Page 42 of Married to the Duke By Midnight

“He is probably telling her jokes,” Xavier said, still smiling slightly and observing him.

“What?” Robert asked.

“Nothing,” Xavier said and shook his head, turning to look at the dancing couples again.

Robert waved a footman with a tray full of small, delicate glasses of port over and took one for himself and handed one to Xavier before he pressed his brother:

“No, what were you thinking?”

“Just…” Xavier shook his head, not meeting Robert’s eyes. He took a sip of port while Robert waited for him to speak. “You seem happy.”

Another pause. Robert knew not to speak immediately but let Xavier take his time. He often formulated what he wanted to say in his mind before he spoke. Meaning that people frequently spoke over him, before he had a chance to say anything.

“If you had told me twelve days ago that you would be this fond of her…” Xavier trailed off with a sigh.

“I am not… She is my wife. It is natural to show concern and consideration for her.”

“Of course it is,” Xavier said placatingly in his quiet way that other people would probably think was a neutral statement, but which Robert knew to be teasing.

“The two of you need to stop. Both you and Thornston are insisting that there is more, when there is not. I don’t want to give her the wrong impression. I can’t. And neither can you,” Robert told the side of his stepbrother’s face as he kept his eyes on the dance floor.

Xavier slowly turned to him.

“I don’t know why you are fighting this, Robert. You have been extremely lucky. You should treasure it.”

Robert gritted his teeth and gripped the delicate glass of port tightly. He was not fighting it. He was not. There was nothing to fight. He was being sensible and practical. Kind, but not overly attentive. He did not want to give either Jo or himself hope that there was more than there was.

“I hated seeing the way Lady Egerton strung you along for years. You have found someone you can make happy, who can make you happy…” Xavier’s throat went hoarse toward the end, and he cleared his throat and looked at the polished wood of the ballroom floor.

“She did not string me along!” Robert inferred. “We loved each other!”

Xavier raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner, before looking at the dance floor again.

“If you think that was love, you know nothing about it at all, Robert,” he said quietly.

“Oh, and you do? It was one night, Xavier, one. That does not make you an expert of love. Lucretia and I were together for eight years…”

“Seven of which she was married to someone else,” Xavier countered in a low, cold voice that had Robert rear back.

“Marriage does not stop love.”

Xavier drew in a ragged breath before he cast a look in Robert’s direction.

“Just treasure what you have, Robert,” he told him quietly before he left toward the garden.

Robert wanted to follow him but his urge to be there when Jo returned was stronger. He looked at Xavier’s black hair and black jacket as he disappeared into the night.

No one would believe it if they ever learned that Xavier, the man they thought was heartless, had given his heart away to a woman he had met one night five years ago. Robert had seen how the two of them had instantly been attracted to each other. How his quiet and reserved brother opened up within a span of minutes, and how they had fallen in love with each other in just a few short hours.

It had been the same for Robert with Lucretia. He had known instantly, just like Xavier had with the mysterious Sophia who had disappeared afterwards. It was entirely different with Jo. There was physical attraction on both parts, but nothing more. His first instinct had been to reject her for Pete’s sake!

Nevertheless, Xavier was right; he and Jo could make each other happy in their own way. As long as neither of them expected love, they could live a comfortable and profitable life together. It was why Robert had agreed to marry her after all.

“Where did Barforth go?” Jo asked and Robert turned to see her and Thornston standing behind him.

“Ehm… he needed some air.” Robert gestured toward the garden doors.

“Is he well? Perhaps you should check on him.”