How to Dazzle a Duke (7 page)

make such sense as both were unmarried and at that point in

life where marriage was a near certainty. On the other hand, it

did not seem at all logical that three sons of the same father

should find themselves married within the same Season. The

odds were flagrantly against it.

Where odds were concerned, Edenham was well aware that

Sophia Dalby was not to be discounted. Indeed, the odds, no

matter how rigorously stacked against logic, invariably fell her

way.
Toppled
, one might even say. Edenham crossed his legs and

watched the entertainment currently under way in the white

salon of Dalby House, wondering if there were a bet on White’s

book and what the odds were on an Iveston–Prestwick pairing.

By the frozen looks of complete indifference they were hurl

ing at each other at the moment, he’d put them at eight to one.

How to Daz zle a Duke

43

“A gift?” Sophia exclaimed in obvious delight. “But I can’t think

why you should offer me a gift, Lord Cranleigh. I shouldn’t have

thought we were as intimate as all that.”

Cranleigh, who did have the reputation for having the grim

mest temperament, and who should have been expected to respond

with some dismal and dismissive comment, chuckled. It was quite

stunning. Marriage to Lady Amelia clearly agreed with him com

pletely.

“It is,” Cranleigh said, unwrapping the parcel with great care,

“something of a family tradition, or shall be, I fear.” Which made

not a bit of sense to Edenham, nor to Mr. and Miss Prestwick to

judge by their expressions, but which caused Sophia to grin fully

and most, most delightedly. “I hope it pleases you, Lady Dalby.

I trust you understand the reason behind the gift.”

And upon those words, Cranleigh revealed the most exquisite

Chinese vase in the most extraordinarily vivid shade of blue.

“Cranleigh, it is a most generous gift,” Sophia said brightly,

“and I would tell you that I am hardly worthy of it, but it is so

lovely that I must and I will toss all civility onto the street. It is

marvelous, darling. I don’t feel I deserve it, but I will cherish it

all my life. Thank you, Lord Cranleigh,” she finished, her voice

gone soft and, startlingly, quite sincere.

“It is quite beautiful, isn’t it?” Lord Iveston said, his expres

sion very nearly wistful. “That blue, it’s very nearly the exact

shade of Lady Amelia’s eyes, is it not?”

“It is
not
,” Cranleigh said stiffl y as Sophia took the vase from

his hands and admired it. “Amelia’s eyes are the precise shade of

the China Sea on a sun-drenched day. How peculiar that you

didn’t notice that, Iveston.”

“As I have not seen the China Sea,” Iveston remarked mildly,

“I should perhaps be allowed some latitude.”

“The color of the China Sea?” Miss Prestwick said slowly and

not at all happily, perhaps because her own eyes were the precise

44 CLAUDIA DAIN

shading of a lump of coal? Not unattractive, but still, not the

China Sea either. “I had no idea you were so well traveled, Lord

Cranleigh. Have you been to China often?”

“Only once, I’m afraid. I had thought to return, but—”

“He got himself married instead,” Iveston interrupted cordially,

ignoring the Prestwicks completely. It was most entertaining.

“Have you traveled widely, your grace?” Miss Prestwick

asked him.

Before he could answer, Sophia said, still studying her

rectangular-shaped vase, “How could he have done, Miss Prest

wick, when he is forever getting married again and again?”

“And again,” Edenham added with a smirk. “Thrice. I do

think accuracy must be maintained, Lady Dalby. Have you trav

eled, Miss Prestwick?” he asked. What
was
Sophia about, to

manhandle the girl so? It wasn’t at all like her. Sophia was, as

everyone knew, far more subtle.

“I’m afraid not, your grace, though I should think I would

enjoy it,” Miss Prestwick said, looking as eager and compliant as

all proper girls should look. It did become somewhat tiresome as

a steady diet.

“Perhaps on your wedding trip, Penelope,” George Prestwick

said brightly.

“Oh, are you planning your wedding trip already?” Sophia

said. “Have the groom in mind, do you? Do I know him?”

“I should think so,” Miss Prestwick replied sharply. “You

know so very many men, don’t you?”

Cranleigh coughed behind his hand. It was very likely he was

hiding a smile.

“Only the ones worth knowing,” Sophia answered calmly.

“Why Edenham is the perfect example. We have known each

other for years now. Quite a history we share, and such a cordial

one, too.”

How to Daz zle a Duke

45

Edenham knew very well how that sounded, but what did it

matter? He knew the truth and that was more than enough to

satisfy him.

“Except for a few odd exceptions,” Edenham said, “I should

think all your relationships are cordial ones.”

“With men, certainly,” Miss Prestwick said primly. Her

brother moved his hand near her skirts; it was entirely possible

that he pinched her. Miss Prestwick certainly gave every appear

ance of having been pinched.

“I, for one, find Lady Dalby completely cordial and most

charming,” Lord Iveston said softly, staring at Sophia, “and I

have just recently met her. Yet even in so recent a history, I am

nothing but delighted.”

Miss Prestwick said nothing. Really, what was there for her

to say at this point? She had made a muddle of it and now must

be made to sit quietly until the conversation took a turn onto less

fraught ground.

“It seems to me that a man who gets out as rarely as you do,

Lord Iveston, might not be as discerning as others might be,”

Miss Prestwick said. Miss Penelope Prestwick, somewhat shock

ingly, might be the sort of woman who could not be made to sit

quietly.

“It does not take an exceedingly great amount of exposure to

bad manners and an uncharitable spirit to recognize it upon

sight,” Iveston responded a bit stiffl y.

“Nor a great amount of exposure to recognize charity and

generosity, either,” Sophia said, “which are not in great supply no

matter what the politicians might wish us to believe. Therefore,

Lord Cranleigh, I again must thank you for giving me this vase.

Do you have a preference as to where I should display it?”

“It looks very well in this room, I should say,” Cranleigh said

with a half smile. “Perhaps in place of the celadon?”

46 CLAUDIA DAIN

Sophia smiled and said, “And what would Lord Henry say to

that slight? No, the celadon must stay. They look well together,

do you not agree, Lord Iveston?”

Edenham admitted, if only to himself, to being slightly

shocked. Henry Blakesley had given Sophia the celadon vase?

For what? The only thing that he could think of was that Lord

Henry was recently married. It could only be concluded that

he credited Sophia for arranging for the wife he’d desired. And

now Cranleigh, Henry’s brother, was also giving Sophia a piece

of rare porcelain . . . also in thanks for his newly acquired wife?

The puzzle piece of Miss Prestwick suddenly fit into place.

She wanted a husband and she had come to Sophia for aid in

acquiring one. A difficult piece to prove, but then, most things of

interest could not be proved, they could only be observed, dimly

at that.

Edenham opened his eyes wide and determined to give it his

best effort.

6

PENELOPE was giving it her very best effort, but the Duke of Edenham, who was even more handsome when observed in such an

intimate setting, did not appear to find her captivating in the

least. Of course, she was so annoyed at the Marquis of Iveston

and the Earl of Cranleigh for intruding upon what she had
hoped

would be a small and cozy gathering of merely four persons,

herself included, that she found it difficult to summon the will to

be captivating.

She wasn’t sure who to blame more, Iveston or Cranleigh. Of

course, Cranleigh had the gift, and therefore the best excuse for

ruining her plans to beard Edenham in Sophia’s den, but Iveston

seemed to take such joy in being loathsomely arrogant and dis

missive that she was inclined to blame him entirely.

How to Daz zle a Duke

47

In fact, she would. He might not have known that she was

coming to Dalby House to meet, in the most casual interpreta

tion of that word, the Duke of Edenham, but he was certainly

enjoying throwing his hammer into the works now. The look on

his face declared all. She might have initially thought him mildly

attractive in a very blond way, but as he now alternated between

ignoring her completely and casting condescending glances her

way, she thought him the most unattractive of men. It was going

to be so difficult to make good use of him to make Edenham

jealous, which had been Sophia’s plan all along, as was perfectly

obvious to her. Though what had gone amiss with her negotia

tions with Sophia of just an hour or so ago was completely be

yond her.

They had made an agreement, a most cordial one, and now

Sophia was treating her quite miserably. She had been forced by

the most basic rules of survival and self-preservation to protect

herself. And she had, though she did wonder, particularly after

George had pinched her on the thigh, if protecting herself had

been in quite good form.

She rather suspected not, which was decidedly unfair.

“Lady Dalby,” Iveston said softly in response to Sophia’s

question—his voice seemed to have a particularly soft quality no

matter what he said, which seemed perfectly ridiculous to her—“I

think two such stellar examples of art must always look well to

gether. Neither one eclipses the other.”

“How perfectly true, and quite diplomatic,” Sophia said with

a nod.

Diplomatic? Weak at the knees, more likely. He looked the

sort of man to blow over in a stiff wind, if he could be lured out

doors, that is.

It was going to be
so
difficult to pretend an interest in him.

Would Edenham even believe it? How could a man who looked

48 CLAUDIA DAIN

like Edenham, who behaved like Edenham, who had lived like

Edenham ever believe that he was to run second in any race,

particularly against a man like Iveston?

Oh, Iveston was not a bad-looking sort, not at all, if one liked

the type.

At the moment, she could not think of anyone who could pos

sibly like his type.

Iveston was so very blond, his eyes so brilliantly blue, his

form so attenuated, his manner so chilly, and his clear determi

nation to speak as little as possible . . . why, it put one in mind of

a particularly odd boy who had somehow stumbled in upon

the adults. Certainly Edenham put no one in mind of a boy,

odd or not.

“It is quite lovely,” Penelope said. “I don’t pretend to know the

reason for the gift, Lord Cranleigh, but you certainly have the

knack for choosing beauty.”

Iveston’s gaze swung toward her briefly. She kept a pleasant

look upon her face and ignored him.

“I must agree with you, Miss Prestwick,” Cranleigh said.

“Indeed, for who would argue that you have the most lovely

of wives, Lord Cranleigh,” Sophia said. “I do wonder that you

are not already on your wedding trip.”

“My wife is packing, Lady Dalby, or so she claims. I have

never found it to take more than an hour to have packed all I

shall need for a twelve month,” Cranleigh said with a brief smile.

For all that he was a formidable man, quite unlike his tepid

brother, he did appear quite taken with his wife. How admirable,

though not entirely ordinary. She certainly didn’t expect any

such thing.

“You shall soon learn differently, if you haven’t yet,” Edenham said. “A woman likes to squirrel away a myriad of things she

can’t possibly need. It gives her an odd sort of pleasure. You

are quite wise to indulge her.”

How to Daz zle a Duke

49

“Is it an indulgence to pack for a trip?” Sophia remarked

languidly. “A most peculiar perspective. Of course, I do suppose

she could buy whatever she needs when she arrives. Where are

you bound, Lord Cranleigh?”

As annoyed as she was with Sophia at the moment, Penelope

did find she agreed with her completely. Who ever heard of pack

ing being an indulgence? Edenham, for all his glorious looks,

might be a bit trying on occasion. She might well need to begin

packing for their wedding trip now, to save him the annoyance

of her doing it under his own roof. Yes, that seemed a stellar plan;

she’d begin as soon as she returned home.

“I am not completely certain, Lady Dalby,” Cranleigh said,

looking slightly less forbidding than usual. In fact, he looked very

nearly embarrassed. “As you may or may not be aware, I have

spent time abroad ship in the China Trade.”

“Lord Cranleigh, I am aware of it,” Sophia answered. “In