt offered her cheek for a kiss, and Dani obliged, then slid into her chair. “You should have started without me.”

“Breakfast isn’t nearly as interesting, my dear, when you’re not here.”

Dani didn’t believe that for a moment. “No one else to fight with over the strawberries, you mean?”

Harriett winked. “Drummond doesn’t brawl with the same spunk as you.”

The butler stifled a smile as he stood by the door at the ready.

“That’s because he gets paid to let you win.” With a smile for Drummond, Dani popped one of the red berries into her mouth. “But I’ll race you to the last one if you’d like.”

She cackled out a laugh. “Agreed!” Yet she spooned several onto Dani’s plate without any argument, then reached for the silver pot. “Chocolate?”

“Please.” Dani held out her cup and did her best to hide her concern as she asked, “What was so important that I join you this morning?” Despite a dearth of berry fights, Harriett didn’t normally mind eating alone. It gave her time to pore over theMorning Post, freshly ironed and left by her chair when Drummond carried up the breakfast tray. “Not enough news in the paper this morning to keep your interest?”

“News? Ha!” She topped off her own cup of chocolate. “I’m only interested in the gossip page. Such nonsense and twaddle, and about the best of society, too.” Then she smiled gleefully, like the cat that had gotten into the cream. “I devour every word of it!”

With a laugh, Dani tore off a bit of toast and popped it into her mouth.

“And your meeting tonight?”

Dani froze in midchew. She asked carefully around the toast, “How do you know about that?”

“You told me. Remember? The lecture you plan on attending.”

“Oh.” Relief sank through her. Her secrets were still her own. “That.”

Harriett stabbed a kipper with her fork and set it onto her plate. A deft stroke of her knife beheaded it. “I might attend with you.”

“I don’t think you’d enjoy it.” Dani focused her attention on spreading marmalade across her toast. There was no lecture scheduled for tonight. That was simply the excuse she used whenever she needed to meet with her contacts for Nightingale.

When her aunt said nothing, waiting for her to continue telling more about the nonexistent lecture, Dani shrugged as casually as possible. “It won’t be at all exciting for you, Auntie.”

“What is it about?”

She thought quickly—“Canals.”

“Canals?” Harriett blinked as she absorbed that. “Venetian?”

“English.”

“Oh dear.”