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“I see you still have kites.”
“Kites will never go out of fashion. Always going to be wind to lift them, you know. Tell me, Your Grace, are you well? How is Lady India? Has she married? Does she have children of her own, now?”
“My sister’s not the marrying kind, Lumley. She’s always off digging up antiquities.”
“She always did like the trowels.”
“And the curiosities. Remember when she convinced one of your customers that a small thumb vial contained the actual tears of Cleopatra?”
Lumley laughed. “She was quite good at spinning tales.”
“Still is. And she’s still placing outrageous wagers. She bet one hundred pounds that I would marry before her.”
Lumley frowned. “You never... married?”
“I didn’t know about the twins until a few months ago, actually,” said Edgar. “Or I would have brought them to meet you earlier.”
“It’s been a very long time. I’m an old man now. Old and alone. Don’t end up like me, Your Grace, with no heir or family.”
“Can’t think about marriage right now. Too busy with my foundry.”
“Your foundry?”
“The Vulcan Foundry. We’re producing steam engines.”
“How wonderful. I always knew you would do something extraordinary.”
That was a rare reaction to the news that he was a tradesman. Edgar smiled. “I’ve missed you, Lumley.”
“And I, you, Your Grace.”
“I’ll go and see how the children are faring,” Edgar said. He joined the children at the low table. The clerk was still explaining the game while Adele and Michel listened intently.
Chess was a grand idea. It would keep their nimble minds occupied if it rained in Southend.
The shop bell tinkled again and the store clerk left to answer the door.
Edgar heard the sound of a lilting, cheerful voice answering a question.
He turned and met Mari’s blue gaze. She looked startled. Dismayed.
She wasn’t happy to see him?
Chapter 15
Mari couldn’t believe her eyes. The duke was here with the children. He’d followed her instructions.
He’d ruined her plans.
Now she couldn’t make her inquiries.
He was sitting at a low table, his knees drawn up nearly to his ears. Her initial disappointment dissolved. The scene was simply too adorable. The huge duke sitting in a chair three sizes too small for him, playing chess with his children.
It made her want to kiss him. There it was. A plain and proverbial truth.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. A penny saved is a penny earned.
And Mari Perkins wanted to kiss the Duke of Banksford every single time she saw him.
