The Unexpected Duchess(69)

“I’ll keep my coins, I think.” He stuffed the little pouch back into his coat.

Lucy crossed her arms over her middle. “Not a believer, Your Grace?”

“On the contrary, I believe in many things, my lady. For instance, I believe that sound decision-making causes better results than tossing coins into a pool.” The way he looked at her made Lucy very aware of the fact that they were alone together in the hushed little room. The footman and the groom had stayed outside with the coach.

She pushed a wayward curl behind her ear, intent upon changing the subject. “Do you believe the waters truly have curative effects?”

Derek smiled. He slipped his hands back into his pockets. “I’ve no idea, but I cannot think it would hurt to try them. I’ve heard that people bathe in the hot springs.”

Lucy gulped. She nodded. An image flashed through her mind, one of herself in a wet, clingy bit of fabric in the hot water of the springs with Derek, his lips at her neck, his hands on her thighs, his …

“The Romans were truly amazing,” he said, snapping Lucy from her wayward thoughts. She pressed a hand against her throat and shook her head. “Y … yes,” she managed to choke out, still actively picturing him without his shirt.

“I studied their battles extensively at university,” he added.

Lucy’s head snapped to the side to face him. “You attended university?” The words were out of her mouth before she had a chance to examine them. Oh, God. She wanted to kick herself for the rudeness of her question, not to mention the awful tone in which she’d asked it. As if there was no possible way it could be true. She briefly considered jumping into the pool to hide. No. Too idiotic. Plus, it would ruin her clothing. On the other hand, Derek might jump in to save her. And that presented a tempting possibility.

“Does it surprise you that I went to university?” The hint of a smile played upon his distracting lips.

“No. No. No. Of course not.” But there was no going back. Her babbling denial was useless.

He arched a brow, telling her without a word that he thought she was protesting a bit too much. “There is much to learn from history books and the armies of the past. I wasn’t only trained as a soldier. I studied all the greats, Charlemagne, Hadrian, Genghis Khan.”

Lucy stared unblinking into the pool. She nodded slowly. It had been unfair of her, truly unfair, to believe he was merely a brute soldier, not a gentleman. She hadn’t known anything about him really. She’d judged him entirely on his status of not having been born into the aristocracy. She swallowed, unable to peel her gaze from the brownish stone of the floor of the bathhouse. The guilt was really beginning to compound today, wasn’t it?

“Cass should be here,” Lucy blurted out, thinking for some reason that inserting Cass back into the conversation was the right thing to do.

A frown marred his forehead for the barest hint of a second. “Do you think Lady Cassandra would like this?” He gestured to the temple walls, the pool.

“The ruins?” Lucy wrinkled her nose. “Not particularly. Cass is more interested in painting and playing the pianoforte than history or reading. Jane and I are the ones who adore things like this.”

“We’ll have to bring Jane with us next time then,” he said with a smile.

Lucy glanced away. Would there be a next time for them, coming here? That was an odd thought, wasn’t it? “I think Jane and Aunt Mary already visited the ruins. Though I’m certain Jane would be eager to return. She always prefers to learn as much as she can about everything.”

Derek strode around the room, his boots crunching along the gravel near the pool’s edge. “Are she and Upton courting?”

Lucy nearly tripped. Her laughter echoed off the great stone walls. “Garrett and Jane? They can barely tolerate each other. Though I do think much of it is for show. They sort of engage in a merry war of words and have for years. It all began when I brought Jane to the theater with me and she met Garrett for the first time. They both vehemently disagreed about the premise of the play we’d gone to see and it seems they have been continuing the argument ever since.”

Derek turned to face her, another smile on his lips. “What was the play?”

“Much Ado About Nothing.”

This time his laughter echoed off the walls. “That’s ironic.”

Lucy smothered her smile. “I suppose it is, isn’t it?”

“If they can barely tolerate each other, why did they come to the ruins together?”

Lucy shrugged. “Jane likes to pretend that Garrett needs to be educated in such things, and Garrett likes to tease Jane about being a pedantic bluestocking. It’s just their way. They actually enjoy each other’s company, I suspect, though neither of them would ever admit it.”