Son of a Duke Read Free

not share it with the world, shall we?"
    The duchess hid her smile as she sipped her champagne.   It was so fun to annoy the boy.  
    "I was not planning on telling the world, just you, Alec," she cocked her head and pursed her lips.
    He laughed right in the duchess's face.   He was the only one who ever did.   Even her husband, the Duke of Lofton, would not laugh in her face.   Oh, she was sure there were many times when her dear husband would want to laugh in her face, but he never did.   Jane Black, the Duchess of Lofton, had a reputation that quelled laughter where it formed.  
    "Miss Quinton, the décor is quite lovely this evening.   You have outdone yourself yet again."   Alec smiled that smile that had made a thousand women swoon, often right into his bed.   But Miss Quinton did not flinch...again.   The chit was getting annoying herself.  
    "Thank you, my lord.   I am pleased you are enjoying your evening."  
    "Oh, I never said I was enjoying my evening.   Just your décor."  
    Miss Quinton actually wet her lips.   It was a habit Jane had observed.   The housekeeper did it when she was hiding a smile.   The Earl of Stryden had made her smile?   The duchess determined that she could probably safely die now, because she had most likely seen it all.  
    "Perhaps you will find more pleasure in the gaming rooms, my lord."   Miss Quinton pointed discreetly in the direction of the parlors that had been set up with tables of whist or some other such barbarous game.  
    Duchess Lofton gazed casually in the direction that Miss Quinton pointed and felt a slight start when she saw the Duke of Lofton had left his post by the card room door.   She quickly turned back to the conversation when she heard Stryden's voice again.
    "Perhaps.   Unfortunately, I must do my civic duty and mingle in the society into which I was born."  
    He winked at her.  
    Oh, dear.   Jane should have warned him.   A wink might give Miss Quinton heart pains.   But Jane was certain she would not swoon.   She was not the type, really.  
    And then Miss Quinton smiled, and the duchess herself felt chest pains.   Given her delicate age of eight and fifty, she did begin to worry a bit.   But they soon passed when a screeching voice-   well, screeching really did not do it justice.   She thought of the sound that comes from running one's knife in the wrong direction against one's plate.   Yes, that was exactly the sound that was produced when this creature opened her mouth.  
    "Stryden!   You silly, silly man.   I have been looking every where for you," Lady Dendrigeshire squawked, jostling her enormous girth through the crowd to the poor Earl of Stryden.  
    Stryden turned his shoulder so only Miss Quinton could see his face.   And what he did then the duchess did not know, but it made Miss Quinton blush .   The damn chit blushed!   Jane snapped open her fan and started swinging it violently through the air.   It was not cooling her any, but she suddenly felt the need to release some recent onslaught of energy.  
    "May I have this dance, your grace?"  
    The sound of his voice sent a familiar shiver down her spine, and the duchess turned toward her husband.  
    Richard had not always been her husband, and seeing his smiling face in front of hers always brought a sharp pain of reality to her, a pain that made her infinitely happy that she could now be his wife.  
    "Well, I supposed it is a part of my lot for being wed to you, is it not?" she replied, and Richard smiled even more.  
    She moved her eyes in Miss Quinton's direction, indicating that she still had a part to play, but Lofton was already putting his arms about her and leading her toward the other dancing couples.   When they were safely out of ear shot, he spoke.  
    "Well done, your grace.   He's in."  
    His voice was low and brushed across her ear like velvet.   She shivered again.  
    "That quickly?"  
    "Of course, the War Office did not choose just