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“Excessively?”
James nodded, beginning to enjoy himself. “Excessively. And he’s fat.”
She started to point again. “What about—”
“Married, married, and married.”
She looked up sharply. “All three of them?”
He nodded. “One of them even happily.”
“Well, that certainly bucks tradition,” she muttered.
James declined to comment.
Elizabeth let out a long exhale, and he noticed that her sighs were bridging the gap from annoyed to weary. “That still leaves Mr. William Dunford and Captain Cynric Andrien. I suppose one is deformed and the other a simpleton?”
He was sorely tempted to agree with her, but one look at Dunford and the captain and she’d know he’d been bamming her. “They are both considered to be handsome and intelligent,” he admitted.
“Then what is the problem?”
“Dunford’s a rake.”
“So?”
“He’s certain to be unfaithful.”
“I’m hardly a prize, James. I can’t expect perfection.”
His eyes glowed hot. “You should expect fidelity. You should demand it.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “It would be lovely, I’m sure, but it hardly seems as important as—”
“Your husband,” he growled, “will remain faithful to you or he will answer to me.”
Elizabeth’s eyes bugged out, her mouth fell open, and then she collapsed into a fit of giggles.
James crossed his arms and glared at her. He was not accustomed to having his shows of gallantry laughed at.
“Oh, James,” she gasped, “I’m so sorry, and that was very sweet of you. Almost”—she wiped her eye—“sweet enough for me to forgive you for abducting me.”
“I didn’t abduct you,” he said sullenly.
She waved her hand. “How on earth do you expect to defend my honor once I’m married?”
“You’re not marrying Dunford,” he muttered.
“If you say so,” she said, so seriously and so carefully that he knew she was dying to laugh again. “Now, then, why don’t you tell me what is wrong with Captain Andrien?”
There was a long pause. A really long pause. Finally James blurted out, “He stoops.”
Another pause. “You’re ruling him out because he stoops?” she asked incredulously.
“It’s a sign of inner weakness.”
“I see.”
James realized that Andrien was going to have to do more than stoop. “Not to mention,” he added, stalling while he tried to think up a suitable fib, “that I once saw him yell at his mother in public.”
