“I find too much frivolity deathly boring,” Drew said quite truthfully. “And I think Haviland is of the same mind. He asked if I would be willing to advise him on the workings of the government, so I agreed. And I offered to lend him my secretary for a time.”
“That is extremely kind of you,” Roslyn observed. “You make an excellent tutor.”
She offered him a warm smile-a smile like a gift. That smile tantalized him against his will, and Drew shifted uneasily in his seat. “I suggested he begin by reading Cobbett’s Parliamentary History. I plan to send him my volumes.”
“I could loan him mine.”
“No, you don’t want him to think you too bookish.”
She laughed. “I suppose not.”
Her gaze turned thoughtful then, and she gave him a measuring glance. “I am curious, your grace. If you feel so strongly about your ducal responsibilities, do you intend to marry someday? I should think you would want heirs for your dukedom.”
“I will eventually,” Drew replied.
“I wondered. You have such an aversion to matrimony, I thought you might have decided never to wed.”
His smile was more of a grimace. “I know my duty. And I’m prepared to suffer a wife in order to beget heirs.”
“You sound very much like a misogynist.”
Drew grinned. “I like women well enough. I just can’t bear the thought of being shackled to one specific woman for life.”
“It is a pity that marital vows require a man to choose only one wife,” she replied, her tone teasing. “I presume you will make a marriage of convenience rather than love?”
“Of course.” His reply was bland. “Aristocrats don’t marry for love. For members of our class, marriage is a callous business transaction. A cold union of blood and titles and fortune. One that will likely end up proving tedious or even distasteful.”
“What a delightful prospect,” Roslyn said wryly. “My ideas for marriage are very different from yours, quite obviously.”
“Indeed. You believe in fairy tales.”
She smiled. “It is a shame you cannot hope for anything better. But perhaps someday you may encounter a woman you actually wish to marry.”
Drew frowned, wondering how he had come to be discussing matrimony. Usually his mind sheared away from the unpleasant subject. Oh, he knew he would do his duty eventually. But he had never given serious consideration to the woman he would one day wed. He only knew he didn’t want his duchess to be anything like his mother-a cold, grasping, power-hungry witch who thought only of her own needs and desires.
“Did your parents have anything to do with your aversion, as mine did?” Roslyn asked quite innocently.
His mother had a great deal to do with his aversion to marriage, Drew acknowledged to himself. “I would say so.”
“Why?” Her tone was curious. “Were your parents as horribly antagonistic as mine? Did they despise each other?”
“No. They rarely showed any emotion toward each other at all. They cons
idered it ill-bred to exhibit any feelings.”
“And they raised you that way?”
Her perceptiveness cut too close for comfort. He’d had a cold upbringing. A childhood barren of affection or familial feeling. “Somewhat,” was all Drew could bring himself to say.
“So your parents married for convenience.”
“And to perpetuate their illustrious bloodlines. They both could trace their ancestry back to William the Conqueror.”
“I suppose you mean to do the same?”
Again Drew shrugged. “I don’t particularly care. But other than carrying on the line, there are few benefits to marriage.”
“Do you really think so?”