“I believe it may be of benefit to Peregrine’s health.”
“He seems to me to be better,” she said. “He does not cough so much, I think.”
“Undoubtedly, but I do not consider an immediate return to town advisable. The air of Worth will do him more good than the air of Waller’s.”
She agreed to it, but still hesitated. He said abruptly: “Oblige me in this, Miss Taverner!”
She raised her brows. “Is it a command?”
“I have carefully avoided giving it the least appearance of one.”
“What is your real reason, Lord Worth?”
“When I am unable to be in London to prevent you, Miss Taverner, from announcing your engagement to a Royal Duke, and Peregrine from committing some act of folly to the risk of his life or his fortune, I prefer to leave you safely provided for under my own roof.”
She said quickly: “You do think that something threatens Perry, then!”
He shrugged. “I think he is a rash young man who will get into trouble if he can.”