Clayton proceeded to the table and crouched down to survey the tableau arranged there. “I see you’ve assembled two large armies. The mighty British infantry against the French forces.”

“Oh no, Mr. Duke! It’s the mighty ’Mericans against the British. We’ll beat the lobster backs, push them right into the sea. Bang! Bang!” Leo used one of the soldiers to knock several of the others off the table.

He ruffled the boy’s hair. “Then I had best play the part of the British before they’re utterly decimated.”

“De-cim-ated?”

“Destroyed. Trounced. Defeated.”

“Ha! They will be de-cim-ated ’cause the ’Mericans are the bravest! Pow!” Leo sent another soldier flying.

Natalie parted her lips to remind him to behave politely, but stopped in surprise when Clayton went to his own side of the table and launched into an attack on the American troops, marching a company of soldiers forward into battle. The two armies fought in earnest with both man and boy uttering exuberant sound effects.

Watching the duke abandon his lordly demeanor brought a reluctant smile to her lips and a treacherous thawing to her heart. She would never have expected so lofty a gentleman to play with a child. Perhaps it was time to revise her initial impression of him being haughty and imperious.

No, he was still imperious, she amended. He was a man who had inherited his wealth and stature through an accident of birth. He’d never had to work a day in his life in order to earn the many luxuries that he enjoyed. She doubted he’d ever even spared a thought for all of the lesser beings who labored from dawn to dusk in order to make his life easy.

All of a sudden, she noticed that Lady Ellen was sidling toward the door. With her chin tucked down, she looked shy and reserved, unlike the lively girl of only a few minutes ago.

Natalie glided to her side. “Is something amiss?”

“No … yes,” Lady Ellen whispered. “Oh, I thought I was safe in the nursery. I came up here to escape him.”

Natalie kept her voice low, too, though the loud play across the room surely prevented Clayton from eavesdropping. “To escape the duke, you mean? But why?”

“Because my parents want me to marry him, that’s why. Mama said he intends to offer for me.”

The news jolted Natalie. No wonder the Duke of Clayton had made the journey to Oak Knoll; he was seeking a blue-blooded bride. But his second cousin? Even for the aristocracy, such an alliance seemed unpalatable. “He does appear to be quite a bit older than you.”

“Nearly a dozen years,” Lady Ellen groused in a barely audible hiss, her lower lip thrust out in a pout. “He’s ever so dull and dreary.”

Dull? Dreary? She might have been describing an entirely different man than the one who’d chased after Leo, offered them a ride when they’d missed the mail coach, and who was at this very moment engaging in imaginary combat with the boy. “Perhaps you only need time to become better acquainted with him.”