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"Why the surprise?"

"Oh, the dukeness of you," she said with a wave of her hand, wondering if she ht have drunk a bit too much Just to prove to herself that she hadn’t, she finished her glass

"My dukeness," Villiers repeated

"Swathed in velvet, from the moht of his lips , as if her soft parts becaht of him

"I was in love with a woled "Buxom and beautiful?"

"I actually don’t remember whether she was buxom," Villiers said "Certainly she wasn’t as fortunate in that regard as you" His eyes didn’t drop below her face "I would remember that"

"My bodice is a bit ss to "

He nodded

"Did Bess return your affection?"

"How could she not?" he asked There was so hard in his voice "I was already a duke"

"That needn’t have--"

He interrupted "Believe me, the barmaid who turns down a duke should be cast in bronze"

"Nonsense," Eleanor said tartly "You have a distorted idea of your own consequence" A thought occurred to her "Is Bess the e of his s

"My children really don’t bother you, do they?"

She considered that "Should they, on ious? Ethical?"

"Any of the above"

"I myself would prefer to have tidier domestic relations," she said "But I don’t see that it’s any of ree withme," he pointed out "Or so you said"

Eleanor reached out and took his glass of anisette He had barely tasted it, after all "Perhaps An announcement before my mother is hardly a commitment Either of us may decide that ould rather marry another"

"You would consider our betrothal a tentative one?"

She glanced deliberately at Roland He looked like the e of love She listened for aher sixth husband, but the principle was the saested

"Never"

"I don’t either," she sighed

"Bess is not the mother of any of ht," Eleanor said agreeably