Dating the Duke (The Aristocrat Diaries 2)

In fact, everyone seemed to love him.

Not that it was hard to see why. From everything I knew, he was an easy person to love.

Not that I loved him.

No.

That was too much. Too soon. Too… nope.

Not me.

Yet the more I watched him interact with people of all ages, the more I had to wonder.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE – ALEXANDER

Thank God all the bloody rabbits had gone.

There was just one more litter to go, then I was done breeding them. Yesterday had been the longest day known to man by the time we’d helped George pack up and get everything back to the pet store, including the animals he was holding onto.

Today wasn’t going to be any shorter by the time we’d been to the fair tonight.

Personally, I thought it was a terrible idea. All the noise and lights would overwhelm Olympia after twenty minutes—if we were lucky—and then she’d beg to go home.

Which was fine. I’d never make her stay in a situation that was uncomfortable for her, but I was going to enjoy telling her that I’d told her so.

Because I had. Told her. That it was a bad idea.

Naturally, like most ten-year-olds, she thought she was absolutely correct in the assumption that it would be fine.

She insisted on learning the hard way, so the hard way it would be.

I made a couple of phone calls to check in with some tenants. One of the young couples had just had a baby boy, and I made a note to have one of my staff pull together a gift box full of baby things, plus a gift card for a local takeaway for the new parents. Not to mention check to see if anyone could lend a hand while the new mum recovered.

The next few hours were filled with emails, more phone calls, assigning bits of work to various people on my team, checking in with both my accountant and my lawyer, and general banging of my head against the desk.

“You seem stressed, sir,” Boris said, carrying in a tray of tea. “Should I bring something stronger for the tea?”

I chuckled and pushed the laptop away. “Thank you, Boris. Your timing is excellent, as usual.”

“I waited for you to bang your head against the desk five times.” He smiled and set the tray down on the table, then poured me a cup. “Here you are, sir.”

“Thank you.” I took the cup gratefully and sipped. “You don’t know where everyone is, do you?”

“Everyone? Are we actually talking about everyone, or are you more interested in the whereabouts of young Miss Astley?” His eyes twinkled.

“Everyone,” I replied, but my lips twitched up.

“Very well, sir.” He straightened and clasped his hands behind his back. “I believe Lady Olympia is pretending she hasn’t smuggled a cat into her bedroom.”

“Of course,” I muttered.

“And the last time I saw Lady Elizabeth and Miss Astley, they were in the conservatory, and your mother was showing her rather a large collection of photos of you as a nude baby.”

She was what?

“I’m sorry. Can you repeat that?”

“Yes, sir. Your mother has the photo albums out. Judging by the stack of them on the table, she’s up to your toddler years now.”

“Bloody hell! Why didn’t you say?” I closed the laptop down.

Boris’s lips twitched, despite his best efforts not to smile. “You were working and asked not to be disturbed, sir.”

“Boris, my dear man.” I stood and put my hand on his arm. “Anytime my mother gets out those blasted photo albums, it means two things: someone fetches me, and she’s trying to convince the person she’s showing them to to marry me.”

“Forgive me for saying so, but is Miss Astley the worst person she could show them to?”

“Do not go down that route.”

“You get along splendidly, sir, and Lady Olympia is quite taken with her.”

“Boris.”

He held up his hands, but the twinkle of mischief in his eye didn’t disappear. “Just an observation.”

I ran my tongue over my teeth and sighed. “Fine. I’ll admit it. I’m very fond of Adelaide.”

“As she is you, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Perhaps not in the same way I am her,” I said slowly. “Unfortunately.”

Boris’s thick eyebrows raised, making his forehead wrinkle. “I would not be so quick to assume that, sir.”

I eyed him for a moment, then shook my head. “Thank you, but she’s made it clear to me that she’s not interested in a relationship, so I’m not entirely sure.”

He nodded slowly. “Well, I suspect they’re up to age four by now in the albums.”

“Right. Of course. Would you mind going to check on Olympia? And pretend there isn’t a cat in her bedroom while I decide what to do with the darn things.”

Boris smiled. “Yes, sir.”

“Thank you.” I finished the cup of tea. “I’ll go and rescue Adelaide from my mother.”

I followed him out of my office and walked through the house. This place was bloody massive, and it really did take a good couple of minutes to get from one side to the other. I deliberately kept my office in one of the old dining rooms on the side we rarely used because it was much quieter there. The only time I was really interrupted was either for a catastrophic emergency or because we had the serious cleaning crew in on their monthly deep clean.