Page 42 of How Not to Marry a Duke

“We shall stop at an inn for a meal,” Warwick announced. “You look like you need a respite.”

Adeline shifted on the bench and glanced at him beneath lowered lashes to find him watching her as if she were a curiosity, as if he were trying to solve a perplexing problem in one of his complex machines.

On some level, she felt the same about him.

“What do you mean? Do I look weary?”

His look was quick and keen. “No. You appear nervous.”

She bit her lower lip. “Aren’t you?”

“No.”

“You aren’t the slightest hesitant at our return?”

“When you put it that way, then yes,” he said briskly, “but I suspect for different reasons. I didn’t want to move my steam engine back to Town until my work was finished.”

Heat throbbed in her cheeks. “That’s the only reason for your agitation?”

“What else is there?”

Was he serious? “We will soon be back in the fold of Society.”

“And?”

She wanted to slap her own forehead in exasperation. She took a breath instead. “We could be discovered.”

“We won’t.” His voice was infused with confidence.

“How can you be sure? What of your godmother, Lady Heywood?”

“What about her?”

She cleared her throat and tried for patience. “I know little about her.”

“She was my mother’s distant cousin. They were good friends until later.”

“Later? What occurred between them?”

“Me.”

She met his green gaze. “Why?”

He shrugged broad shoulders. “Their discord had to do with my upbringing. The duke and duchess had certain expectations for their heir.”

“And Lady Heywood disapproved?” Warwick was being particularly vague. He obviously didn’t like to talk about himself.

Warwick sighed, as if recounting the memory was bothersome or…difficult. “I was young, but I recall an incident. I ran to my mother after discovering a book on the topic of physics in my father’s library. Even though I was not permitted in my father’s domain, I was excited to find the book and even more excited to learn something new. You see, there was a whole world of thinkers, as I had called them back then. Thinkers who wondered about the universe just like me.”

“How old were you?”

“Seven.”

Goodness. She pictured a little boy with a shock of fair hair and big green eyes full of curiosity and wonder. In essence, he’d discovered a new world.

“What did the duchess say?”

“My timing was unfortunate. She was entertaining friends, ladies of influence in the beau monde, in her private drawing room. She found my exuberance embarrassing. She snatched the book from my hands and admonished me for sneaking into my father’s library.”