“I’m utterly passionate about it, Your Grace.?
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“Then it would be my honor to show you the art here at Laurel Ridge. We have a marvelous collection. Would you care to accompany me after dinner?”
She smiled. “You know I would.”
“Fine then. I’ll come fetch you after my cigar and port.”
Lily started on her second course, a poached salmon with a creamy dill sauce, and looked around the table. Daniel had been right. No one seemed to notice their conversation. Daniel engaged her, asking about her life in London and at the Ashford estate in Hampshire. The subject somehow came to the previous Christmas, and the kiss Wentworth had stolen.
“It was awful, really,” Lily said. “I didn’t think I wanted to kiss anyone again after that.”
“Have you changed your mind?” he asked, his voice low.
She nodded, smiling. “Tell me a little about your family, Your Grace.”
“Well, you know my father and brother are gone now.”
“Yes, I’m so sorry about that. It must have been very hard on you and your mother. Were you close to either of them?”
“Not especially. I was closer to my mother. My father spent most of his time with Morgan, because he was the heir. Morgan was completely educated in the management of the estate and the affairs of the House of Lords and would have made a fine duke. Now the title has been thrust upon me, and I’m wholly unprepared for it.”
Lily stared at Daniel’s handsome face. Worry lines creased his forehead. Odd that she hadn’t noticed them before. How could such a formidable man sound so unsure of himself?
“You seem to know what you’re doing,” she said.
“At least my bankers and stockbrokers do, and that’s encouraging. And my mother is very intelligent and was always involved in the affairs of the estate. I’ve learned quite a bit from her. You remind me of her, actually.”
“Do I?”
“Yes, she defied convention herself in her day. No woman should have been involved in such business affairs, but my father valued her opinion and sought her advice frequently.”
“I always knew I liked her.” Lily smiled. “Did you know that her sister and my Auntie Iris were best friends when they were girls?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Neither did I until this afternoon. Evidently they lost touch over the years.” Lily lowered her voice. “And do you want to know something else?”
“What, love?” Daniel whispered.
“My father once courted your mother.”
Daniel smiled mockingly. “Really?”
“You knew that?”
“I did.”
“Just think, if they had married, neither one of us would exist,” Lily said.
“I’d rather not imagine a world without you in it.” Daniel squeezed Lily’s thigh under the table. “Do you want to know something?”
“What?”
Daniel lowered his voice until it was barely audible. “I’ve been thinking about you all day.”
Lily’s blood turned to molten nectar, and her heart pulsated wildly. Warmth crept up her breasts to her face.