Robert chuckled at the suggestion. “Matrimonial hell, my foot. It’s been two years since you married Suzette and you still can’t keep your hands off each other. Dear God, I caught you in the broom closet at the Handly tea just last week. And you and Christiana are no better,” he added dryly when Richard burst out laughing. “It wasn’t the stars you were showing Christiana when I caught you out in the gardens at that dinner at the Witherspoons’ the week before.”

When the two men just grinned unrepentantly, he shook his head. “I don’t know why I willingly spend any time with the four of you. You’re always billing and cooing, or slipping away to dark corners or empty rooms. It’s really rather nauseating.”

“Perhaps what you think is nausea is really envy,” Daniel suggested with a grin.

“Hmm.” Robert didn’t deny it, but merely said, “Envy or nausea, it matters little. The men in my family have no luck with marriage. My father, his father, and his father’s father before him all married faithless, adulterous women. Hell, it’s only getting worse. Not only was my mother unfaithful, there’s a possibility that she helped my father on his way into death’s sweet sleep so she could openly be with her lover, Lord Gower.” Robert shook his head. “No thank you. I shall wait until I am old and decrepit before marrying and do it only then to fulfill my duty and produce an heir to the dukedom before I toddle off to the grave. Until then, I am perfectly happy with my mistress.”

He glanced around again for a servant to refill his drink. Not spying one, he turned back to find both men now solemn faced and silent.

“What?” he asked dryly. “Surely you’d heard the rumors?”

Daniel and Richard exchanged a glance and then Daniel sighed and admitted, “Aye, but we weren’t sure you had.”

“Of course, I did,” he said grimly. “She hasn’t exactly been discreet. She didn’t bother with mourning at all, has attended London ever since and is often seen in Gower’s company.”

Richard nodded and then asked solemnly, “Do you really think she had something to do with your father’s death?”