An odd season for it, I must say,” the duchess exclaimed when Belami informed them that he had to go there. His black eyes opened wide in horror at the mental vision of this dragon’s company. His work would involve him with rakes, rattles, and roués—every one of whom the duchess would hate on sight. “What fun!” Deirdre exclaimed, her large gray eyes shining with delight. Belami gazed at her and found his heart softening to the idea. It wouldn’t take him twenty-four hours a day to handle Lady Gilham and Smythe, and it would be good to have Deirdre near him. “It might be best if I go alone,” he said, but in no very firm way. Within a minute Deirdre had pouted her way to success. “You realize what I have told you is in the strictest confidence,” he told them. “We are not gossips!” her grace informed him with a gimlet shot from her sharp eyes. “Naturally I would never breathe a word to bring discredit on the dear prince. But just between ourselves, Belami, what do you make of this Smythe fellow?
