Page 25 of A Hint of Scandal

Henry burst out laughing. “I had no idea you were such a poet, Lou.”

Louis scowled at him. “I think I must be in love.”

More derisive laughter from his older brother. “That’s what you said only last year about that actress of yours.”

Max held out his hand for the port bottle. “How do you know when you’re in love then?”

Henry shrugged. “No idea. Never been in love. Unlike Lou. He’s been regularly in love ever since he went up to Oxford.”

Louis scowled a bit more. “Those were mere dalliances. This time it’s real. And as to how I know… well… I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I think of her all the time. That’s how I can tell it’s true love.” He bestowed a beaming smile on Max and Henry. “I fear I shall have to make an offer for her before the week is out. She tells me she’s going to the Hadleigh ball on Friday, and she even intimated she hoped to see me there. I’m confident my feelings are reciprocated.”

Henry leaned back in his chair with a grin. “They’ll need to be, with your lack of fortune. That mama of hers has ‘fortune hunter’ stamped across her forehead if I’m not mistaken, with underneath that ‘title hunter’ in smaller letters. To get to the daughter you’ll have to get past the two guard dogs—the mama and the dragon.”

Max frowned. “I wish you wouldn’t refer to any lady as a dragon. You know full well how mothers need to guard their daughters from the likes of you two. And it’s impolite when you don’t know the lady concerned.”

Louis and Henry turned surprised expressions on Max. “Who made you the defender of old spinsters?” Henry, who’d always been the more outspoken of the two, asked.

Irritated now almost to the point of wanting to plant a facer on his nephew’s physiog, Max resisted that impulse with difficulty. “Good manners have made me so,” he said, a little stiffly. “And if your mother had the sense she was born with, she’d have instilled better manners in the pair of you.” He stood up. “And now I’m going to join the ladies.”

As he closed the door he heard Louis’s voice, strident with amazement. “Whatever’s got into him tonight?”