In Bed with the Duke by Annie Burrows Read Free Book Online Page B

married, so... That is... Oh, dear, I do not know what I mean, precisely.’
    She could feel her cheeks growing hotter and hotter the longer she continued to babble at him. But to her relief his gaze suddenly thawed.
    â€˜I think I detected a sort of compliment amongst all those observations,’ he said with a wry smile.
    â€˜Thank goodness.’ She heaved a sigh of relief. ‘I mean, it is not that I intended to compliment you, but...’
    He held up his hand. ‘Just stop right there, before you say anything else to embarrass yourself. And let me bring you back to the point in question. Which is this: perhaps your aunt thought to put you in a compromising position so that she could arrange an advantageous match for you.’
    â€˜An advantageous match ? Are you mad?’ She looked at his muddy coat, his blackened eye, the grazes on his knuckles.
    And he pokered up.
    â€˜Although,’ she said hastily, in an attempt to smooth down the feathers she’d ruffled by implying that someone would have to be mad to consider marrying the likes of him , ‘of late she has been growing increasingly annoyed by my refusal to get married. On account of her wanting a particular member of her husband’s family to benefit from my inheritance.’
    â€˜Your inheritance?’
    Oh, dear. She shouldn’t have blurted that out. So far he had been behaving rather well, all things considered. But once he knew she would come into a great deal of money upon making a good marriage it was bound to bring out the worst in him. He had told her he was no longer married. And, whatever line of business he was in, acquiring a rich wife would be a definite asset.
    Why hadn’t she kept quiet about it? Why was she blurting out the answers to all his questions at all?
    She rubbed at the spot between her brows where once she’d thought her brain resided.
    â€˜You don’t think,’ he persisted, ‘that your aunt chose to put you into my bed, out of the beds of all the single men who were at that inn last night, for a particular reason? Or that she chose to stay at that particular inn knowing that I would be there?’
    She kept on rubbing at her forehead, willing her brain to wake up and come to her rescue. But it was no use.
    â€˜I don’t know what you mean!’ she eventually cried out in frustration. ‘We only stopped there because one of the horses went lame. We were supposed to be pushing on to Mexworth. Uncle Murgatroyd was livid when the postilions said we’d have to put up at the next place we came to. And Aunt Charity said it was a miserable little hovel and she’d never set foot in it. And then the postilion said she could sleep in the stable if she liked, but didn’t she think she’d prefer a bed with sheets? And then they had a rare old set-to, right in the middle of the road...’
    â€˜I can just picture it,’ he put in dryly.
    â€˜The upshot was that we didn’t have any choice. It was sheer coincidence that we were staying at the same inn as you last night. And I’m sure my aunt wouldn’t have wanted to compromise you into marriage with me anyway. She made some very derogatory remarks about you last night at supper. Said you looked exactly the sort of ruffian she would expect to find in a dingy little tavern in a town she’d never heard of.’
    He sat back then, a thoughtful expression on his face.
    â€˜How much money, exactly, will you receive when you marry?’
    Or was it a calculating expression, that look she’d seen?
    She lowered her eyes, feeling absurdly disappointed. If he suddenly started paying her compliments and...and making up to her, the way so many men did when they found out about her dowry, then she would...she would...
    The way she felt today, she’d probably burst into tears.
    Fortunately he didn’t notice, since at that moment a serving girl came in with a tray bearing a teapot, a tankard