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

hand and turned away, walking back to his desk. She would probably attempt to use his desire to tame him. Every fiber of his being rejected that notion.
    It might be time to let the dukedom go.
    But . . . he was the duke. It was everything he was, and everything he had. The bones of the house were his. The portraits of his ancestors which lined the walls, the crypt full of those ancestors’ bones . . . the coffin where his mother was interred, his father’s beside her, an ironic pairing, under the circumstances.
    No.
    He couldn’t let all that history fall into a stranger’s hands over something as trivial as marriage. He wanted to keep the title for his own children, even if those children came from Mia Carrington’s womb.
    Something barbaric stirred in him. Her curves, plump mouth, golden hair: it would all be his. He hardened even more at the thought.
    Revulsion followed that wave of lust. She was incredibly short-sighted. What if he locked her in the garret? Starved her? Killed her? He had the feelingthat a jury of his noble peers would refuse to convict him of murder, if it came to trial and the sordid facts of their marriage emerged.
    Not that he would actually harm her; thoughts were one thing, actions entirely another. But she could damn well accept his terms for this marriage, and the hell with whatever demands she’d made on that sheet he’d consigned to the fire.
    He dropped into his chair, took up a sheet of engraved stationery, scrawled a letter, and signed it with his full name.
     
     
Miss Carrington:
     
     
You will find below the parameters of this marriage. Without your express consent to my terms, I will not marry you and the dukedom can go to hell.
     
     
    Evander Septimus Brody
    4th Duke of Pindar
    Viscount Brody
    Baron Drummond
     
     
    He folded it, took out the sealing wax he never used, and busied himself with lighting a candle, melting the wax, and all the rest of the rigmarole involved in stamping the letter with the ducal seal in dark crimson.
    A grim smile curled the edges of his mouth as he rang the bell.
    When a footman arrived, he handed over the letter. “Send that to the Carrington estate in the morning. Inform Miss Carrington that the groom will wait for her reply.”

Chapter Six
     
From Miss Emilia Carrington to William Bucknell, Esq.
Mssrs. Brandy, Bucknell & Bendal, Publishers
September 6, 1800
     
     
Dear Mr. Bucknell,
     
     
I assure you that I am writing as quickly as I possibly can, given the fact that I am scarcely out of my blacks. And I was jilted
I have been making excellent progress on An Angel’s Form and a Devil’s Heart and indeed, I have nearly fifty one hundred pages written.
I have made some salutary adjustments to the plot, and I believe this will be a most original and fresh novel. My heroine, Flora, is jilted at the altar by the hero, much to herconsternation. However, this indignity will not go unrevenged. unavenged.
She also nearly dies of hunger, and barely escapes the evil Lord Plum with her virtue intact, until she is finally reunited with Count Frederic, who saves her from a runaway horse .
I believe my readers will find the plot quite enjoyable.
     
     
With all respect,
    Miss Carrington
     
     
P.S. Please send me all of Miss Julia Quiplet’s novels by return post. I very much enjoyed reading the book you sent. For many reasons, it has been a vexing few days, but I was much comforted by the novel. In fact, I was unable to sleep last night until I turned the last page of The Lost Duke of Windhower .
     
     
    Carrington House,
    Estate of Master Charles Wallace Carrington
    Residence of Miss Emilia Carrington
    (And, for that matter, Miss Lucibella Delicosa)
    M ia had been at her desk since five that morning, agonizing over her impossibly late manuscript, which translated to trying—with little to show for it—to write the first chapter. If she and Charlie had to escape to Bavaria, they would need her writing income.
    She had only reached the stage