Page 4 of Her Passionate Duke

“You jest, but I have half a mind to. Privilege warps and distorts us in strange ways, and he alone seems to be immune to it.”

“You don’t think he’s a touch arrogant?”

Linnet had to think about that for a moment.

“I suppose he is, a little, but isn’t every Duke? What he lacks in humility he more than makes up for in other ways.”

Other ways which included being devilishly handsome, and making her heart beat faster, just by being in the same room. Just at that moment they heard a faint shuffling sound and then the Duke went striding past, coughing, and looking slightly embarrassed. Linnet’s face betrayed an expression of pure panic.

“Do you think he heard us?” she said to Lady Caroline, eyes wide.

“Judging from the look on his face, I think the correct question is ‘at what point did he begin to overhear us’?”

Linnet removed a handkerchief from her reticule and wrung it anxiously between her hands. It was hard to say which was worse: that she had called him arrogant, or that she had spoken so flippantly about wanting to marry him.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” Lady Caroline smiled. “After him having angered the entire table, I’m sure it was gratifying for him to hear one person coming to his defence.”

“Yes, except now he thinks that I intend to marry him,” said Linnet miserably.

The room felt uncomfortably warm and for a moment she thought that she was going to be sick.

“I suppose that there are worse things one could do,” said Lady Caroline, and turned away to find her mother.

***

Jeremy had, for a moment, felt an alarming urge to laugh.

Another one who wanted to marry him – sort of. She hadn’t actually sounded very sure, which was what had amused him. He was used to being the target of the hopefuls, the women who cared nothing for anything but the fact that marrying him would make them a Duchess.

He’d had too much wine. He could feel it – there’d be the devil to pay tomorrow, no doubt about it. But he’d achieved two things this evening – two very important things.

He’d overheard what he’d hoped to overhear at the gaming hell, and he’d arrived home in time to shock the complacency out of his mother’s guests. That had almost made him laugh too – the outrage on their faces! Perhaps he’d overdone it – but by then, the effect of all the wine he’d had, watching the gamblers, had made him less cautious than usual – on the topic of funding orphan’s homes, at least.

He wondered who the girl was – he’d not seen her clearly, just now, where she’d stood in the shadows of the bookshelf, speaking to her friend. He wasn’t at all sure that he’d ever met her.

Not that it mattered. If she thought he’d care to marry her, or anyone, she was mistaken – just as his mother was, on that topic.

He pushed all thought of her from his mind, and set off towards the other side of the room, determined to extract promises of donations from all of the older aristocracy present.

Chapter Three

Jeremy warily eyed the cup that his valet offered. His head pounded, and whilst he knew that the posset would help to clear it, he also knew that the stuff tasted foul.

After a moment, he took it, and downed it in one gulp.

It tasted exactly as horrible as he remembered.

“I have drawn you a bath, Your Grace. And laid out your clothes. I believe that your mother expects to see you at the breakfast table.”

“I expect that you are correct, Wilson.”

Jeremy groaned as he rose from his bed, and went to his dressing room, to sink into the large copper tub of blessedly warm water. Half an hour later, feeling at least some semblance of human, he went downstairs. It seemed likely, from what he remembered of the previous evening, that his mother would deliver a scathing lecture. A lecture which might, more than likely, prove to be even more unpleasant than Wilson’s possets, and rather harder to swallow.

The Duchess fixed him with a stern glare as he entered the breakfast room, which was cheerful and bright, with the morning sun casting light through the tall windows.

“Good morning Mother.”

“It is not a good morning! I have never been more mortified in my life! Did you set out to offend every one of my guests? Or did you achieve it by accident?”