And Rothhaven apparently forgot to hold it for her. They left the gallery nonetheless, Constance scooting through the door ahead of him.

“The doctor observed me for my own safety,” Rothhaven said, “the better to treat my illness.”

“Except he didn’t treat your illness, did he? He simply poked at you as if you were a lizard in a jar.”

“A ducal lizard, so he poked carefully. Where are we off to now?”

“My sitting room. It’s on the east side of the house, so we’ll have less sunshine at this time of day, and nobody can spy in the windows. Why are you allowing Nathaniel to hare off to Crofton Dike, or whatever the place is called?”

Rothhaven would not be hurried, though Constance now felt a sense of urgency about their destination. Quinn, Jane, Althea, and Nathaniel were strolling in the garden, which was a polite way to say Jane was offering Nathaniel private instructions on the proper behavior of a husband toward his beloved wife. Once that lecture concluded, Rothhaven would be expected to accompany his brother back to the Hall.

“Nathaniel’s estate is Crofton Ford, a pretty little cottage of twelve bedrooms that came to him through a maternal aunt.”

“And are you banishing him to this cottage? Not very gracious of you, Rothhaven.” She led him into her sitting room and drew the curtains closed. “The couch will do.”

Rothhaven stopped two feet inside the door. “I beg your pardon?”

“The couch.” Constance waved a hand at the emerald velvet upholstered settee. “The green will pick up the color of your eyes, though all I have to work with at present is a pencil. If you take that end”—she nodded toward the corner—“you’ll be half in shadow, which will give me an interesting challenge for a three-quarter profile.”

Rothhaven remained right where he was. “Does one or does one not typically ask a subject’s permission before sketching that subject?”

“Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. If I’m sitting in the park, a sketch pad open on my lap, and a pair of dowagers are feeding ducks ten feet from my bench, I don’t bother the ladies with a request to continue sketching. I will give you any drawing I complete, and you may do with it what you please.”

The point of the exercise for Constance was to better understand the second duke to whom she would have a family connection. One ducal title had cost her severely. A second was a daunting prospect.

“Very well,” Rothhaven said, “I consent to sit for your sketch. Do I understand that you would rather your sister set up housekeeping closer than twenty miles away?”