Dancing with the Duke Read Free Page A

informed me of it.”
    She tilted her head to one side and looked at
him with bemusement. “You do know I will be staying here for the
rest of the Season, do you not?”
    Lucy. He was going to strangle her. She could
have given him some advance warning. It was, after all, his
house.
    “I do now,” he said dryly.
    She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh! That
is very bad of Lucy. Are you sure she didn’t tell you and you
forgot?”
    He definitely would have remembered if his
sister had mentioned this to him. No, she’d either thought he
wouldn’t care, or more likely, knew he wouldn’t be able to turn her
friend away after the deed was done.
    “I am sure.”
    She looked down at her hands, where her
fingers were tightly clenched. “Papa doesn’t like London and is
anxious to return home.” She hesitated for a moment before
continuing. “He’s courting someone and I expect he’ll ask her to
marry him soon. After Mama’s death, I never thought…” She dropped
her hands and lifted her face to meet his gaze. “It doesn’t matter
now. It was understood from the beginning that Papa would stay only
for a week to see me settled, but it’s clear you weren’t consulted.
Perhaps it would be best if I returned with him.”
    Her disappointment made him feel like the
worst of cads. Charlotte was already consuming too much of his
thoughts, and the very last thing he needed was to have her living
under the same roof as him. Despite that, he found himself saying,
“We have the room. You are, of course, more than welcome to
stay.”
    “Are you sure? I wouldn’t wish to be a
burden.”
    He was saved from having to reply by his
sister’s appearance. Lucy hurried down the stairs and embraced her
friend.
    “We’ll have so much fun now that you’re here.
Is that not right, Alex?”
    They were both looking at him, and the weight
of Charlotte’s gaze as she waited for his response pressed in on
him.
    “I need to get back to work,” he said, before
fleeing to his study again.
    * * *
    He escaped to his club that evening, and when
he returned after midnight the house was empty, as he’d expected.
He wondered, briefly, where they’d gone before quashing the errant
thought. It didn’t matter which event they were attending because
he had no intention of joining them. It was bad enough that he’d
been at Almack’s the week before. If he didn’t maintain his
distance from the social whirl, word would spread that the Duke of
Clarington was searching for a wife, and then he’d have to spend
the next few months dodging would-be duchesses.
    He was surprised the following morning to
find Charlotte already in the breakfast room, a cup of tea and a
plate of toast before her. Given how late she had stayed out the
previous evening, he’d expected her to sleep in this morning. His
step faltered, but he covered his hesitation with a quick “good
morning” before heading to the sideboard to prepare his own
plate.
    Charlotte waited until he was seated across
from her and a footman had poured his coffee before leaning forward
to speak. “Thank goodness you are here.”
    He realized he could see down the front of
her dress and dragged his reluctant gaze upwards, expecting to see
a glimmer of satisfaction in her face. She certainly wouldn’t be
the first woman to attempt to capture his interest with a similar
display, but if she’d noticed the direction of his stare she gave
no sign of it.
    He searched for something to say before
settling on the insipid, “Was your room not to your liking?”
    “Nothing like that,” she said with a wave of
her hand. “I’m just glad not to be alone. I was afraid I’d come
down too early this morning.”
    He could just imagine the surprise her
appearance had caused. “The staff are used to my sister and mother
sleeping late after being out and likely assumed you would do the
same. But I’m also an early riser, so you needn’t fear that you put
anyone out.”
    She fell silent and nibbled on