by Wendy Vella
“I have no wish for my own company, Sir. Do you have a problem with me sitting with you?” The words were polite and spoken in that cultured voice Oliver would never be able to learn, even if he had all the tutors in England teaching him.
“The seat is yours, Your Grace, should you wish it,” Ace said.
The man pulled out the chair across from him and sat, placing his hat and gloves beside him on the table. There was something of his sister in the duke, even though his hair was graying and his eyes brown. He saw her in the line of the nose and shape of the jaw.
“Although we have yet to meet, I am sure I am in the company of Mr. Oliver Dillinger?” The Duke held out his hand and Ace shook it. It was firm and strong, and he pumped it twice before releasing it.
“I am Oliver Dillinger,” Ace confirmed.
“My brother and Luke speak highly of you, Sir, as does Finn.”
Ace had been raised in poverty and lived most of his life with men that didn’t know where their next meal came from. They had done whatever they could to scratch out an existence. He knew how to curse more colorfully than most, and could kill a man with his hands. Therefore, he had never been entirely comfortable around noblemen, believing his rough edges were only a wrong word away, nor did he trust them. There were a few exceptions to that, and the men the duke had mentioned were a few of those, in his opinion. However, Ace had learned quickly when he had stepped into the periphery of their world that most noblemen did not accept those they believed beneath them.
“Thank you, Your Grace. They are good men,” Ace said, nodding.
When he had started making money, his father had urged Ace to get a tutor, someone to school him in the correct manners and speech he would need to converse with men like the one seated across from him. He had taken that advice, simply because it had allowed him to go further in business and occasionally enter their social gatherings. However, he was still a coal miner’s son and nothing could disguise his roots and sitting with a man like the one across from him, who was one of the highest-ranking noblemen below royalty, with ancestors who lined his gallery in large, gilt-edged frames, made him itch.
“I will have what he is having.” The duke pointed at Ace’s meal as the barmaid appeared at his side. “And bring two tankards, if you please.”
Ace drank down the last of his ale. “You do not need to purchase me ale, Your Grace.”
“I wish for your company, Mr. Dillinger, and as you have finished your ale, I thought purchasing you another would make you stay.”
The duke offered him a gentle smile, and Ace wondered if this man was possibly another good one that he could add to the small list of noblemen he knew and respected.
“I understand you used to box for a living?” Ace shot the duke a look, but there appeared to be genuine curiosity on his face.
“I did, but it was not the gentleman’s version, Your Grace.”
“So I understand, from my brother. In fact, he said you had to be strong and cunning to survive as you did, and that you were unbeaten.”
Ace watched as the barmaid returned and placed the food and ale before them.
“It was not a pleasant way to earn a living. However, it kept me clothed and fed.” He watched the Duke take a deep pull on his ale, and when he lowered it there was white foam on his lip, which made Ace smile. Even Dukes could look foolish a time or two.
“Will you share the joke, Mr. Dillinger?”
“You have something on your lip, Your Grace.”
“My sister would have enjoyed that moment,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pristine white, neatly folded handkerchief. “In fact, had either of my siblings been here they would never have alerted me to that, so thank you, Mr. Dillinger. I shall return the favor one day.”
Ace didn’t think that likely.
“Do you have siblings?”
“Yes. Many of them, Your Grace.”
His smile grew wider. “Excellent creatures, siblings. They challenge you, torment you and often know you better than you know yourself. I must admit I could not imagine living without mine, although I’m sure my gray hair is a direct result of what they have put me through.”
Ace had walked away from his, but now they were back in his life he would never be without them again.
“Yes, they have their moments, Your Grace.”
“My brother went away to grow up, which tore my heart in two at the time, but the man who returned is worth two of any I know. But my sister…now, she is another matter entirely. “
Surprised that the duke was being so candid with a man that was a complete stranger, Ace was unsure what to say next, especially as he still had the taste of this man’s sister on his lips.
“I want her settled, Mr. Dillinger, and the perfect man has presented himself. However, my sister believes he is anything but.” The duke stared into his mug after he spoke, lost in thought.
Ace knew this was the news Lady Althea had received that had unsettled her. It certainly unsettled him. He could never marry her, but the thought of another man having her disturbed him, which just showed him that the sooner she was married the better it would be.
“Forgive me,” the duke said, lifting his head, a smile on his face once more. I should not have aired my troubles with you, Mr. Dillinger. I’m not sure what came over me.”
“You’re a powerful man, Your Grace, with many worries. I should imagine, like me, your family is more important to you than anything else in your life.”
“Very insightful, Mr. Dillinger, and thank you for understanding.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes. It was surprisingly comfortable as around them, the steady hum of voices ebbed and flowed.
The duke was the first to break it. “I believe you are responsible for the Sansrow housing development just outside London, Mr. Dillinger?”
“I am,” Ace said slowly as he studied the Duke. Some noblemen were against change. They wanted their world to stay as it was with them on top and those beneath them a great dealer lower on the social ladder.
“I must congratulate you, Sir. It is a worthy project and one that will house a great many people in need of solid foundations in which to raise their families.”
“Thank you.”
“Will you tell me about the building process? I have to admit it intrigues me.”
Ace nearly shook his head at the Duke’s question. Surely the man was making fun of him?
The Duke of Rossetter sighed loudly as he saw the look of confusion on Ace’s face.
“Being a Duke makes me no less a man, Mr. Dillinger. I can still be intrigued by things like foundations and building materials.”
“There’s no doubting they are interesting subjects. I’ll acknowledge that, Your Grace.” Ace watched the Duke lean toward him, eyes lit with intelligence.
“I understand that buildings now have external walls of stone or brick due to the regulations in place?” he asked.
Ace wasn’t sure how long he sat with the Duke and talked about his business, and for that small window of time they were just two men, interested in the same things. Lady Althea’s brother had a sharp mind, and Ace enjoyed the conversation they shared. If he felt a tug of guilt over this treatment of his sister earlier, he pushed it aside, and after his initial reluctance to talk with the man he had found himself relaxing. When it was time to retire for the evening, he left the peer knowing he had indeed added another to the list of noblemen he respected. However, this one he would be staying away from, as with him came his sister.
Chapter Three
“I have asked you the same question three times, Thea. Care to tell me what has you so deep in thought you cannot reply?”
Lady Althea Ryder looked across the carriage at her brother. He was the sixth Duke of Rossetter and the head of their family. Unlike Will, her other brother, Joseph’s dark hair was peppered with gray. His eyes where brown, almost black, and he could look at a person and reduce them to a quivering mess in secon
ds. However, Thea was not one of those people; she’d had far too much experience. This man had raised her after their parents died, and Will’s departure for India. He had been brother and father to her and she loved him dearly, even when he was trying to control her, which was often.
“Apologies, brother. Perhaps it is that Lord Howarth has asked for my hand in marriage, and you wish for me to accept?”
“I want you to consider it, Thea,” he corrected her. “He is a good man with well-maintained estates who is wise with his money. Is it so wrong of me to want you happily settled?”
“No it is not, and yes, I know he is a good man. But I feel nothing for him, Joe, and until you told me of his proposal I had not believed he showed me any more interest than the next woman. Therefore, I’m not entirely sure he feels anything for me, either.”
“Love is built, Thea. It does not hit like a flash of lightening,” the duke said.
“When did you know you loved Penny?”
He lowered his eyes briefly, which told Thea he was about to avoid her question.
“We are not talking about Penny and me.”
“No, we are talking about me and my future,” Thea said softly. “You said we would leave any final decision until our return to Twoaks, Joe. Is this still the case?”
“It is, but at least give it some thought, Thea. That is all I ask of you.”
Thea nodded. As if she could think about anything else. Although now she had Mr. Dillinger in her head, also.
“Will you be all right staying with Luke and Bella while I attend my business meetings, sister?”
Pleased he had changed the subject, Thea gladly answered. “I have told you numerous times I will be more than happy with Bella and Luke, Joe, as you very well know. Furthermore, I am here for that very purpose and no other. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, when your wife and son left to visit with her family, I begged you to bring me with you to London.”
He harrumphed something before adding, “I was just making sure you were still happy with these arrangements, Thea.”
“And if I weren’t? Would you turn the carriage around and take me back to Twoaks, or would I be forced to sit through your meetings?” She smiled sweetly at him, knowing that would annoy him further, but instead he bared his teeth at her and then looked back down at the sheaf of papers in his hand.
If she was being honest, her brothers were the problem in her life, because Thea had never been able to find a man who was their equal. They were everything she wanted in a future husband—kind, funny, stern, arrogant and so much more. They both had such a capacity to love and never failed to let the recipients of that love know how much they meant to them. It was unconditional, all-encompassing and fiercely protective, and one day she wanted to love as they did.
She had lain in bed last night and thought about Oliver Dillinger. Thought about how he had told her that she would conform to his way of things or he would carry her out of that barn. Usually, only her brothers spoke to her like that. His lips and hands on her, his arms lifting her when she had fallen, and holding her against his muscled chest had been so clear when she closed her eyes, that her body had tingled at the memory.
Thea had reasoned Ted into taking her to that fight, telling him it had always been her fondest wish to visit just such an event, fool that she was. She cringed at the memory of how she had reacted to those punches and the blood. Dear lord, what must Mr. Dillinger think of her in the cool clear morning light? She had acted like the women she often condemned for their empty-headed behavior.
“What?”
“What?” Thea fired back at her brother as she glared at him for interrupting her thoughts.
“You sighed, and as you are always telling me that sighing in that manner is reserved for those wishing to draw attention to themselves, but have no words at their disposal to do so, I wondered what you were trying to say through your sigh.”
“Do you ever forget anything I say, or do you just store it in the large, empty cavern inside your head and trot it out when the appropriate situation arises,” Thea asked.
“Now, that’s a contradiction. First, I have an empty head and then I have much stored in it. Really, sister, you are proving far too easy to annoy today which would suggest your thoughts are preoccupied. Care to tell me what with?”
He was smiling now, a gentle smile that spoke of the love he felt for her. She knew he wanted her comfortably settled, her future secured, yet the thought of marriage to Lord Howarth was not a pleasing one.
He was not a horrid man, just a boring one whom she felt nothing for. There was no tingle of awareness as there had been with Mr. Dillinger, no little shiver when his hand touched hers. Thea thought that perhaps using Mr. Dillinger as a measure was not a good move on her part, because he was unlike any man she knew, or was ever likely to again.
“I am contemplating my life and what I want from it, if you must know, brother,” Thea lied. She was not about to tell her brother her true thoughts, nor about a certain large, handsome gentleman. “And also contemplating how to tell you I have no wish to marry Lord Howarth.”
This time, it was he who sighed. “He is a good man, Thea, and will make sure you are comfortably situated.”
“My slippers do that.”
“But your slippers will wear out, love.”
“I’ll think about it, Joe.”
He gave her a gentle smile. “That is all I ask of you. Of course, Penny told me I was a fool to hope you would just accept his offer without question.”
“Your wife is a woman of intelligence, her only lapse being her belief that the sun rises and sets when you choose it to.”
Joe’s entire face softened as he got that look he reserved for his wife and son. His dark eyes lightened and his lips titled slightly, as if his smile was a secret to be shared with only three people. Thea wanted to look like that one day when she thought of a man. Unfortunately, the only man who had remotely stirred her interest was one she could not have.
“I miss them,” Joseph said in a quiet voice.
Thea stood and reached across the carriage to give her brother a hug. He held her tight, and she enjoyed the feel of his arms around her and the familiar scent that had comforted her for years. She felt one large hand on her head. Both her brothers did that. It was their way of expressing comfort and love.
“We shall see them soon, Joe,” Thea said when she returned to her seat. “When they come to London and we all journey back to Twoaks for Christmas, and until then you have business to attend to, which will keep you occupied.”
“Yes, but Billy is growing every day and changing so much. I do not want to miss any of those changes, Thea, and of course Penny is changing too, with the expected arrival of our second child in April.”
Thea clapped her hands together. “Another niece or nephew to spoil!”
Joseph rolled his eyes and then lowered them to his papers once more, which left Thea alone with her thoughts again.
There was no getting around the fact she had made a fool of herself yesterday, and Mr. Dillinger had been too much of a gentleman to acknowledge that fact. Another of the major flaws in her character, according to her brothers, was her refusal to listen to reason once she had made up her mind on something. She had to acknowledge that yesterday she had showed little sense in attending that fight, even taking into consideration the fact she kissed Mr. Dillinger, which she would not have missed for anything…which surely made her a hussy.
“For pity’s sake, Thea, will you stop doing that!” Joe snapped.
“I’m testing out the theory a friend told me,” she said in reply.
“Oh, God, I’m almost afraid to ask.”
“When we discussed my aversion to sighing, my friend said that I should try it a time or two and see the effect it has on people…namely, men.”
Her brother’s brows drew together as he studied her.
“You’re spinning me a yarn Althea Ryder, and do you know how I know that?”
<
br /> “Enlighten me.” Thea waved a hand about as she yawned, then cast a glance out the window.
“You would never participate in such a conversation because, like Will and I, you have an aversion for the trivial and boring.”
He was right, of course, but she did not answer, instead poking out her tongue and looking out the window once more.
“Do you know Mr. Dillinger, sister?”
Dear God, had he found out about the boxing match? She kept her features composed as she appeared to think about his question.
“Large man with long hair. I believe he is friends with Luke?”
“The very one,” Joe said.
“I met him one day when I was with Bella. We were looking at a flower display in the park near where she and Luke now live. Why do you ask, Joe?”
“I met him last night and we shared some time over a few ales, and I found him an astute, intelligent man with a great vision for the future.”
“How so?” Oliver Dillinger intrigued her, and if Joe had information about him, she wanted to hear it.
“His building developments, the empire he has created and is still expanding,” Her brother waved a hand about. “It is quite amazing that a man from such humble beginnings can have achieved so much.”
“Because he has humble beginnings does not make him any less intelligent than you and I, brother.”
“I know that.” He flicked his wrist again. “What I meant was he has obviously learnt to read and write as an adult or much older than we did, Thea, and then gone on to learn what else he has needed to become the man he is today, and that cannot have been an easy task.”
“No, indeed,” she said, thinking about the man Oliver Dillinger was. She had not thought about what he had overcome to rise above his beginnings, but now it seemed she must, and in doing so, she realized that he was an even more impressive man than she had originally believed.
“He is not a man I would like as an enemy,” Joe added before he returned to his reading.
The first time Thea had met Oliver Dillinger, she’d felt as if someone had knocked her off her feet. She’d been out walking with her dearest friend, Bella Fletcher, when her husband Luke and Mr. Dillinger had approached. Of course she hadn’t shown her reaction, treating him as she did everyone else, but she had felt it.