Page 37 of The Duke of a Thousand Desires

That, Simon thought, was because he had kept his instincts under lock and key. He was tempted to remind her that he had been on his best behavior and what he was thinking was scandalous enough. Then she raised her hand to the window and gave an audible gasp, pushing seduction to the back of his mind.

“What is it?” he asked, sitting upright. “You’ve seen someone. Something. Shall we stop the carriage?”

She closed the curtain, her eyes as dark as midnight. “It was nothing. No one.”

Simon leaned over her and stared outside. “It was more than nothing. Did you recognize someone in the street?”

Heath tapped on the roof with his walking stick. The vehicle lurched to a halt.

Ravenna shook her head. “It looked like David turning the corner in a curricle. But I’m not sure.”

“Didn’t Simon and Rhys persuade him to leave the city?” Julia asked.

“Yes,” Simon said tersely.

“I was undoubtedly mistaken,” Ravenna said in a small voice.

Simon felt a scowl tighten his face. “For his sake, I hope you were. Perhaps I should pay a visit to his residence tonight. I should find it empty.”

“Promise me there will be no bloodshed,” Ravenna said.

“Fine.”

“Or violence.”

“I shall promise nothing of the sort,” he replied indignantly.

“Please, Simon.”

His mouth hardened. “Don’t ask me to make a promise I cannot keep. If the cabbage-head is fool enough to seek you out, I will intervene.”

“That sounds fair to me,” Heath said after a silence. “After all, he gave our family offense and has been ordered to leave London.”

Simon should have knownthat any man who was stupid enough to gamble with a lady’s heart would not be wise enough to heed a warning.

He left Ravenna in Heath and Julia’s care. Then he returned to his North Audley Street home to discover his estate steward and man Friday, Niles Timpkins, pacing in the entry hall.

“Your grace,” Timpkins said in agitation. “There is a brash gentleman in the drawing room who claims to be Lady Ravenna’s fiancé. He insists on an audience with you. Shall I dispose of him?”

Simon continued past the manservant with a grim smile of appreciation. Timpkins was a bit on the brazen side himself. He was also indispensable and loyal to a fault. His handsome countenance drew the ladies, but he had yet to find one who had tempted him from service. He believed that he belonged to the dukedom.

“Let me deal with this,” Simon muttered. He was unsure whether Ravenna felt any affection for this embarrassment to the male sex.

Not astonishingly Sir David stared him straight in the eye when he entered the room -- as if to blame Simon for their reversal of roles. “Your grace,” he said with a reluctant nod of respect. “It is an honor.”

“Not for me,” Simon returned with a condescending smile.

“I should have guessed Ravenna would not be discreet about the incident at the party.”

“Why would she? You showed all the discretion of a goat at Grayson’s affair.”

“That was a misunderstanding. The other lady and I were merely involved in a heated discussion.”

“Heated is the word. And I understood completely. I was there at the party with a pair of opera glasses.”

“Spying on your peers is not polite.”

“You’re in no position to lecture anyone on manners. And you are not my peer.”