After a minute or so, he turned back to the table and broke several eggs into a bowl, swirled them with a fork, and then poured them into the pan. They also began to sizzle. She couldn’t take her eyes off of them, or the way they changed color in the pan, going from deep yellow to a softer, more mellow shade.
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured. “It’s like magic! Like alchemy.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “The magical power of fire to transform food and make it edible.”
When he had determined the eggs were done--she couldn’t tell the difference--he blew out the flame and then scooped the eggs out of the bowl with a large wooden spoon and onto two plates. He handed one to her along with a fork.
“Well,bon appetit!” He raised his plate as if he were toasting her, and she raised hers as well.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Don’t thank me yet. Try them first.”
Tentatively, she brought a forkful to her lips and took a bite. To her shock, the most wonderful taste filled her mouth. She’d had eggs before, of course, but never like this--so fluffy and light, and the onions soft and sweet. It was so good that her whole mouth watered, even as she was eating it.
“This is amazing!” she gasped, after she’d swallowed the first bite. “How did you learn to cook like that?”
“There really isn’t much to do in a country house where you have no servants and no friends,” he said, sighing. “Some days I would spend the whole day in the kitchen teaching myself to cook. Believe me, they didn’t taste this good the first time I tried to pull this off. The onions were burned and the eggs were runny.”
“Well, you’re a very fine chef now,” she said, smiling shyly at him.
For a few minutes, they ate their eggs in silence. It was hard not to eat them too quickly, but she somehow managed it. When she was done, she had to resist licking the plate clean before sliding it back across to him. Then she voiced the question she’d been wondering about ever since he’d brought up her brother’s marriage.
“You mentioned earlier that my brother is a better man because he has a wife he loves,” she said slowly, glancing at him nervously in case she offended him. “The way you said it, it sounded as if that is something you want for yourself. And yet, you are not married. Nor does it seem like you are looking to be married, if you really are the rake you claim to be.”
The Duke smiled at her, his lip curling with lazy arrogance in a way that made her feel as if her stomach was filled with butterflies.
“You doubt my rakishness?” he asked. “I am insulted.”
“I wouldn’t even know how to judge such a thing,” she said primly. “But I am curious why you aren’t married, if you consider a happy marriage to be something to envy in another.”
“I have no intention of marrying,” the Duke said, a little too quickly. She blinked, and then his face relaxed and he smiled at her again, all tension gone. “That is to say, I have a full and fulfilling life as it is, and I do not plan to ruin that by taking onthe responsibility of a wife. I wouldn’t like to be tied down like that. You know of my travels! I could hardly travel the world like I did if I were married.”
“Your wife could come with you,” she suggested, but the Duke shook his head.
“Perhaps. But I have no interest in marriage. My relationships with women are more satisfactory when I do not feel legally bound to them for the rest of my life. Such an arrangement takes all the fun and spontaneity out of life.”
“But what about love?” Leah heard herself asking, before she could help herself. “Haven’t you ever been in love with any of these ladies that you… know?”
The Duke’s eyes were sparkling with laughter, and she flushed. She knew she sounded girlish and stupid asking about love, but she couldn’t help herself.How does a man have intimacies with women and not feel any emotions about it?She couldn’t imagine such a thing.
“Love is something for novels and chivalric tales,” the Duke said, shaking his head. “It is not something that particularly interests me.”
“Interests you?” She couldn’t keep some of the incredulity from her voice. “From what I understand of love, it is not something that one can decide whether or not to feel or let ‘interest’ you. It just happens, like the rain.”
The Duke tilted his head to one side and smiled at her in a mocking kind of way that made her feel a flare of irritation. “Is that your experience of love?” he asked. “That it is like the rain? Sudden and powerful? Or perhaps drizzling and cold?”
She rolled her eyes and looked away. “I am a sheltered young lady,” she said, not meeting his eyes. “Of course I have not experienced love. But you must have, in all your years courting ladies.”
“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I haven’t. I have felt strongly about ladies, yes. I have even felt a certain degree of tenderness. But nothing that would induce me to participate in an institution that would take away all my freedom and autonomy. Even if I were to experience love, I wouldn’t want to ruin that by getting married.”
“Marriage ruins love?” Leah asked curiously. “That is not my experience. Lucien and Emery are deeply in love, and they only fell in love after they were married.”
“Believe me, when you have spent time in a gentleman’s club, you will hear many stories of the drudgery of marriage and how it kills affection between men and women. Lucien and Emery are still newly in love. Just wait until it’s been a few years.”
Leah put her hands on her hips and frowned at him. “My parents were married many years, and they were still very deeply in love.”
The Duke opened his mouth as if to retort, but nothing came out. After a few seconds he laughed, then shook his head, gazing at her with a twinkle of admiration in his eyes.
