What a Duke Dares (Sons of Sin 3)

Like everyone else, he’d heard rumors of love affairs. A few liaisons with glamorous Continental gentlemen would hardly blot the cloudy Thorne escutcheon. But occasionally he’d wondered about that curiously innocent girl in Italy. She’d always struck him as a one-man woman. Was she in love with her husband? At her wedding, she hadn’t been a glowing bride. But she’d just survived a shipwreck and worn a dress twenty years out of date.

The marriage had surprised Harry. However hard Lady Wilmott pushed Pen at the Sedgemoor heir, Cam was always going to choose a wife who catered to his arrogance. Someone like Lady Marianne Seaton, who sat a few rows back from the Sedgemoors.

Tonight people had prepared not only to scorn Cam’s unconventional duchess, but to gloat over Lady Marianne’s disappointment at losing such a prize. But to the chagrin of the old tabbies, both ladies had behaved perfectly. In his sister’s case, too perfectly. Seeing Pen like a doused candle, for all her diamonds and finery, deepened Harry’s suspicion that the Rothermere marriage wasn’t all rainbows.

Damn it, Pen deserved rainbows. If Cam hurt Pen, Harry would kill the bastard.

The Hillbrooks sat beside Pen. On Cam’s other side ranged arbiter of elegance Sir Richard Harmsworth and his lovely new wife. If nastiness became overt, Pen had powerful defenders. Harry almost found himself in charity with his brother-in-law. Until he glanced again at Pen’s set features.

Right now, she looked…

He struggled for some description that wasn’t inexpressibly sad. But the only word that came to mind was “cowed.” He glowered at Cam, lounging beside her with his usual insufferable pride. Harry had a fancy that if he took a razor to the duke’s aristocratic hide, iced water would flow.

“What the devil’s biting you, Harry?” Elias asked from beside him. “You look ready to shoot someone. Or yourself.”

Harry forced a smile to his lips. “I’d rather shoot the damned soprano.”

Elias, the most musical of the Thorne siblings, regarded Harry with disdain. “You’ve always had a lead ear. Waste of time explaining why that was a transcendent experience.”

“Transcendent?” Harry said snidely. “Good Gad, you’ll be writing poetry next. Does Byron know he’s got competition?”

Harry didn’t know why he jabbed at his brother. Elias hadn’t done anything wrong, apart from the inarguable fact that he wasn’t Peter. If Harry was angry with anyone, he should be angry with Peter for being so bloody careless with his life.

Not that Harry’s needling cast Elias down. “You’re an ignorant puppy. Byron died four years ago, as you’d know if you expressed a shred of interest in anything beyond playing the dashed fool.”

Elias was out of touch. Since Sophie’s departure, Harry had only shown his face at the most respectable gatherings. He knew his reformation wouldn’t change Leath’s mind. Leath had undoubtedly dismissed Harry Thorne from his thoughts even more quickly than he’d dismissed Harry Thorne from his luxurious house. But behaving himself was all Harry could do at present to forward his courtship.

“Boys!” Pen said, coming up to them. Lost in his brooding, Harry had missed the end of the concert and the room clearing. “Stop it.”

“Now you’re a duchess, you imagine you can order us around,” Elias said drily.

Harry bristled before he caught the amusement in Elias’s face. Pen was smiling, although without the brilliance that Harry recalled from Rome.

“Only when you’re likely to compromise my duchessly reputation,” she said lightly as Cam joined her. “I hear you’re making your maiden speech in the House this week.”

Elias nodded. “Will you be in the gallery to support me?”

Because Harry watched so closely, he caught the quick glance she shot Cam, as if unsure whether to request his permission. Harry’s displeasure with his brother-in-law deepened. Devil take Cam for bullying her.

“I hope she’ll come to see us both in action.” Cam slipped his hand around Pen’s arm. Pen started as though her husband’s touch was unfamiliar. Unwelcome?

Oh, Pen, what the deuce have you got yourself into?

Cam squeezed Pen’s arm and released her, asking Elias about his parliamentary debut. The two wandered toward the door. It was the opportunity Harry sought.

Before he could speak, Pen leveled a glare upon him. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Doing?” A guilty flush rose in his cheeks. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes, you do.” She folded her arms and regarded him with a stern expression that made him feel about six. “You looked at Cam like you wanted to poison him.”

“Poison’s a woman’s weapon,” Harry responded with unconvincing humor.

“You always liked him.”

“So did you,” Harry retorted.

“I still do.” She looked surprised and if he wasn’t mistaken, uncomfortable. “He’s a good man.”