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His brows remained up

"Am I not supposed to adonizingly long moment passed before he said, "You don’t think before you speak, do you?"

"Not very often," she ad toward the book "I thought youthan the newspaper"

It was just the sort of thing a man would say No one ever seemed to understand that she preferred the news of the day to silly figination

"Have you read it?" she asked, looking down as she opened to a randohly"

She looked up sharply "You have a sister?"

"You see"

She did She wasn’t sure why, except that her friends had seen fit to tell her everything about him, and somehow that had been left off

"She lives in Cornwall," he said, "surrounded by cliffs, legend, and a gaggle of small children"

"What a lovely description" And she meant it, too "Are you a devoted uncle?"

"No"

Her surprise must have shown, because he said, "A to "Touché, Sir Harry"

"I would like to be a devoted uncle," he told her, his s warm and true, "but I have not had the opportunity to meet any of them"

"Of course," she murmured "You were on the Continent for so htly to the side She wondered if he always did that when he was curious "You know quite a bit about me," he said

"Everyone knows that much about you" Really, the man should not be surprised

"There is not much privacy in London, is there?"

"Almost none at all" The words were out of her ht have just ading the topic

"I would love soiven him instructions, Sir Harry said, quite conversationally, "When I was in the army, that hat I missed the most"

"Tea?" That seeed for it"

"It wasn’t provided for you?" For some reason Olivia found this simply unacceptable

"So about his voice-wistful and young-made her smile "I do hope ours meets with your approval"

"I’m not picky"

"Really? I would think that with such a love for it, you would be a connoisseur"

"Rather, I ithout so hed "It was tea you entlemen of my acquaintance would say brandy Or port"

"Tea," he said firmly

"Do you drink coffee?"