Four Nights With the Duke by Eloisa James Read Free Book Online

Let the dukedom go.”
    “I thought about it.”
    “Well?”
    “My father’s madness tarnished the name—but it’s still my name. One of my ancestors lost his head defending King Charles against the Puritans. Another fought a battle for King Henry II. A castle—my family’s castle—stood here three hundred years before this house was built. I would just let them go, the history of my family go, because a woman wants me so badly that she’d resort to blackmail?”
    “Let me put it this way: Your mother married a madman, and you’re about to marry a madwoman.”
    Thorn’s voice was troubled, and Vander paused for a moment. But he knew madness. He had been around it his entire life. He had only to come withinearshot of a person with a touch of mania and his scalp began to prickle.
    He didn’t feel that from Mia. “She’s not mad,” he said finally. “I’ll be damned if I know how to describe her, but she’s not mad. Obsessed, maybe.”
    “We’ll put the best solicitors in the country on the case,” Thorn said. “They’ll discredit her. Mad or not, we’ll have her put in Bedlam. Or—we’ll steal the letter! Give me her direction and I’ll put a lad on it immediately.”
    “No need for that,” Vander said, smiling faintly. “She gave it to me.”
    “Burn it,” Thorn snapped.
    “Can’t,” Vander said. “Code of a gentleman and all that.”
    “That’s utter rot. In any case, I’m no gentleman. Hand it over.”
    “No.”
    “It was a stroke of brilliance to hand you the letter,” Thorn acknowledged. “She must have known you’d find yourself constrained by your own standards. I would have had her house tossed or just burned down the whole place and have done with it.”
    “It’s a question of name and lineage,” Vander explained. “It’s bigger than I am. The whole mess has made me think about what I really want. My mother was desperately in love with Carrington, willing to risk everything to be with him. Even though the man was an empty-headed, light-fingered fool.”
    “No argument there.”
    Vander looked over at Thorn, knowing his face was rueful. “I used to talk vaguely about falling in love—because it was an excellent excuse for avoiding society events where I might find a bride. Frankly, I would be horrified if I was trapped by that sort of passion.”
    “I used to think that as well,” Thorn observed.
    “What’s more, I would loathe it if my name became a byword because my wife took lovers. I might well go mad,” Vander said dispassionately.
    “Well, there is that. Given the persistence of her adoration, Miss Carrington likely won’t ever think of another man.”
    Vander’s smile was probably a bit feral. “There you have it. Perfect marriage for me.”
    “You’ll have to get an heir on her—which means you’ll have to bed her. I couldn’t perform, not with a woman who was blackmailing me. Unless she only wants your name?”
    “Don’t you remember that poem? If I’m not mistaken, my title is coming in a distant second to my moonbeam.”
    Thorn swore again. “That’s intolerable.”
    “Not necessarily. I’ve often thought it would be hell to have a frigid wife. I seem to have the opposite. But I do mean to set some restrictions in that regard.”
    “Such as?”
    “I’m allotting her four nights.”
    “Per month or per week?”
    “Neither,” Vander said, enjoying himself. “Four days per year.”
    He looked up to find Thorn’s face alive with laughter.
    “I might give her an extra night now and then,” he added. “On her birthday.”
    Thorn rarely laughed; it just wasn’t in his nature. But he guffawed now.
    “Four nights should be enough to produce an heir,” Vander noted. It wasn’t the end of the world to have an adoring wife. Particularly because the terms of their arrangement meant that he need not dance attendance on her.
    “India will hate her no matter what.” Thorn got up from his chair. “She had plans for you.”
    “That