A Secret Love (Cynster 5)

Gabriel returned the smile. "Still keeping watch on Minnie's pearls?"

"No more threat, thank goodness. I'm staying with Vane and Patience, but I stop by to take a stroll with Minnie now and then."

Although just eighteen, Gerrard appeared older, his assurance in part due to his brother-in-law's influence; it was Vane's elegant hand Gabriel detected behind Gerrard's fashionable town rig. At close to six feet, Gerrard had the height and breadth of shoulder to carry the austere lines. The rest of his appearance, his easygoing demeanor, his directness and self-confidence, could largely be laid at his sister's door; Patience Cynster was the very epitome of directness.

Gabriel opened his mouth, then quickly shut it. He needed to think. Gerrard was, after all, only eighteen, and there were risks involved. And he was Patience's brother.

"We're going to look in at Asprey's." Minnie fixed him with an innocent look. "Perhaps there's some little thing you need from there?"

Gabriel returned the look with one equally innocent. "Not at present." The image of the countess drifted through his mind. Perhaps, after she'd rewarded him, he would reward her. Diamonds would look well on such a tall woman. Filing the thought away, he bowed. "I won't keep you." With a humph softened by a smile, Minnie nodded.

Timms took her arm and they moved on. With a grin and a nod, Gerrard turned to follow. Gabriel hesitated, then called, "Gerrard?" Gerrard turned back. "Yes?"

"Do you know where Vane is at present?"

"If you want him, try Manton's. I know he was going to meet Devil there sometime this afternoon." With a brisk salute, Gabriel headed for Manton's.

"It'll have to be August." Devil extended his arm and pulled the trigger. His shot was an inch off the center of the target.

Vane squinted down the alley. "That seems awfully close. Is Richard sure?"

"As I understood it, it's Catriona who's sure. Richard, at this stage, isn't sure of anything."

Moving past Devil to take his shot, Vane grimaced. "I know the feeling."

"What's this?" Lounging against the partition wall, Gabriel fixed them with a look of mock dismay. "A lesson for expectant fathers?"

Devil grinned. "Come to learn?"

"Thank you, no."

Grimly, Vane sighted down the long barrel of his pistol. "You'll come to this, too."

Gabriel grimaced. "Someday perhaps, but spare me my innocence. No details, please."

Both Honoria, Devil's duchess, and Patience were pregnant. While Devil was displaying the detachment of one who'd been through the wringer before, Vane was already edgy. He pulled the trigger. As the smoke cleared, they saw his bullet had barely nicked the target.

Devil sent the attendant to get another pistol, then turned to Gabriel. "I assume you've heard that our mothers have determined on a special family gathering to welcome Catriona into the family?"

"She's definitely coming down, then?"

Devil nodded. "Mama had a letter from her yesterday. Catriona's decreed she can travel until the end of August.

What with Honoria due early July and Patience later that month, it'll have to be August for this celebration of theirs."

Gabriel blinked, replaying Devil's words. "Don't tell me Richard's joined your club."

"He has indeed." Vane grinned evilly. "Now all it needs is for Demon and Flick to get back from their wanderings with Flick blooming, so to speak, and just think where that'll leave you come August."

Gabriel swore. "I'd better warn Lucifer. Mama is going to be impossible."

"You could, of course, cheer her up."

The look Gabriel leveled at Devil was that of a man betrayed. "That is a truly horrible thought."

Devil laughed. "Strange to say one gets used to the state." One black brow arched suggestively. "There are compensations."

"There'd have to be," Gabriel muttered.