Duel of Hearts Read Free

follow my advice. You must forgive an old woman’s desire to see the last of her blood settled and well-established.”
    â€œAha! And now we get to the true matter at hand, do we not? All right then—which long-toothed female is it that you would foist on me this time?”
    â€œYou would not be the first to mend your fortunes by marriage, Anthony,” she reminded him stiffly. “But I have long since left off meddling in that basket of yarn, I assure you. My fondest wish is merely that you should find a girl with sufficient character to curb your excesses.” Her black eyes were serious as she looked at him. “Do you think me unaware of how ’tis you amuse yourself? Do you think I cannot hear the gossip also? Well, I do, and I cannot like it. Opera dancers and gaming hells cannot bring you the satisfaction of a wife and an heir, despite what you seem to think. I fear that you will become naught but a confirmed rakehell, unable to settle down with one girl.”
    Her anger dissipated, she reached for the bell-pull and nodded toward a damask couch. “You will stay for a glass of sherry, will you not? It helps the aches in my bones, you know, and I’d not drink it alone. Thankfully, Bucky’s gone to visit a step-cousin or some such creature today, else I’d have to listen to her tell me spirits ain’t the thing for a female.”
    A smile played at the corners of his mouth and his brilliant blue eyes warmed. “You know, Aunt Hester, I think I preferred it when you were angry with me. Now ’twould seem you think to shame me into doing my duty to my name.” Nonetheless, he dropped his tall frame onto the couch and lounged easily against the well padded back.
    â€œAnd what of that?” she demanded, gesturing to a footman to pull her chair closer to where her great-nephew sat. “Do you think I wish to be in my dotage ere I see the name I was born with carried on? If I do not remind you of your duty on occasion, I fear I shall be in my grave first.”
    â€œI have never seen a female I could live with, Aunt,” he answered, taking the glass offered him. “And I’ve no wish to wed any of the insipid misses paraded past me. There are no more Hester Barsetts to be had, else I’d have had one,” he added affectionately.
    â€œThere’s girls aplenty, Tony. Why, Maria Cosgrove told me that she’d never seen so many Incomparables as are out this year. And as for that farradiddle about me, well, be done with you. I ain’t the sort to be turned up sweet by nonsense.”
    â€œYou want to hear about the girls out this year?” he asked wickedly. “I went to the Marchbanks chit’s come out to look ’em over, and do you wish to know what I found? They are so afraid of not taking that they have no thoughts of their own, Aunt Hester! The first one would not even allow as it was hot in the place until she discovered if I thought it so. Do you think I want to spend my life having my opinions prated back to me? ’Tis no wonder that full half the ton keeps mistresses!”
    â€œWell, they cannot all be like that, Tony. Maria’s—”
    â€œAh, the Cosgrove chit! She does not even read so much as a scandal sheet—and God forbid she should look at a book!”
    â€œBluestockings are unfashionable,” the old woman reminded him.
    â€œI accept that, but do you know what the chit said to me? I asked if she liked the classics, and she stared blankly through three full measures of the dance before she said, ‘Oh, I collect you mean my dress—yes, ’tis fashioned after the Empress Josephine’s favorite one.’ ”
    â€œWell, at least you are looking.”
    â€œNo. Renfield persuaded me to go to the Marchbanks thing so that he could dangle after one of Lord Larchmont’s spotted girls, but nothing came of it when he discovered she did not know a bay from a