The Duke Is Mine - Eloisa James [96]
“I can’t leave you in a tree.”
“Yes, you certainly can. You go inside and have breakfast with everyone. I’ll come in later. That way no one will think that we spent the night doing wicked things in a tree, which I’m sure is what would come to mind if we appeared together. I know I often assume people are cavorting in trees.”
“I cannot leave you here,” he said patiently.
“I’ll be fine. You’re the one who fell out of that other tree, not me.”
Quin squatted down. “Olivia, wake up. We’re going inside, and I can’t carry you down.”
“Too tired. And too sore. I’m not climbing down until I’ve had a rest. Wake me in a few hours.”
That was an order. Quin stood up, as best as he could, and looked down at his future duchess. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully, a hand under her cheek, her gorgeous, tousled hair curling all over the blanket. She didn’t even have a pillow, and yet she looked blissfully comfortable.
He found he was grinning: he was rumpled and unwashed, and happier than he’d been in years.
She opened one eye.
“Bring some tea when you come back?”
“As I explained, footmen can’t negotiate up the ladder while carrying trays. Wait a minute—are you, Miss Lytton, asking a duke to fetch you some tea?”
Her eye closed again, but he saw the little curl of a smile on her mouth. She was testing her power, his Olivia was.
“Yes,” she said sweetly. “That’s what marriage is all about.”
“What is it all about?”
“Being nice because”—she smiled—“you want the other person to be nice to you.”
He brought her tea.
And crumpets.
Twenty-two
Wreathed in Glory
Early evening
"I simply cannot believe you did that!” It was a little insulting the way Georgiana was staring at Olivia, rather as if she were a two-headed calf at the fair. “No wonder you didn’t come to breakfast. Or lunch.”
“I slept right through both. But it wasn’t as if we spent the night in the open air,” Olivia tried to explain. “It’s a tiny house; it just happens to be up in a tree.”
Georgiana snapped her mouth shut. Her eyes were laughing, though. “I simply cannot believe it. No one could get me into a tree. I’m quite certain that you found the one man in the world who likes to climb trees.”
“It’s rather amazing, isn’t it?” Olivia said. She could hardly put it into words. “He’s everything I would have dreamed of, if I’d thought that I could dream.”
Georgiana shook her head. “Even you couldn’t have dreamed up a man who likes to sleep in trees.”
“I know.” Olivia was so happy that she felt as if she were about to burst. “How was luncheon?”
“We should join the party in the drawing room,” Georgiana said, starting. “Her Grace is terribly irritable. She clearly suspects there’s a reason you missed breakfast and luncheon. None of the houseguests have departed, and I gather some plan to stay for at least a week. She was quite short with Mr. Epicure Dapper—the gentleman with the remarkable addiction to puffed shoulders on his coats.”
Olivia snorted. “How the mighty have fallen!”
“Lord Justin takes positive delight in tormenting her, you know. After luncheon, the young ladies all begged him to sing for them, and he sang French songs!”
“He is half French, is he not?” Olivia held open the bedchamber door so that Georgiana could precede her. “Why shouldn’t he sing in his native language?”
“Oh, Olivia, you know perfectly well that French songs are nothing like English ones. They sound improper even when they aren’t.”
“Her irritability has nothing to do with Justin’s propensity for singing in his mother’s tongue.”
Georgiana stopped short at the top of the stairway. “Don’t tell me you crossed swords with her again last night.”
“Aren’t you glad you weren’t with us? It would have given you a double migraine, if such a thing exists.”
Olivia started down, but Georgiana caught her arm. “Tell me all, please.”
“If you remember, you sent me into the library and said that Quin would follow.”
“Which he did. I watched him track you through