Dangerous in Diamonds - Madeline Hunter [45]
“I heard a rumor about you this afternoon, Castleford.”
Hawkeswell shared the news with a mysterious wiggling of his eyebrows.
“What rumor? I hope it was a good one.”
Happy peals of laughter greeted that, as if he had displayed great wit. Daphne joined in simply because laughing felt good.
Everyone had been enjoying dinner under the stars while the boat slowly steered from one riverbank to the other and back again, in a slow meander upriver. A good deal of wine had been had, and even commonplace comments had begun to strike them as droll some time ago. Daphne admitted her own sense of humor had improved considerably in the last hour due to the warm glow induced by the unbelievably rich liquid.
She looked at Castleford, who waited for a response to his query. He appeared surprisingly unaffected by that which lubricated their revelry, but then he had more practice than most with such things.
Except, now that she thought about it, perhaps he had poured more into her glass than his own since they sat down. He had imbibed to be sure, but if she put her mind to it, she suspected he had consumed fewer glasses than his guests. Including her.
“Let me see if I can remember all of it.” Hawkeswell frowned over the effort.
“I remind you that there are ladies present,” Albrighton said. “Perhaps all of it is not wise?”
The ladies thought that was very funny. Verity and Celia could not contain their giggles.
“I heard that you have sent a crew of engineers and whatnot out to some property you own somewhere, looking for gold or something,” Hawkeswell rambled out.
Daphne’s mirth caught in her throat. She glanced askance at Castleford. He made a dismissive gesture, deciding the gossip was not important after all.
“I have some men checking some farmland. I was advised to consider it due to discoveries nearby.”
“I trust that if anything is found of value, and you form a syndicate to mine some treasure, that you will inform your friends first,” Hawkeswell said.
“I do not expect anything to come of it. The enterprise is so minor that I am surprised it is grist for the rumor mill. Where did you hear about it?”
“At Brooks’s. To be fair, I overheard it, but the two fellows were whispering so loudly I could not avoid it.”
“Which fellows?”
“Their chairs were turned away. I could hardly go peer around to see who they were.”
“You are known to have a Midas touch, Castleford. It is inevitable that your activities will attract interest, if men think money is going to be made,” Albrighton said.
Castleford did not demur regarding that praise. Instead he sighed, as if this were just one more burden he carried on his privileged shoulders. “They waste their time, but it is theirs to waste. Still, it is a nuisance if my every move is noted.”
Albrighton looked at him in a way that implied he saw much more than the duke ever thought he revealed. “I expect one of those engineers or whatnots spoke indiscreetly, and it got out.”
Hawkeswell lost interest in the gossip as quickly as he had thought of it. He stood and offered his hand to Verity. “If you do not mind, Castleford, I think that I will take a turn around the deck with my wife and enjoy the night sky before we arrive at the gardens and face the noisy crowds.”
The two of them wandered off and soon became a single silhouette fading away. Celia looked at Jonathan. A slow smile on his face responded to a teasing one on hers, then they were gone without even taking their leave.
Daphne craned her neck this way and that to see either couple. She was dismayed that her friends had abandoned her, sitting on an upholstered settee next to Castleford, whom they knew could never be trusted.
“You will not see them,” he said. “They have strolled toward the stern. There are little pavilions there, done up like Arabic tents.”
“I think that perhaps I will take a turn as well and see these pavilions too.”
“I do not advise it, unless you want to witness true marital bliss.”
She was half standing