A Secret Love (Cynster 5)

"Welcome to town, my dear."

The fingers slid down to tangle with hers and briefly squeeze. Alathea turned, a smile lighting her face. "I wondered where you were." She ran an appreciative glance over the tall, dark-haired, dark-garbed figure beside her. "Now what am I supposed to call you-Alasdair? Or Lucifer?"

His smile flashed, the pirate beneath the fashionable facade showing briefly. "Either will do."

Alathea raised a brow. "Both accurate?"

"I do my poor best."

"I'm sure you do." She looked across the room. "But what's he doing?"

Lucifer followed her gaze to his brother. "Guard duty. We take turns."

Alathea studied the girls and caught the resemblance. "They're your cousins?"

"Hmm. They don't have an older brother to watch over them, so we do. Devil's in charge, of course, but he's not often in town these days. Very busy taking care of the ducal acres, the ducal purse, and the ducal succession."

Alathea's gaze shifted to the tall, striking figure of the Duke of St. Ives. "I see." Devil was paying amazingly close attention to a haughtily commanding lady standing by his side. "The lady with him…?"

"Honoria, his duchess."

"Ah!" Alathea nodded; Devil's intent gaze was now explained. She'd met all Gabriel's and Lucifer's male cousins occasionally over the years; she had no difficulty picking them out from the crowd. The family resemblance was definite, their general handsomeness a byword, although they were all identifiably distinct, from Devil's striking, piratical looks, to Vane's cool grace, to Gabriel's classical features and Lucifer's dark beauty. "I can't see the other two." She scanned the crowd again.

"They're not here. Richard and his witch are resident in Scotland."

"His witch?"

"Well, his wife, but she truly is a witch of sorts. She's known as the Lady of the Vale in those parts."

"Indeed?"

"Mmm. And Demon's busy escorting his new wife on a prolonged tour of the racetracks."

"Racetracks?"

"They have a shared interest in racing Thoroughbreds."

"Oh." Alathea checked her mental list. "That leaves only you two still unwed."

Lucifer narrowed his eyes at her. "Et tu, Brute?"

Alathea smiled. "Merely an observation."

"Just as well, or I might be tempted to point out that those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

Alathea's smile didn't waver. "You know I've decided marriage isn't for me."

"I know you've told me so-what I've never understood is why."

Shaking her head, she looked away. "Never mind." Her gaze returned to the two blond beauties chatting gaily, studiously ignoring Gabriel's lounging, deliberately intimidating presence mere yards away. "Your young cousins-are they twins?"

"Yes. This is their second Season, but they are only eighteen."

"Eighteen?" Alathea glanced at Lucifer, then back at the girls, confirming the modish gowns a touch more elegant than permissable for a girl in her first Season, the more sophisticated hairstyles, the assurance in the girls' gestures. Considering Gabriel watching over them like a potentially lethal avenging angel, Alathea shook her head. "What on earth does he-you-think you're doing? If they're eighteen… why"-she swung to look at Mary and Alice talking in a group nearby-"Alice is only seventeen."

"She is?" Lucifer turned to stare at Mary and Alice. "Good Lord-I didn't notice they were here." He frowned, then glanced across the room at his cousins. "If you'll excuse me?"

Without waiting for an answer, he swooped on Mary and Alice. With effortless charm, he detached them from their circle. One on each arm, he bore them across the room. Alathea watched, the question of what he was doing fading from her mind as the answer presented itself. He introduced her sisters to his cousins-a moment later, he slipped away from the enlarged circle now containing all four young ladies surrounded by a bevy of exceedingly safe, exceedingly careful young gentlemen.