Page 38 of Winning Her Duke

Which led to the second biggest reason. He had yet to attempt to lure her to his bed. Obviously, he wasn’t interested in her in that way.

She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed by this.

A frown tugged at her lips. There was no sense in lying to herself. She was disappointed. But only slightly so. She shook her head at her rambling thoughts.

“I hope your eagerness is not because of the Duke of Roxburghe,” her father said.

“We have become good friends. Why should I not be pleased to see him again?”

Neither her father or Lydia knew she’d attended the race in Wiltshire with the Duke, though Gia thought perhaps Lydia suspected. As far as her father knew, she’d gone with Owen as was normal and with Bess as a chaperone.

“My dear, the duke is a rogue. I don’t expect you to know about such things, but it is well discussed in certain circles. I worry what a friendship with such a person will do to your reputation.” Her father tended to believe she was still the naïve girl she’d been during her come out and while sometimes inconvenient, she generally kept up the ruse for her advantage.

She laughed. “He’s been nothing but a gentleman when with me. I’m certain he saves any roguish proclivities for the women he shares an attraction with, not horse-mad spinsters.”

There it was again. Disappointment. But she pressed a smile to her lips and held it there as her father continued.

“I only wanted to make you aware of the duke’s reputation, and as you say, I don’t think he will trouble you in that way. But if he did, you would know he is just like the other bounders chasing after you simply for physical satisfaction.”

“Thank you, Papa.” She wasn’t able to keep the smile in place as she pressed her lips together to keep her emotions under control. His words had been spoken with concern for her wellbeing, but they had hurt.

Specifically, the part where the duke wouldn’t want her for anything more than friendship or swiving. She wouldn’t speak that last word out loud. Her father was not above punishing her for using “stable vocabulary” as he called it.

Lydia must have noticed the change in her demeanor and was quick to come to her defense.

“Harold, how dare you assume what the duke wants from his relationship with Gia. He has been nothing but respectful in my presence, and I’ve seen interest in his gaze when she is not looking. Even the most devious of rakes can be tamed when they find the person they want to spend their life with.”

Her father looked between Gia and Lydia a few times before speaking.

“You are right, Lydia. I should be the last person to tell anyone not to befriend such a person, having been called a rake, myself, in my youth. But I thumbed my nose at society to marry Caterina—and have never regretted it a day of my life, mind you. I simply wanted you to have all of the facts, my dear daughter.”

Her father had been a rogue and had fallen in love. It could happen.

The question was, did she want Hale to fall in love with her?

*

“I was informed by my father that you are a rogue,” Gia said as soon as they’d taken their positions on the dance floor for the first dance of the evening.

Hale didn’t think he’d ever get used to the way the woman just blurted things out like that. Whatever was on her mind was spoken. At least to him.

He liked that she felt comfortable enough around him to be herself, shocking as it often was.

“I see.” They’d already talked about this and Hale had confessed it to be true. She didn’t have a question in her comment, she was simply telling him this information had come from her father.

Hale would miss her friendship, but her father must have realized the danger Hale presented to his very lovely daughter. He did his best to prepare for what was to come next. Her apologies for no longer being able to spend time with him. Her abandonment.

He should have been expecting it all along. She was a lovely woman and had no business paying her attentions to a scandalous rake. As exaggerated as the claims may be.

Besides, everyone left him eventually.

“I’ve told you as much myself,” he reminded her.

“You did,” she said as he swept her into a turn, hoping she’d drop the subject. He should have known better. “Though I’m having trouble believing it. You have seen the way men approach me. That is the way I expect a rogue to behave. However, you have never acted outside of the rules of propriety even once. Perhaps I am too conceited to think I could attract your attention in the way I have the others.”

“If you’re asking me if I find you attractive, I do. But before I had the chance to consider other behaviors, you spoke to me of horses, and I was forced to like you. Once I found that I liked you, I couldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.”

That was more truth than he’d planned to share, but it was out and she seemed to accept it easily.