This Duchess of Mine Read Free Page A

sympathetic. “Thank God, infatuation has never forced me into seriousness. A beautiful woman should never be serious, Duchess.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œIt implies that there is something you cannot have. And we who are not as beautiful prefer to believe that you have everything you wish for in life. That is the essence of beauty, after all.”
    â€œI feel myself growing plainer every moment,” Jemma said. “Perhaps it is the curse of age.”
    â€œAge and passion!” Corbin looked faintly nauseated.
    â€œI shall have to ask your maid for a drink of brandy if you continue in this vein.”
    â€œSo I should not wear the chemise gown,” Jemma said.
    â€œAbsolutely not. In fact, given what you have just told me, the green silk may be a trifle too revealing in the bosom.”
    â€œFor a husband?”
    â€œFor your husband,” Corbin said. “The duke is…” He paused delicately. “Well, were Beaumont a woman, his skirts would be long and his neckline high.”
    Jemma thought about that and shook her head. “I can’t transform into a Puritan wife in order to please Elijah. He’ll have to take me as I am.”
    Corbin paused. “If you don’t mind the question, exactly what sort of taking do you have in mind?”
    â€œWe need an heir,” Jemma said.
    â€œOf course. But that need not, in itself, involve passion on your part, and surely no anxiety. Though you might wish to put a bottle of brandy on the night table and take a surreptitious swig now and then.”
    â€œI want more than that.”
    â€œThus the quest for passion?” Corbin asked.
    â€œI’m a fool.”
    â€œYou’re not the first, but you set yourself such a difficult task, Duchess.”
    â€œYou’d better call me Jemma,” she said, rather grimly. “You’re the only one who knows.”
    â€œI won’t advertise it and you shouldn’t either. So what you need is lessons in making a husband feel passion for his wife.”
    It seemed impossible, put so bluntly. “I’ll wear the green dress.”
    â€œSeductive clothing will never work, not—”
    â€œNot for Beaumont.” She picked up a rosy ribbon and started wrapping it around one finger.
    â€œIf you wear the chemise dress, you’ll likely just make him angry. Or embarrassed. After all, such flamboyant clothing is designed to make a man hunger for what he cannot have, and what he cannot imagine. But a husband…”
    â€œPrecisely.”
    â€œYou’ll have to surprise him,” Corbin said. “Show him a side of you that he’s never seen.”
    â€œI don’t have any sides ,” Jemma said despairingly. “Iplay chess; he knows that. We play together occasionally.”
    Corbin groaned. “Like an old married couple?”
    â€œIn the library,” she confirmed. “While discussing the news of the day.” But there was a look in Corbin’s eye, a smile. “What?” she asked.
    â€œYou have something that he’s never seen.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou are a woman with a past , Jemma. And better than that, you have a reputation.”
    She knitted her brow. “He doesn’t like my past. And he never liked my wilder parties. Some years ago he paid me a visit in Paris over Twelfth Night. You should have seen his face when I informed him that all the gentlemen were to come to my ball dressed as satyrs! He refused, of course. Every Frenchman wore a satyr’s tail, but Beaumont was in a frock coat, precisely as if it were not a masquerade at all.”
    â€œNaturally. And I’ve never heard a breath of scandal attached to the duke.”
    â€œHe had a mistress, but no one considers that scandalous,” she said, dropping the ribbon in a tangled heap back on her dressing table.
    â€œBecause it isn’t. Mistresses are commonplace. And for a man of Beaumont’s