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When Miranda saw the black box, her green eyes immediately lit up as she reached for it and opened it. Nestled in the dark velvet was a beautiful ruby necklace that was well worth an opera singer’s annual wages. The Duke of Gilleton truly was a generous man.
Miranda also knew that only acapableman had the ability to be generous.
“I shall think of you as I am wearing them, Your Grace,” she murmured, beaming up at him.
Daniel gave a bark of laughter, shaking his head. Perhaps the thing he liked the most about this particular mistress of his was that she was rather candid in her avarice. In her defense, she hardly needed the subterfuge most women employed as a single look from her was enough to steal a man’s soul.
Well, almostanyman. Daniel merely enjoyed sampling the delights of her body and her honesty.
“I did hear a delicious piece of gossip last night,” she told him.
He raised a dark eyebrow at that. “I was not aware you have taken to listening to such fodder.”
Miranda laughed. “This one was quite amusing, though—there have been whispers that you have turned your eyes to the wallflower of London.”
Daniel frowned as the word “wallflower” in his mind was superimposed with the image of a painfully prim and shy redhead, her warm brown eyes wide with wonder as she learned for the first time how to successfully flirt herself into the dance floor.
“Are you referring to Emily Montgomery?”
“Ah, the name does ring a bell,” Miranda smirked.
“Jealousy does not become you, my sweet,” he admonished her softly.
His mistress immediately sobered up at the reminder of their almost transactional affair. “I am not jealous,” she quipped. “I am, however, interested how this might affect our, ah…arrangement.”
“Then you need not fret your pretty little head over it,” Daniel replied swiftly. “Emily Montgomery is merely the younger sister of a friend.”
For some reason, the words left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“That is good to know.” Miranda sidled over to him and cast him a sidelong glance. “But all gentlemen must marry.”
Daniel smiled sardonically at her. “That is not always the case, my sweet. Now, are you done with your interrogation?”
Miranda did not achieve the coveted status of being the paramour of the Duke of Gilleton because she was a simpleton. She understood well enough that she was treading on dangerous ground, so she promptly stopped her questioning and sweetly bid the Duke goodbye.
In any case, if His Grace ever decided to get married—as all gentlemen were bound to do at some point—she was certain she could find another sponsor.
It was a tragedy, though, that not many men were as generous as Lord Daniel Bolt.
* * *
After leaving his paramour, Daniel went back to his townhouse on Upper East Brook for a quick meal and a change of clothes. When he was done with his morning routine, he found his secretary already waiting for him at the door to his study.
“Good morning, Elijah,” he greeted succinctly which was the cue for the secretary to update him on the matters at hand.
“Good morning, Your Grace,” the secretary greeted back before launching into a brief narration of the status of the Duke’s many businesses. As the secretary rattled on about a fleet of ships from India, he noticed that the Duke seemed to be rather absorbed in the carved marble paperweight in his hands.
Elijah had no cause for worry, though, as when he concluded his tirade, His Grace immediately launched into a flurry of instructions for him.
“Tell the first to send me the blueprint for the new design of the mast and instruct the second to hold off until I give him my signal,” the Duke replied. “The third, you may disregard that.”
Elijah blinked and noted all of it down. “And, oh, we have received an invitation for tea from a certain…Lady Emily Montgomery.”
The Duke turned swiftly looked up from the papers on his desk. “Really?”
The secretary did not know what to make out of the slow drawl in his master’s voice, so he merely nodded in the affirmative.
Daniel sat back in his chair, his long fingers forming a steeple as he pondered the events of last night when he taught a certain wallflower how to attract the attention of any man she set her sights on in a crowded ballroom. To his surprise, he found her to be a rather bright student, employing his methods with a natural ease that not even that hideous gown she wore could mask.
