Awakening His Duchess by Katy Madison Read Free Book Online Page A

Beau fisted his left hand. “God forbid matters aren’t clear.”
    Talon like fingers gripped Beau’s arms.
    There was still strength in his old man’s grip. He pulled
Beau to him and gave him three hard pats on the back. The embrace was awkward,
and just as Beau wrapped his arms around his father’s frail frame, the duke
pushed away and landed hard in the cushions of his Bath chair.
    Still it was more contact than Beau remembered his father
ever giving him.
    The duke rolled the chair back and, if his eyes were a
little watery, Beau wasn’t certain he could put it down to anything more than
his age. For a man who had always valued physical prowess, his infirmities must
be a burden.
    The lap robe had dropped between them and Beau bent to pick
it up.
    Intending to put the rug back on his father’s lap, he
stepped forward. The duke wheeled several feet away. Beau curled the edge.
    “Sit down. I don’t want to crane my neck.”
    Beau considered standing, but his leg was tired, and he’d intended
to become a dutiful son, pursue a career in politics once his health was
back—if it was ever back. He wanted his father to be proud of him, not just
regard him as a useless addition to the family. But if he was the heir, their
relationship would have to be different. He took a step toward a chair and
tossed the lap robe toward it.
    The door popped open and Finley entered. “Lady Arrington,
your grace.”
    Beyond the open door, Beau saw a woman removing a bonnet
from her dark hair. Odd, he’d thought his oldest brother’s wife was a tiny
blond thing. Her back was turned as she handed her headwear to a footman. There
was something familiar about her...
    She entered the room with a half smile lingering about her
full lips. Finley closed the door behind her.
    Yvette.
    “You wished to see me, your grace?” Her sultry voice
beckoned to him from a lifetime ago.
    “No!” Beau reeled back and grabbed the chair to keep from
falling.
    He’d hoped the woman was dead. His ears filled with a
rushing sound. Yvette had ruined his life—or at least a decade of it and
destroyed his health. Now she stood inside the door.
    She drew to a stiff halt and stared at him, the smile
faltering then falling away.
    “I presume you remember your wife,” said the duke, beckoning
her to his side.
    She didn’t move, seemingly frozen to the spot. The bloom
drained from her cheeks and her eyebrows shot toward her hairline. Time hadn’t
touched her. She was as beautiful as he remembered and just as treacherous.
    “She is not my wife,” Beau hissed through clenched teeth.
Not in a thousand years.
    The duke wheeled toward her. “I have not spent the last two
years paying the best solicitors, tracking down the captain’s log with the
entry and letting it be known to everyone that she is my youngest son’s widow
to have you deny the marriage now.”
    Had she been here, safe, all along? “That scheming bitch had
me poisoned, buried alive, and turned into a slave because I was not wealthy
enough for her.”
    “No! Mon Dieu , no!” Yvette pressed her hand to her
mouth. Her dark eyes widened.
    “Beaumont William Arthur, you will not use such a
disparaging term about a lady in my house.” His father’s color rose and his
mouth pinched.
    Everything washed with red. “She is no lady, and the
marriage was not legal. I will not have her.” Especially not if she couldn’t
even bear to let him accompany her to the lap of his family’s luxury. Had she
considered him expendable after he’d married her?
    “Oh, you’ll have her.” The duke took her hand in his gnarled
claws and looked up at the evil woman. “The ship’s captain signed an affidavit
that he filed the necessary license in Port-au-Prince.”
    Beau wondered how much the affidavit had cost her. He had
not recorded the marriage with the proper authorities, although he would have
if he hadn’t been poisoned. Thank God for the favor of interceding before he
was shackled to that evil woman