And the crux of it was he liked taking these unexpected detours.
With her.
Upon their initial meeting, he’d taken one look at her pinched lips and deemed her to be an uninteresting teacher. After she’d loosed them, he’d added annoying to that description.
When had he become captivated by that same mouth?
If he hadn’t just found his rather reprehensible release, he might have been tempted to summon other scenarios for it. Instead, he slipped his arms into his banyan and opened the door.
“Do you wish to dress for dinner, Your Grace?” Brown stood at the ready, looking perfectly proper but all too knowing, damn him.
Addison grimaced. “Not tonight.” He’d be dining alone. On many occasions, he’d sat unaccompanied, wearing formal evening wear, and allowed his staff to serve him with all pomp and circumstances. But only when he was going out afterward.
He’d made no social commitments for that evening.
“I’ve business to attend to in my study.”
“No jacket then, I’ll lay out your maroon dressing gown.”
“Yes.” Addison would attempt to shelve concerns over the turn his life would be taking tomorrow morning by adding a chapter or two to his latest book. It seemed to be the one thing in this world that made sense in his life.
Even though it didn’t, really.
The Duke is Waiting for Miss Jones
Although Collette was dressed and ready for dinner, she hovered in her chamber, delaying more reprimands Chase no doubt had ready to heap on her.
Not that he would be in the wrong, but his expressions of disappointment alone, would provide more than enough punishment for her carelessness.
He wouldn’t yell but he would stare at her with those eyes, so very like their father’s, and give her thatlook. The look he’d had when he’d found her hiding behind a potted plant at her first ball and when she’d refused to meet with a prospective suitor.
Considering his earlier mood, tonight could very well prove to be far worse than either of those.
She jumped when a knock sounded but wasn’t surprised to see Bethany’s head peek around the door when it opened. “I thought you might be dallying in here.”
Her sister-in-law drifted in, looking unusually pretty in a kelly-green gown with blue embroidery around the bodice.
Collette exhaled. “You’re coming to know me all too well.”
Bethany dropped onto a tall-backed chair and smiled weakly. “You rather remind me of myself sometimes.”
“I do?” Bethany was the eldest daughter of an earl—an acknowledged andlegitimatedaughter of an earl.
“I still don’t quite understand it myself, but I could never really imagine the man I loved choosing me for his wife. For different reasons than yours, I suppose.”
“Chase couldn’t have found a better person to spend his life with.” Collette meant it. “He’s happier than I’ve ever known him to be.”
“Ah, but, neither of us planned any of this. It just sort of… happened.”
Collette nodded. Bethany nor her brother had ever told her the precise details of their rushed marriage. They hadn’t needed to. Collette had read of it in the papers.
It was a miracle Chase hadn’t been banned from England forever.
“Do you like the duke?” Bethany asked.
“I do. But he’s a duke.” She was shaking her head.
“He’s going to offer for you in the morning. He was about to kiss you when Chase found the two of you outside. Even if he hadn’t been, he’d kept you away for nearly four hours—without a chaperone.”
