Page 50 of Courting the Wrong Duke

“He would hardly have paid for a horse the day before,” William finished quietly.

“Precisely.”

The four stood in thoughtful silence as William reread the opening line.

Gabriel eventually leaned over his shoulder, scanning the page before giving a small shake of his head. “I confess the quotation means nothing to me.”

Isabella, meanwhile, had wandered only a few paces away. Her fingertips drifted absently across the spines of several well-worn volumes until she stopped so abruptly that a small gasp escaped her.

“Oh!”

The exclamation carried farther than she intended. Several patrons looked up from their browsing, and Isabella immediately flushed.

“My apologies.”

Rosalind smiled despite herself. “What is it?”

Isabella hurried back, excitement brightening her features as she reached for the letter.

“The quotation,” she said, pointing to the opening line. “It is Byron.”

William looked up. “Are you certain?”

“Oh, quite.” She accepted the letter and read the line once more. “‘And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on.’ It is from The Giaour.”

As quickly as her excitement had appeared, it faded. “It is... not an especially hopeful passage.”

Rosalind's smile disappeared. “No?”

Isabella shook her head. “It carries the tone of a farewell. Of surviving after losing something one cannot recover.”

The words settled heavily over the little circle.

Gabriel was the first to break the silence. “I fear I have never read Lord Byron.”

Isabella blinked. “Not even once?”

“I prefer histories.”

“That explains a great many things.”

Gabriel smiled without the least offense. “I shall take that as a compliment.”

“It was not intended as one.”

William laughed quietly. “And you, Miss Hartwell?”

Gabriel spread his hands in surrender before Isabella could answer.

“I know little enough of poetry to admit defeat before the conversation has properly begun. But I have read almost everything Byron wrote,” Isabella admitted.

Rosalind reached over and gave her sleeve the gentlest tug. “You need not boast.”

“I was not boasting.”

Rosalind merely raised an eyebrow.

Isabella sighed dramatically. “…Perhaps a little.”