She loved that he had waited to be invited in.
So many husbands would have just barged in, seeing the house as theirs—their presence in any room as a right.
“I shall take whatever terms you dictate,” he declared, crossing into the room. “Would you listen to one of my speeches and give me your opinion on it?” He winked, giving her an exaggeratedly suspicious look. “Or should I not trust you even under the white flag?”
“I should like nothing better,” she said, laughing as she pushed her chair back. She’d been sitting far too long. “I’m amazed you would trust the opinion of a mere woman.”
“Ha!” he exclaimed. “I shall not fall for that trap. There is nothing mere about a woman. Remember you are to tell me what is wrong before my true enemies can.”
She arched her brow and gave him a playful look of warning. “It will be my pleasure, and I shall hold nothing back.”
And it was, and she wouldn’t.
In his presence, she felt heard in a way she never had before.
Beatrice stood and went to the decanter of wine that Forbes had brought up when the hour had tolled five. She poured out two glasses of ruby-red wine into Italian crystal goblets and passed one to him.
Their fingers brushed. His gaze warmed at that barest caress.
He took the wine, held her gaze, and took a long drink.
Heavens, how she loved the way the muscles of his throat worked and the way the ruby wine stained his lower lip.
It was…tempting. Tempting to push him back upon her settee and demand a kiss.
Soon…
She lifted her glass in salute to him. “And were you triumphant in your endeavors?” she asked before she took her own sip of the heady wine.
“It’s more of a draw at present, but I shall prevail.” He sighed. “Lord Buxton will keep insisting that working-class people are owed no protections. Children should have to work down the mines and be thrust up our chimneys to keep them clean. I don’t know how to explain to him that children—and women and men, for that matter—should be able to work in conditions that are humane. He has no sympathy. I wonder if we were to open his chest if we would find a heart at all.”
She groaned, empathizing with her husband. “Unfortunately, there are a vast many aristocrats like that. They have no value for human life except their own.”
“Do you think it would be a great difficulty if I took him out to Cornwall and thrust him down a mine? Do you think anyone would notice?”
She laughed. “Perhaps no one would care. Should we try it? I’ll fetch some rope from the stable. We could go over to his house this very evening.”
He stared at her for a long moment, then let out a booming laugh to match her own. “It is tempting. But I think that even I might get in trouble for something like that.”
“Murdering a peer is even too far for a duke?” she teased.
“Perhaps if I lived in Henry VII’s time,” he mused, “I might be able to get away with it. But the War of the Roses is long since gone, and the Glorious Revolution has made it clear that Parliament is important. Not just the Lords. The House matters as well.”
She nodded her approval. “Hear, hear. Power to the peasants.”
He closed his eyes, then drank deeply before he groaned dramatically. “Do not say such things, Beatrice; I am a duke. My family hasn’t espoused revolution since the seventeenth century.”
“Oh, I know, my dear. I know,” she assured. “But one of us must call for more drastic reform. I’m not even a person to most of your sex and won’t be for the foreseeable future. And you must admit there were certainly good things about that revolution.”
A pained look crossed his face. “Revolutions can lead to bloodbaths.”
“I refuse to give up or give in,” she stated firmly.
“I’m not entirely sure how we’ll sort it out,” he ventured before stating with surprising passion, “but I have faith that good will prevail.”
“I’m glad you have faith,” she said, trying to join him in that sentiment. “But our actions will dictate the future.”
He studied her. “I’m damned glad you’ll never let me grow complacent,” he said. “Do you have the list of speakers you think best? I have arranged engagements in the city center of Bristol and York and Manchester for two months hence. And I’ve arranged protection, in case there is an unsavory element that doesn’t like the idea of change.”