She gave a curt laugh. “Do you? That was a rather quick assessment.”

“The twins gossip. Alice reads. They’re not complaining about the tasks set before them. They have dreams. They aren’t that different from Fancy.”

“Did you think they would be?”

He wasn’t quite certain what he’d expected. He wished he’d known Selena when she was their ages. How innocent might she have been? How had the burdens of caring for her family weighed on her? Finn had been a lad when he’d fallen in love with the woman who eventually became his wife. At the time Aiden had thought his brother a fool but now could see the advantage of knowing a person, of watching as circumstances slowly shaped the girl into the woman she would become. “If you have a son”—if I give you a boy—“what exactly would he inherit other than a title?”

Pursing her lips, she turned her attention once more to the traffic on the cobblestoned street, the people rushing along the bricked pathways. “The ducal estate—Sheffield Hall—as well as two earldoms.”

“He’d have three titles?”

“Yes.”

Three estates, three titles. He could never offer that to any other children he might have, if he had children. “Where is this Sheffield Hall?”

“Kent.”

“You can reach it in a day?”

“A few hours by coach.”

Possibly faster by railway, although that mode of transport put her at risk of being seen with him. Now he was the one staring at people going on about their lives. He’d always preferred the shadows, but damn if he didn’t want to walk with her in the sunlight, to not be a dark secret she would forever have to keep hidden away. But a dukedom and two earldoms were more than he would ever hold, and he wanted his children to have more than he could ever possibly attain. With a curt nod, he turned away from the window. “We’d best get to work here.”

She touched his arm. He stilled and glanced back at her.

“You’ve closed the doors of your gaming hell to Winslow—Lord Camberley. And you canceled his debt to you.”

“I didn’t cancel it. We wagered it. He won.”

Her expression was one of skepticism. “I should think a man skilled at sleight of hand when it comes to peas would be equally accomplished when it comes to manipulating cards.”

“What a cynic you are.” Although he had indeed known precisely where to find the two of hearts because he’d placed it on the bottom before he’d ever begun shuffling and had known how to keep it there. He’d wanted to ease at least one burden off her shoulders, although he couldn’t guarantee Camberley wouldn’t gamble elsewhere. “I’m actually surprised he confessed all that to you.”