3
" Mr. Edwards.” The fellow rose. “Jackson Naylor at your service. What a strange hour for you to be attending to bank business. Perhaps you can explain why the false bottom in your desk drawer conceals nearly two thousand pounds in banknotes?”....
Naylor peered upward, at the shadows dancing on the ceiling. “You steal from family, but I am to be hanged, and Elsmore is to bribe the magistrates to see it done—do I have that right?”
“Elsmore will protect the reputation of this bank,” James said, “and if that means spreading a bit of coin around to keep lips buttoned, he’ll see itdone. I know him well, and I know how precarious a bank’s reputation is. You chose the wrong business to rob, Naylor.”
“Except,” a quiet voice said behind James, “he’s not robbing anybody. Why are you here at this late hour, James?”
Elsmore had silently closed the door behind James, though this was not a version of Elsmore James had seen before. "
― Grace Burrowes , Forever and a Duke (Rogues to Riches, #3)
7
" Come here,” Rex said, waggling his fingers. “You cannot go out in public with jam on your neck cloth.”
“I’m a papa,” Walden said. “I can go out in public in any state I please. As long as one of my daughters is grinning at my side, clutching me by the hand, I will be forgiven any number of minor imperfections in my wardrobe.”
“This imperfection is a jam stain,” Rex said, “not a badge of honor.” He retied Walden’s cravat so the stain wasn’t visible.
“It’s both,” Walden said, using his reflection in a glass breakfront to survey Rex’s handiwork. “I hope you learn that one day soon. "
― Grace Burrowes , Forever and a Duke (Rogues to Riches, #3)
9
" We’ll go to France,” Elsmore said, stepping closer, “if that’s what you want. We’ll live in obscurity at Ambledown. I’ll deed it to you and we’ll live there in sin. We’ll set up a household in York, but twelve estates, thirty-two near relations, a ducal title, a bloody box in Drury Lane, and shares in a damned bank mean nothing, Eleanora, if you force me to muddle on without you. I love you. "
― Grace Burrowes , Forever and a Duke (Rogues to Riches, #3)
16
" Can you answer a question for me?”
“Of course, Your Grace.”
“Why did you kiss me?” Despite getting to bed well past a decent hour, despite the eternities of socializing Rex’s evening had demanded, that question had robbed him of sleep.
“You kissed me first, sir.”
A gratifyingly nonsensical answer. “I kissed you because a gesture of affection under the circumstances seemed appropriate. I hope I did not offend.”
The ever articulate, always competent, not-to-be-daunted Mrs. Hatfield looked away. “You did not, and I hope I did not presume.”
“You rather did,” he said, tossing his scarf around his neck. “I adore you for it. Feel free to presume again whenever the mood strikes you. "
― Grace Burrowes , Forever and a Duke (Rogues to Riches, #3)
17
" For once, Rex got no argument from his auditor. She was snoring softly, her head on his shoulder, her hand casually resting on his thigh.
“Mrs. Hatfield?”
Nothing.
“Eleanora?”
A soft sigh.
Rex curled an arm around her lest she be bounced off the seat by some disobliging rut. She knew every clever device for stealing coin from a legitimate enterprise, but he would not have predicted that she also had the knack of sleeping in a moving vehicle.
“I’ve worn you out,” he murmured.
The miles rolled by, Eleanora slept, and Rex contemplated why it should be that the farther they trotted from London, the more peaceful and content he became, and the more pleased to be traveling to Ambledown with her. "
― Grace Burrowes , Forever and a Duke (Rogues to Riches, #3)
19
" Rex opened her bedroom door, letting a warm draft into the corridor.
“I’ll light your candles,” he said, gesturing her to precede him into her sitting room. “You are doing more than performing a service, Eleanora. You allow me to raise difficult questions with absolute faith that my confidences will not be betrayed. You take my interests to heart. You instruct me on matters nobody has seen fit to include in my ducal education. I am indebted to you.”
He was also attracted to her, and not in the casual sense he was attracted to any comely female. He liked watching her mind work. He liked arguing with her. He liked hearing the click of the abacus beads because she moved them around with the brisk speed of a sharpshooter wielding a favorite weapon.
She closed the door, plunging the room into deep gloom.
“Somebody kept my fires built up,” she said. “You cannot imagine what a luxury that is for me.”
She wore a plain wool shawl when he wanted to wrap her in cashmere and silk. Her bun was drooping, and he yearned to unravel the lot and learn how long her hair was, learn the feel of it in his hands.
He wanted…her. To cherish, explore, appreciate, and indulge.
“The bedroom candles, if you please, Elsmore. I’ll not be using the parlor tonight.”
A man intent on observing propriety would pass her the candle, bow, and wish her sound slumbers. Rex thought back over the day, when Eleanora had slept so trustingly against his side in the coach. She’d come to dinner with the barest minimum of a fuss.
She’d patted his hand.
She’d toed off her house slippers in his presence.
She’d taken his arm as she’d traversed the steps.
Now, she was inviting him into her bedroom on the most mundane of pretexts. "
― Grace Burrowes , Forever and a Duke (Rogues to Riches, #3)
