At the Duke’s Pleasure Read Free

did as she was told. Begrudgingly, Ella accepted her younger sister’s words of regret, giving a stiff nod as she reclaimed her property.
    Claire bent her blond head over her stitchery and hid a smile. “As for that bonnet, Ella,” she remarked a moment later. “You really could do much better. It’s woefully in need of a proper burial.”
    “I don’t much care for it either,” Ella confessed, “but Papa won’t give me the money for a new one. You know how he is about allowances and I’ve already spent mine this quarter. It’s this or nothing.”
    Claire knew the feeling only too well. She was considering alternate possibilities to suggest to her sister when a knock sounded on the door.
    “Excuse me, miss, but a messenger just come with a letter,” the servant explained with a quick curtsey. “Thought I ought ter bring it up direct-like.”
    “Lady Edgewater is lying down in her room. You may leave it over on the table and I shall see she receives it directly.”
    “Oh, but it ain’t fer her ladyship. ’Tis addressed to you, Lady Claire.”
    “Me?”
    Normally Claire didn’t receive a great many letters, and none by messenger that she could recall. Curious, she reached out a hand for the missive.
    The first thing she noticed was the elegant vellum paper and the thick red seal affixed on the reverse. Her heart beat faster as she stared at the design with its three overlapping heraldic shields hardened diagonally into the wax.
    Fighting a sudden urge to tremble, she forced herself to flip the letter over. And there it was, her name and direction penned in a rarely seen, but never forgotten, hand.
    His hand—the flawless script flowing with a dark sophistication that made all the memories come flooding back at once.
    What very few of them there might be , she mused with a rueful tilt of her lips.
    So, is my time up, then? Has my summons finally arrived?
    Breaking open the seal, she scanned the contents and found her answer.
    “Who’s it from, Claire?”
    Her sister’s innocent question shattered her reverie, her head coming up with an almost guilty jerk. “Oh…um…no one. No one in particular, that is.”
    Unless, by particular, you mean the man to whom I’ve been betrothed for nearly the whole of my one-and-twenty years .
    Growing up, she’d always known two things. First, that as the eldest daughter she was expected to always do her duty. And second, that someday she would become the Duchess of Clybourne.
    Her sisters knew about the arrangement, of course; the entire family did. Every so often, the topic would arise and be discussed for a brief while before it faded into obscurity once again. And as the years had gone by, she’d been content with the arrangement.
    But now he had written to her.
    Now everything was going to change.
    Ella gave her a quizzical look, and Nan as well. But she didn’t want to talk about it. She couldn’t, having learned long ago to lock away her feelings on this particular topic.
    Still, the girls were clearly waiting for her to say more. Fingers tightening on the paper, she shoved the letter into the cushions at her hip. “Ella, I had a thought about your bonnet. Why do you not simply borrow one of mine? You can use your lace to remake the style entirely and no one will ever suppose it’s anything but new.”
    “Really?” A huge smile lit her sister’s face, her attention instantly diverted. “Are you sure?”
    “Of course. I’ll even give you a length of my pink silk ribbon. Now why don’t you and Nan run along to my room and pick out the one you’d like.”
    “Any of them?” Nan chirped. “Any except your new chip straw, that is.”
    “Even my chip straw, if that is the one Ella prefers.”
    Ella paused for a long moment, then raced across the room to envelop Claire in a fierce hug. “Oh, you’re so wonderful! The very best of sisters. And not to worry, your chip straw is safe.”
    Claire laughed, then shooed them out.
    When she could no longer hear