The Duke of Morewether’s Secret Read Free Page A

smile.
    Thea had chosen two of the most absurd tales she’d heard about him since her arrival in London to test him. As she had suspected, he admitted both to be true.
    Yet here she was primping. Damn it all.
    She whirled away from the long looking glass and strode across the room.
    She had much to accomplish while she was here; people were counting on her. She would make things right, once and for all, and she didn’t have time for beautiful men.
    She was not in London for a husband, and she’d do well to keep that in mind.
    ~~~***~~~
    Christian decided he’d experienced some form of temporary insanity. There was simply no other explanation for his strange behavior. Never in his life had he been skittish around a woman. Yet with Miss Ashbrook, he’d been tongue-tied. Maybe that’s why he’d been obsessed with her all day. For God’s sake, he’d known her less than an hour. At his sister’s tonight, he’d see that she was just a woman like any other and not worth becoming over-wrought. Still, he was in a nasty mood.
    He crossed one leg over the other, careful to avoid catching his mother’s skirts in the close confines of the carriage, and perched an ankle on the opposite knee. He rolled his eyes in irritation at the lack of leg room, the gratingly genial conversation between his mother and Anna, and his own damn stupidity. His mother glanced over at him, curious at the foulness of his mood he supposed, but he ignored her as he had ignored Anna when the damned chit smiled at him as if she knew something.
    Christian turned his head and looked out at the inky darkness of St James Street. For the seven-thousandth time that day, he thought of the scourge of gentlemen lecturers everywhere. He closed his eyes briefly and let the memory of her accent roll over him. He opened his eyes before his body shivered with anticipation.
    He knew how to solve his problem. After dinner he was going to find a woman with an accent and an amenable disposition, one who liked him — unlike the hellion — and bury himself inside her until she screamed his name. He hadn’t realized how his extended stay in the county had affected him, but that had to be the answer to his preoccupation with Thea. Too much time spent on horses and not enough attention on his baser needs.
    Certainly the lady was lovely, but he’d bedded scores of lovely women and never acted so unbelievably green before. Not even when he was green. It wasn’t as if he was unfamiliar with intelligent women. His mother was bright. His sister was smart and witty. While he might be cursed by his sister’s best friend, Anna, and her damned insightful nature, she would never be called anything less than sharp. So, he wasn’t intimidated by the lovely lady’s brain.
    Actually, maybe that held the clue to his madness after all. He couldn’t think of any other woman of his acquaintance who would have the nerve to stand up to a learned scholar even when she knew he was wrong. Not one who would stand up to an orator in private, much less in front of an entire assembly full of gentlemen peers. The woman was nervy besides being intelligent.
    And beautiful.
    Yet it didn’t matter — lightskirt or cuckolding wife — he was going to knock a woman tonight and get his mind back in order.
    Miss Ashbrook’s butler showed them to the front parlor to await his mistress. Christian refused to sit on any of the spindly-legged chairs arranged about the artfully decorated room. The favored ton décor inspirations were not intended for big men. Instead he strolled about the perimeter of the room taking notice of the various pieces of classical Greek objets d’art . One piece, a black and red vase of impeccable quality, grabbed his attention. He was just bending to examine it more closely because surely what he thought he saw couldn’t be right, when the melodic tones of Miss Ashbrook’s voice wafted across the room followed immediately by a perfumed scent Christian would associate with