Who Wants to Marry a Duke - Sabrina Jeffries Page 0,57
king did seem like a nice man.”
“He certainly always treated me better than I deserved,” Thorn said, and the look of affection that passed between him and his twin made Olivia envious. She would so have enjoyed having a brother or sister.
“The stories you and your siblings must have about growing up in Prussia in a large family,” Olivia said. “My childhood was so dull by comparison. It was just Mama and I most of the time. Indeed, since this is the longest I’ve ever been away from Mama, I worry she might get lonely while I’m gone.”
“Your mother is a widow?” Mr. Juncker asked.
Olivia could feel Thorn’s gaze on her. “She might as well be. Papa is always in London for some reason or another, it seems. Except during hunting season, when he tramps the woods every day. And even when we’re in the city with him, he’s at his club or Parliament or . . . who knows where else.” She didn’t want to know, honestly. The possibility that her father might have a mistress always bothered her.
“Yet you enjoy plays about men who get into trouble in the city,” Thorn pointed out.
“Not men,” Olivia said. “Bachelors. Mr. Juncker’s plays are all about unmarried men and the scrapes they get into. But the plays mock those married men who act like bachelors.”
“Do they?” Mr. Juncker asked, with a glance at Thorn.
“Don’t look at me,” Thorn drawled. “You’re the one who writes the things.”
“Yes, but I don’t recall any part about mocking married men,” Mr. Juncker said.
Olivia frowned. “Like when Felix and his friend try to steal the mistresses of the married men? Or joke about the husbands’ big paunches? Or use the latest slang to poke fun at the men because they’re too old to know what the words mean?”
“Ah, right,” Mr. Juncker said. “Those parts.”
“So those scenes aren’t based on your experiences as a bachelor?” Olivia asked.
“A few are,” Mr. Juncker said. “Not as many as people think.”
Olivia stared at him. “Then where did you get your comic characters, like Lady Slyboots and Lady Grasping?”
Mr. Juncker tapped his head. “From here, my dear. They came from right up here. The best writers don’t work from real life, you see. They get their ideas from dreams and fancies and the merest whispers of the universe in their ears.”
“What rot,” Thorn muttered. “You only blather such nonsense when you’re trying to impress the ladies.”
“Someone must, since you’re making no effort to do so yourself,” Mr. Juncker said.
“I don’t need to make an effort,” Thorn snapped. “They already know me.”
“And what they know of you doesn’t seem to impress them,” Mr. Juncker said.
Olivia stifled a gasp. There was decided tension between the two gentlemen, and Mr. Juncker was definitely fanning the flames of it. But why?
“To be fair, Mr. Juncker,” Gwyn said, “Thorn sees no need to impress me because I’m his sister. Which is fine because I don’t feel a need to impress him, either.”
“And I prefer that gentlemen be themselves around me,” Olivia said. “I don’t need to have gentlemen flattering me. Not to mention that there’s nothing more worrisome than a gentleman who is obviously keeping secrets.”
“So you’d rather have the plain truth always, even if it might hurt your feelings?” Thorn asked.
Thinking of her father, Olivia met his gaze evenly. “I would.”
“Don’t be silly, my dear,” Gwyn said. “No woman really wants to hear from her husband that she talks too loudly or her eyes look puffy first thing in the morning.”
“That’s a brother’s task, not a husband’s,” Thorn said with a smirk. “I do my best to tell my sister the unvarnished truth.”
Gwyn thrust her tongue out at him before turning to Olivia. “Trust me, there are some things a husband should keep secret from his wife for all time.”
“If you say so,” Olivia said. “As an unmarried lady I don’t know about that. But Mama would probably prefer that Papa be more honest with her about where he spends his evenings.”
“Oh, in such a case as that, I agree,” Gwyn said. “Joshua knows if I caught him doing anything he shouldn’t with his evenings, I would hand him his head on a platter.”
Thorn chuckled. “The only person Major Wolfe is afraid of in this world is my sister. Actually, she’s the only person I’m afraid of.”
Mr. Juncker shuddered. “Precisely why I’m still unwed.”
“As am I.” Thorn met Olivia’s gaze. “Although I begin to see the advantages of having a wife.”