"What are you doing here?"

Lorna jumped, turning quickly with wide eyes to the location of the unexpected voice. When she saw him, Lord Nazan Philford, the Duke of Lisville, her shoulders visibly relaxed and she glared at him. "I told you to give me warning when you do that," she chided, irritably. "You'll send me to my grave otherwise."

Nazan chuckled and leaned back against the garden wall, "your heart is as healthy as a horse."

Lorna rolled her eyes and moved away from the hollyhock she had been admiring earlier to stand facing him.

"Again I have to ask, what are you doing here, Lorna?" he asked, his voice a mixture of amusement and irritation.

"Why? Am I not allowed to visit you?"

"Generally, ladies send word before or more commonly wait until they receive an invitation."

"Then I'd never visit."

"Precisely."

She smiled. "Give it up, Naze. I know you like it when I come to see you." She spread her arms wide. "You know I shine bright upon your dreary life."

Nazan shook his head, "Delusional," but he was smiling. He pushed himself off the wall and made his way toward her, offering her his arm and steering her toward the pavilion in the center of the garden, where the setting of afternoon tea was laid out.

Nazan sighed. "Obviously, I was the last to know of your arrival."

Lorna rushed forward to a seat and plopped herself down. "I love Mrs. Nettle, have I ever told you that? She is the most generous cook in all of the lands."

Nazan sat on the seat opposite to her and watched as she filled her plate with pastries, cake, and a peculiar concoction of bread, pickled cucumber, and sardines. "You still have quite the appetite, I see."

Lorna glared at him from above her strawberry pasty. "Gentlemen should not comment on a lady's appetite."

"And ladies should not arrive unchaperoned to a bachelor's home."

Lorna waved his comment away. She took a delicate sip of her tea. "Why are you grumbling so much? I always visit when I get news of your return. Who else would welcome you more warmly than I?"

Nazan popped a scone into his mouth to avoid having to answer such a ridiculous question. He then watched, in silent amusement, as his long time friend, Lorna Ventry, the eldest daughter of the Lord of Westerwood, consumed her feast.

"You know," said Lorna after taking a final sip of her tea. "Why is it that I only hear of your return from Belford?"

He shrugged, leaning back on his chair. "How should I know? I don't even know why he feels the need to tell you. Last time I checked he was the head butler of Lisville not Westerwood."

She wiped her mouth delicately. "That's because he likes me. But that wasn't my point. What I meant was, why is it that you never tell me directly when you are returning, especially since your visits are so rare?"

"Why must I? Are you to act as my mother?"

Lorna rolled her eyes. "Of course not but we have been friends since we were in leading strings. In fact, I would go so far as to say we're the best of friends."

"Best of friends?" he raised a brow, "what a childish concept."

She mimicked his brow movement. "We are. I know all there is to know about you."

"You know the child that I was."

She ignored him. "We may not see each other as regularly as we once did since you went off to the academy and then the borderlands but we've seen each other for several months every few years. And I'll have you remember that I am very perceptive, I know what the adult you like as well."

He smirked, "Really? Go on then, what does the adult me like?"

She did not miss a beat. She lifted her delicately gloved hands and began ticking off her fingers as she spoke. "Brandy. A light gamble. Riding. History. Beef roast. Tart honey. And women with large---"

He coughed in surprise. Nazan looked over at her widely grinning face. The cheeky girl. "Fine, you know my likes quite well but that doesn't make us 'best of friends'."

"True," she said after a moment of thoughtful deliberation. "It needs to go both ways. You tell me what I like."

He folded his arms upon his chest. "No."

Lorna didn't fight. Instead, she smiled. "No matter. I know you know me, Naze. So what are we doing today? I've kept my entire schedule open knowing you were going to be home."

Nazan pushed back his chair and stood. "I have some work I need to do and you can go home and stop using me as an excuse to avoid whatever task your mother is trying to push upon you."

"See?" she said brightly, standing as well. "I told you that you knew me."

He groaned as he made his way toward the manor. She quickly caught up to him. "Naze?" she said after a moment of walking in silence.

"What?"

"Will you be in the capital this season?"

"Why?"

He grinned internally at the irritation in her voice. "Why must you be so difficult?"

He stopped suddenly and Lorna, who had been lagging slightly behind bumped into him. He instinctively caught her arm to steady her. "Yes, I will be in the capital."

She beamed and Nazan couldn't help but be amused. "Oh good. I had hoped you would be attending this year. I supposed you'd be searching for a wife since you are getting quite up there in age. It's so dreadfully boring but I suppose that might change now that I am no longer on the marriage mart."

"What?" he asked, suddenly surprised.

She smiled at him. "I am officially a spinster."

"You're only 25."

"Old to most."

"You're three years my junior."

She glanced at him irritably. "Old woman then."

"Your mother?"

"She finally agreed now that Rose is coming out."

His brow knotted in confusion. "Isn't Rose still a child?"

"She's nineteen, late to come out according to most but you know how it is with her delicate constitution."

"Ah, of course." He hadn't seen Rose in more than five years and only glimpses before then since she was often secluded in the Westerwood country home.

"So now I am no longer in search of a husband, mother has laid off most of the pressure on me to focus on making Rose a belle."

"Hmm."

"She will be, you know," she continued. "She's grown up to be quite beautiful."

"Ah."

"Regardless, if you'll be around at least it won't be so dull."

"You're truly not going to marry?"

Lorna shrugged. "It looks to be that way." She began walking ahead of him into the manor. "It isn't exactly my choice but to be honest, I never really had much desire to be married. Having my own home would be nice, a family would be nice as well. But what can I do when I've not received any gentlemen callers let alone marriage proposals." She shrugged as if to indicate that it was out of her hands.

From behind, Nazan peered at her form. Lorna wasn't known for her beauty, in fact, she was quite plain, even ordinary with nondescript brown hair and brown eyes, medium height, medium build, nothing about her allowed her to stick out from the brevy of young ladies who were paraded about high society every season. Despite that, he had never considered her unpleasant to look at. She was also enjoyable to be around, which was evidenced by the fact that he kept her around even when he did not desire company.

Lorna turned back to look at him. "Naze?"

He jerked his head up, not wanting to be caught perusing her form. "What?"

"I asked," she said, rather uncharacteristically patient, "when do you plan to marry?"

Nazan walked past her and made his way into the manor. "I don't know."

"You're nearly 30."

"Many men wed much later."

Lorna followed him into his study and ungraciously sat down on the chair across from his desk as though she had done so many times before. "That is true. It is quite unfair, that. Why must we marry at the earliest opportunity and be labeled a spinster if we miss the mark. While men can marry at their own convenience?"

Nazan did not answer. Lorna idly rolled a marble that had always sat on his desk. "I think I should find a lover."

Nazan, who had bugun shuffling through some papers, suddenly looked up, startled. "What?"

"I've been thinking about finding a lover," she said, unfazed by his response. "In fact, that is why I am here."

He looked at her incredulously. "You want me to be your lover?"

Her eyes widened in surprise. "What? No!" she exclaimed, embarrassment suddenly coloring her cheeks. "No, of course not."

He visibly relaxed. "Good, because I would have said no."

  She rolled her eyes. "I know that. Goodness, you don't have to be so blunt."

"Then what is this nonsense about finding a lover and what does it have to do with me?"

She set down the marble that she had been rolling between her fingers and watched as a small circle of steam fogged the desk's top where the marble touched the cold surface. She raised her head, her eyes clear and focused.  "I want you to teach me how to seduce a man."

~

Nazan stared, mouth agape, at his long time friend. He didn't think she was mad. Surely, he would have seen signs of it in their twenty plus years of friendship. Certainly, she had done things that were questionable in the past but nothing that had made him question her sanity.

Having lovers was not unusual in their world. In fact, it was quite common. No, that was not what had him questioning her sanity but rather the very fact that she, Lorna Ventry, the eldest daughter of the Westerwood estate, in what was assumed to be of sound mind, was the one expressing the desire to do so.

After a long moment, Nazan found his voice. "Do you even know what it means to take a lover?"

She made a soft sound of thought. "Well, that is why I am here. Part of my request is to inform me as to exactly what that entails."

Nazan returned his gaze back to his papers. He was finished with this conversation. "Absolutely not."

But Lorna ignored it. "Don't you want to know why I want a lover?"

"No," he placed down his papers again after a moment. "And how can someone who doesn't even know what having a lover means possibly have a reason for taking a lover?"

She ignored that comment as well. Lorna stood and made her way to where he sat behind the large mahogany, marbled desk. "I want my freedom, Naze."

He gazed at her in confusion. "What does a lover have to do with your freedom?"

Lorna sat up onto his desk and faced him. "Now that I am officially off the marriage mart, I have a five-part plan to live life as I see fit. My freedom," she emphasized again.

Nazan groaned. He knew he shouldn't ask, if he had any sense at all, he would ring for Belford and send her home. But apparently, he was not as sensible as he thought. "What is that?"

She beamed. "I am glad you asked. I have a plan that I want to see put into action, that is, to declare my freedom. I want to ride a horse like a man. I want to find some work that is purposeful. I want to own a home of my own, it will likely be a small cottage of sorts. I want to travel at least once outside of these lands. And I want to experience what it is to take a lover."

He looked at her, mouth agape.

She cocked her head. "Stop staring at me as though I've gained a second head."

"You may as well have for I don't know what it is in front of me, spouting such nonsense."

"Nonsense?" she repeated but her tone was excessively sweet.

He cleared his throat. "How do you plan to accomplish all this?"

Her smile brightened. "Lady Emily Canton said she would assist me with a few of these endeavors but I hadn't a clue on what to do about the lover. Emily is quite knowledgeable but even she could not spare much detail on what it is I need to do. But you're a man. I figured you could help me."

Nazan closed his eyes. This couldn't be happening. "Listen to me, Lorna," he said, his voice firm. "Don't pursue this idea any longer. If you have no initial desire for it, pursuing it will likely only cause you complications. Having an affair is complicated."

He opened his eyes to see Lorna's face only inches from his. She smiled. "I have my reasons so let's stop trying to persuade me otherwise." She jumped off his desk and began reading the spines of the books on the bookshelf behind him. "So you really won't help me?"

He refused to look back at her. "No, I won't help you."

She sighed, it was loud and exaggerated. "Then I suppose since you won't teach me, I will have to ask some other man."

He closed his eyes again. He knew not to fall for the bait. Twenty plus years, he knew how she operated and yet, as he had done so many times in the past... "Fine, I will help you." He sighed. "I'll provide you with basic knowledge but if" he turned to her. "If you fail in your attempts in finding a lover within an allotted time that I determine, you will cease this ridiculous notion."

The grin told him that she had known that he would cave. "I truly don't care what all the gossip sheets say, you really are not as cold as ice and unbending."

Nazan groaned. "Why do you read such rubbish?"

Lorna shrugged and made her way back to the seat across from his. "How else would I get any information on you? Your letters to me are terse and so lacking in detail I had no choice but to resort to those who actually see you."

Nazan turned back to his papers. "Six months."

"What?"

"In six month's time, if you do not find a lover, you will cease."

Lorna appeared to consider it. "Well, if we leave for the capital in a month's time. I suppose that leaves me five months. That should be sufficient."

He pulled out his pen and began working. "Good," he said without looking up. "It is settled then. We'll start with your lessons tomorrow at three."

He heard her stand. "Let's shake on it, Naze." A hand appeared above his desk, in the center of his vision. He looked up and paused. He searched her face for a moment; her expression was so serious that he couldn't help but smile. He nodded and took her hand in a firm promise.

Why was it that he could never say no to her?