Dreamspinner by Olivia Drake Read Free Book Online Page B

stroll with Miss Carleton than suffer a history lesson.”
    “In a moment,” Lady Maud said. “I haven’t yet examined either of the sphinxes—”
    “Then please feel free to remain here.” He offered his arm to Juliet, whose eyes danced with laughter. An answering humor quirked the corners of his mouth. “Shall we, Miss Carleton?”
    She tucked her hand in the crook of his arm. “As you wish, Your Grace.”
    Lady Maud sucked in a dramatically deep breath of pungent river air. “Ah, it’s such an invigorating morning. I do believe I shall take my constitutional with you.”
    “I’d like a private chat with Miss Carleton. Might we escort you back to your carriage?”
    Even her ladyship couldn’t ignore such a blatant directive; she looked as woebegone as a child denied a sweet. “Oh, fiddle. No need to bother yourselves. Digby’ s waiting right over there.” She made a vague gesture toward the roadway beyond the gardens. “But is this quite proper, Your Grace?”
    “I give you my solemn vow not to ravish Miss Carleton on the Embankment.” He regarded the tip of Juliet’s parasol. “Besides, she’s undoubtedly quite capable of defending her own virtue.”
    Maud uttered a sound halfway between a gasp and a giggle. “How boldly you speak! Surely Juliet would prefer me to stay.” A hopeful light gleamed in her eyes.
    Smiling, Juliet shook her head. “I shan’t be long, I promise.”
    Feet dragging, Maud walked off, casting an occasional disappointed glance over her shoulder.
    “She’s quite the determined character,” Kent said as they started down the broad walkway that hugged the curving north bank of the Thames. “Is she always so difficult to dislodge?”
    “Only when she thinks she’s missing out on the excitement.”
    “Do you find me exciting, Miss Carleton?”
    The quiet question shook Juliet. Despite the barrier of his gray morning coat and her gloves, she could detect the powerful muscles of his arm beneath her fingers, and the sensation made her blood surge with unnerving heat. She could gaze for an eternity into the jet black mystery of his eyes, listen for eons to the husky cadence of his voice, inhale forever the heady spice of his scent.
    “Yes, I do,” she admitted.
    He stared. “May I presume, then, you’re not afraid of me?”
    An ironic smile touched her lips. “The only thing I’m afraid of is what my father will do should he learn I’ve come to meet you.”
    “He didn’t raise a hand to you last night, did he?” Kent stopped and gripped her arms; as it searching for bruises, his gaze raked her face. “How can I make peace with a man who mistreats you?”
    The protective menace he radiated both gratified and dismayed Juliet. “He’s never mistreated me,” she hastened to say. “He’s no monster, despite what your father might have told you. Papa forbade me to see you, that’s all.”
    “Yet you’re here.”
    Replete with dark satisfaction, his eyes glittered down at her. His hands rubbed gently over her thin sleeves. She stood paralyzed by the warmth flowing through her, sluggish as honey, pooling deep inside her belly. Even as he let her go, the phantom feel of his touch lingered on her skin.
    Somehow with Maud along, this meeting had seemed less like an act of disobedience, less like a clandestine tryst. Juliet suddenly worried that the duke might misread her unladylike eagerness to see him again.
    “Papa harbors a great dislike for you,” she said. “But I prefer to form my own opinions.”
    “Where did you tell him you went today?”
    “I didn’t... I told Mama that Maud and I were going to the glover’s shop.”
    “I’ve no wish to cause trouble between you and your parents. Yet I can’t bear to think I might never see you again.” Again he touched her, his fingertips brushing her cheek m a feathery caress. “You’re like a hothouse rose, sealed off from me.”
    His low pitched words burned into her heart. To cover her confusion, she walked