The Duke at Hazard (The Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune #2)

by K.J. Charles

‘Do you not think independence is a virtue?’ ‘Overrated,’ Daizell said. ‘One should be able to do things for oneself, but the world would surely be a better place if we did more for one another.’

Cassian was delightful when he was flustered. Daizell felt an overwhelming urge to fluster him some more.

Daizell sighed. ‘I told you about my name: well, my father was always like that. He was loud and he drank and I’m not sure he fully understood that other people were real too. He was convinced that anyone who behaved in a way he found inconvenient must be doing it out of personal malice towards him. We were all minor actors in the play of which he was the star.’

‘Light thickens, and the crow makes wing to the rooky wood,’ Cassian remarked. ‘I beg your pardon?’ ‘Macbeth. Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, while night’s black agents to their preys do rouse,’ he added in sinister tones. ‘At least it rhymes,’ Daizell said, and they set off back.