Dancing with the Duke Read Free

moment. “Perhaps I will explain it to you another
time.”
    She had a feeling that their conversation had
turned onto a very different path, one not meant to be held in
public. She couldn’t stop the blush that crept over face and cursed
herself for that telling sign.
    The music came to an end, and so did their
conversation. It was with mixed emotions that Charlotte let him
take her back to sit with his mother. She knew she had to appear
detached, but staying away from Alex and flirting with other men
was the very last thing she wanted to do.
    He bowed, an abbreviated movement, and then
he was gone.
    She felt a sense of loss as she watched him
move towards the exit, but was forced to keep her smile firmly in
place as she turned to face the two men heading in her
direction.
     

Chapter Two
    After that night at Almack’s, Alex vowed to stay away from Miss
Charlotte Grant, but he was finding the task an impossible one as
she was at the house every day, visiting with his sister. She’d
unsettled him that evening, and it was not a feeling he enjoyed.
He’d enjoyed even less watching her dance and flirt with what
appeared to be every man in London.
    So whenever he ran into Charlotte at the
house, he made a point of engaging in only the briefest of polite
conversation before excusing himself. Fortunately, she was usually
gone by late afternoon, no doubt returning home to prepare for
whatever entertainment his mother and sister had planned for the
evening. He was only glad that his mother did not press him to go
with them, which meant that his assistance in launching Charlotte
into London Society was no longer needed. From the snippets of
conversation he managed to overhear, Charlotte was not lacking for
male attention. The thought never ceased to irritate him. There was
a part of him that wanted to protect her, but he forced himself to
ignore that desire. His mother wasn’t one of those permissive mamas
who paid only the barest attention to their charges. He knew he
could trust her to watch over the men who clamored for Charlotte’s
attention.
    He was hiding that day, as he usually did, in
his study. He glanced up from the letter he was writing when the
clock chimed four and put down his quill with relief. Charlotte
would be well on her way home and it would be safe to emerge. He
frowned when he heard voices in the hallway, followed by a muffled
thump.
    Wondering what his sister was up to now, he
went to investigate. He found her standing in the hallway, one
trunk at the foot of the stairs, and two footmen bringing another
into the house.
    “Just leave it by the first one,” Lucy said.
“When all the trunks are in, I’ll show you where to put them.”
    A finger of unease curled inside him. He
stayed back and watched as two more trunks were brought into the
house, after which his sister led the way upstairs while the
footmen brought up the first trunk.
    Alex wracked his brain, trying to remember
how many trunks his sister had brought with her when they’d first
arrived in London, but the truth was he hadn’t paid any attention.
He only knew that there had been more than he would have imagined
possible. Surely she hadn’t arranged to have even more dresses
delivered to town.
    His unease increased when Charlotte swept
into the house. He was torn between asking her what was happening
and retreating back to the study, but she looked up and saw him,
which made the decision for him.
    She smiled and Alex felt a jolt of awareness
go through him. It always did whenever she was around.
    She closed the space between them. “I cannot
express how much your family’s generosity has meant to me. Without
it my Season would have had to wait yet another year, at which
point I would be almost too old to bother.”
    Alex had the impression there was more going
on than he’d been told.
    “You have me at a disadvantage,” he said. “If
Lucy and my mother have done something more than sponsoring you at
various events, they haven’t