“At your ball, remember?” Lily reminded Rose. “Afterward she asked us about kissing and knees dissolving.” George felt her cheeks heating. Lily might have difficulty reading, but she had an excellent memory. Drat it.

“Oh, yes, that’s right,” Rose said. “And then he kissed her again at Mrs. Gastonbury’s soirée and she completely lost track of where she was.”

“I did not!”

Rose arched an eyebrow. “So you knew all those people were coming out onto the landing, heading for supper? And you kept kissing him anyway?”

“No. I didn’t realize—”

“In other words, it was such a splendiferous kiss you lost all sense of where you were,” Rose concluded triumphantly. “So, one, she wants a baby, and two, she likes his kisses.” She numbered them off on her fingers. “What else?”

“Nothing else,” George mumbled, her face hot.

“Oh, yes, three, you didn’t like to make a fuss,” Rose agreed ironically, marking off a third finger. “You, who’s never worried about a fuss in your life. A most compelling case, m’lud. Now on the other hand, one, he’s clearly gone out of his way to entrap you—”

“Against my will!”

Rose waved a dismissive hand. “Pooh! He gave you the option of leaving and you didn’t take it. So one, he really wants you; two, he kisses like a dream—and you know, all the time he was betrothed to me he kissed like a . . . like a fish.”

“A fish?” George sat up, outraged. “He does not kiss like a fish!”

“See?” Rose winked at Lily. “Number three, she defends the glory of his kisses.” She laughed at George’s expression and added, “Seriously, he kissed me a couple of times, George, and . . . nothing. And that seemed to please him. Pleased us both, actually, neither of us wanting any emotion in a marriage—or so I thought at the time. It seems he’s changed his mind about that too.”

“Another one on the duke’s side,” Lily said. “Since the betrothal, he’s been attending parties with her—and you know he never used to. He never did with Rose, either. Penny Peplowe said he even went to Almack’s looking for George, and when she wasn’t there he stormed out.”

“Almack’s?” Rose said, impressed. “He hates Almack’s.”

“Possessive,” George muttered. Though she’d been quite impressed herself when he’d told her.

Lily continued, “Penny said he only began going to parties after people started saying nasty things about you entrapping him.”

George nodded. That was true. And she couldn’t help but be touched by it.

“So, five, he’s protective.”