Royal Regard

Chapter Twelve, Part 2

As he stifled a guffaw, she looked down the winding path. "Will you walk with me?" she asked, "I had planned to see the roses but am not sure of the direction from this end of the palace, and was distracted by the light on the water."

He held out his arm, but she stayed a few steps away, shaking her head as she picked up her basket.

"No, thank you, Sir," she blushed, "I should not like to earn my husband's distrust."

Gesturing to offer the walkway, he took up a place beside her but slightly behind, so he might catch her arm if she lost her footing, but not crowd her elbow or make her feel overlooked if he forced her to follow.

"I can take you to the roses; I know the gardens well."

"I'm sure," she said, her lips twitching. "Most especially the trysting spots?"

"That is unfair, my lady," he grinned, "I have taken pleasure in these gardens since I was a boy." She raised her eyebrows at him, but he just maintained a look of innocence, rocking back on his heels. "I have destroyed hundreds—thousands—of blooms underfoot on these grounds, playing blind man's bluff and hide-and-seek with the royal children."

"Ah, so that is how you came to know Prinny so well."

"To some degree. I was the playmate of his younger siblings, but yes, I grew up in the halls of the House of Hanover."

As they walked and talked, he occasionally reached down to pick a flower, holding them in his hand behind his back. He didn't hope to surprise her, as she watched him each time, but he would wait to present the bouquet once they reached their destination and he might supplement his offering with the king's spectacular roses. She much more rarely and furtively took up a bloom for the basket she had been given by a footman at the king's direction and told to fill with flowers.

"My mother had hoped to marry me to the Princess Sophia," he explained, "but the young lady found me repellent from a very young age."

She stepped back, her mouth slightly open. Rather than remark on his proximity to royalty, however, she said, "Repellent? Quite a strong sentiment for a little girl. You must have been wretched."

"Ghastly," he agreed cheerfully, eyes twinkling. "It may have begun when her brother and I beheaded all of the dolls at her tea party." Bella questioning glance sought the rest of the story. "Playing Henry the Eighth, you see, and since Adolphus is the more direct descendant, I was relegated to executioner."

As they turned onto an avenue of ash trees, she smiled up at him, more warmly than she ever had before, and with a look he could assuredly identify as flirtatious. Until he realized she was turning her face up to the afternoon sun, drinking in the warmth after so much time under the canopy.

"You sound a horrid little boy. I am surprised the king hasn't long since thrown you in the Tower."

"He might yet, he assures me daily. In any case, Adolphus was sent to Hanover to school and became the Viceroy, and I to Eton, then Cambridge, then around the world, including a year in his viceregal court. When I returned to England, Prinny was curious about my travels, but as a child, I was well beneath his notice."

"Beneath the notice of the Prince of Wales. The privileged life of the ninth Duke of Wellbridge."

"One of—" The moment Nick realized he was nothing but a common braggart, he tried to stop himself, trailing off in a mumble, "eight titles..." He tried to salvage his honorable humility: "All earned by better men than I, you may be sure." But the die was cast.

"Eight titles? All right then, what are they?" She mocked him, somehow sweetly: "Or do you have a family retainer who does nothing but remember them all for you?"