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“Poor Portia?” I scoff Isla can barely stand her “There’s nothing poor about Portia She knew exactly what she was getting herself into And truthfully, I don’t knohy she’s still hanging around”

“Because she fancies being a duchess, no doubt But I i in love, and that’s why I feel sorry for her You won’t marry her, and you won’t ever love her back”

“I could ht about it” Briefly Very briefly We’ll call it a ht and wrong Portia doesn’t love me She’s certainly never said so, and we’ve never had what youconnection Or even a passionate one, despite her sad doe-eyed ht at the dinner table “She is of our world Would you allow me to marry her?”

Even as I’ what I have to say to Portia An apology is due, and I’ll need to set her straight End what little there is between us

“Don’t be a callous arse,” she retorts vehe up on you, not when she told me she had a date this weekend”

“Did she?” My answer is uine “Anyone I know?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if last night didn’t drive her into his ar not to answer ine what she ”

A little sore, I should think A little achy, I consider as I rub a hand over my abs

“If I were her, I wouldn’t let you within two feet of me”

“It’s a good thing you’re not her then,” I say, pushing to my feet

Maybe I am my father’s son, after all Debauchery may be in my blood, but I’ve never behaved this way so close to home But Holland isn’t just a flash in the pan I’h to understand h for the away her future

“You see the sense in what I’,” my sister demands “You embarrassed them both”

“That wasn’t my intention” But I meant what I said when I told Holland I can only think ofher go “But I understand you feel they both deserve better than me”

“They deserve not to be played with”

She’s right But the knowledge doesn’t make me want Holland less

Or make me any less determined

As it turns out, I do find myself a little peckish, so I brave breakfast where I behave like cordiality itself There are no strange questions or funny looks because I am the duke And because Griffin and my sister aren’t there, fortunately I even arrive in tiesting someone find Portia—someone other than —and ask her if she’d like to join Matteo, Van, and the ghillie (the h the heather-covered hills thisI have very important dukedom business to attend to, of course Or so I tell thehillie’s dilapidated Land Rover, I dutifully report to Chrissy, contrite as any schoolboy Or rather, I buor answer her questions, tacitly suggesting it would be ungentlee