The Duchess Diaries: The Bridal Pleasures Series Read Free Page B

maiden. I prefer my ladies warm and willing.”
    “Well, she does have a cold heart when it comes to letting gentlemen visitors into the academy. But I can’t blame her for that. I think she’s shy. Come and meet her for yourself.”
    Gideon didn’t move.
    “I know it doesn’t make much sense—”
    “That is an understatement.”
    “—but no other gentleman is brave enough to approach her.”
    “I shouldn’t wonder, if you go about haranguing them for admiring her from halfway across a room.”
    Devon smiled. “Then you admit that you were admiring her?”
    Gideon stared at him in stone-faced silence.
    “Please ask her to dance.”
    “Why don’t you?”
    “I’m her cousin, and if I ask her to dance, everyone will know it’s because no one else has asked her.”
    “Maybe she doesn’t
want
to dance.”
    “Of course she does.”
    Gideon hesitated. “Why do I have the feeling that I’m about to walk into a trap? And why don’t you ask any of the bachelors present to do the honors? Of all the other male guests I’ve undoubtedly earned the worst reputation. Present company and his kin excluded, that is.”
    “Exactly,” Devon said, as if Gideon had just grasped the alchemical formula of the philosopher’s stone. “Most of the other male guests are outstanding examples of gentlemanly conduct.”
    “But I’m—”
    “—not. You are, however, a person who draws attention. Give in, Gideon. Chat with her until the eligible start to notice. I’ll cheer you from the corner.”
    “Is this a sporting event?”
    “In our world every time a man and woman meet it is liable to turn into a contest.”
    The party’s hostess, Jane, the Marchioness of Sedgecroft, admired the assembly from the gallery above the ballroom. Beside her, an ominous feeling overshadowing her usual bright spirits, stood Harriet, the Duchess of Glenmorgan, a former student and once a schoolmistress at the academy. Harriet had been the first charity case to be admitted into and to graduate from the elite school. During the course of her education, which quite frankly couldn’t hold a candle to what she’d learned on the streets, Harriet and Charlotte had unexpectedly formed a bond of friendship.
    Charlotte had been born with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth. She had never been caught uttering a profanity. Until the academy had rescued Harriet from the gutter, she had stolen silver for a living. The cursesthat she spewed when provoked would make a Billingsgate fishwife faint. Charlotte had taught Harriet the virtue of submitting to her betters. Harriet had taught Charlotte the value of shocking them senseless.
    Harriet knew most of Charlotte’s secrets. Harriet hadn’t told Charlotte half of hers.
    “Why is she always left standing alone at every ball?” Jane lamented as she studied Charlotte in chagrin. “Could her gown be less flattering? Was it her grandmother’s bedsheet?”
    “It reminds me of the sail on Grayson’s yacht.”
    “Well, the girls
are
about to launch.…” Jane sighed. “I wish I could find a way to coax her out of her shell. Or at least to discourage her from scraping her beautiful hair into that knot and putting all her efforts into marrying off her students and not herself. And, my stars…” Jane shuddered. “Those sandals.”
    “She couldn’t find her evening slippers at the last moment and had to make do with those,” Harriet said defensively. “She has big feet, you know. No one else’s shoes would fit.”
    “That is no excuse for unappealing footwear. I’ve offered my Italian shoemaker to her innumerable times. How does she expect to attract a suitor looking like a…a—”
    “—a goddess,” Harriet said with a loyal smile. “She’s tall and strong limbed, and there aren’t many gentlemen who have the confidence to approach someone like her.”
    Jane smiled and put her hand over Harriet’s. “What a supporter she has in you. There must be one man who is perfect. Her brothers