The American Duchess by Joan Wolf Read Free Book Online

of giving her a great treat, had invited her down to the stables to see his horse, and once there they had encountered Lady Mary. The two young people had shown Tracy all around the stables, which were immaculate, with stalls for at least forty horses. Most of the stalls, however, were empty.
    As Tracy listened to the two youngsters chatter away she began to get a sinking feeling at the pit of her stomach. It seemed the whole Deincourt family was horse mad.
    “Does your brother like to ride?” she asked Lord Harry.
    “Adrian? Like to ride?” Harry stared at her as if she could not be serious. “He is the best rider I ever saw. He was in the cavalry, you know. Had three horses shot out from under him at Waterloo.” Harry rarely missed an opportunity to mention this fact.
    “I didn’t know he had been at Waterloo,” said Tracy. The Duke was far more reticent about his exploits than his admiring cadet.
    “You didn’t!” Harry thought the whole world knew that.
    Lady Mary said disgustedly, “Adrian is not such a braggart as you, Harry.”
    Tracy laughed. “Well, as Lord Harry is bragging about someone else, we really cannot accuse him of conceit.”
    “True.” Mary smiled at Tracy. The Duke’s sister was very like him, with the same dark blue eyes and dark brown hair. Mary was aware, as was every living creature at Steyning Castle, that this American girl was likely to be the next duchess. Mary had been determined to like her, and from what she had seen of Tracy so far, it did not appear that that task would be too difficult. “Perhaps you would care to ride with us tomorrow?” said Mary, diffidently.
    “Oh dear,” said Tracy, “I suppose I will havetoconfess. I don’t ride.”
    Two pairs of blue eyes, one dark and one light, stared at her in consternation. There was an appalled silence. Then Mary said, “But you didn’t seem to be afraid when we showed you the horses.”
    Tracy’s eyes flashed. “I did not say I was afraid of horses, Lady Mary. I said I did not ride them. I never learned, you see.”
    “But how did you get around?” Harry was obviously dumbfounded.
    “By boat, mostly. I grew up on the coast of Massachusetts, Lord Harry. I can sail just about anything that floats. Can you?”
    “No,” said Lord Harry. Tracy raised an eyebrow and he gave her a reluctant grin. “I’ll tell you what, Miss Bodmin,” he offered generously, “I’ll teach you how to ride if you teach me howtosail.”
    Tracy grinned back. “That sounds a fair bargain.” The three of them left the stables, harmony restored, and Tracy did not think even privately to herself that it would be unlikely that she and Lord Harry would have an opportunity to further their friendship,
    The Duke had no opportunity to speak to Tracy that evening. She excused herself immediately after dinner and went to her room, saying she had letters to write. In reality, she was confused about her own feelings and wanted time to think before she was confronted by the proposal of marriage she was now positive was in the offing. She made no attempt to write a letter and was sitting in her lovely bedroom looking out the window at the twilight when there came a knock on the door and her father’s voice said, “Tracy?”
    “Come in, Papa,” she called.
    Mr. Bodmin entered the room and came across to the window where she was seated. “I didn’t think you wanted to write letters,” he said, with a little quirk of his eyebrow.
    She smiled faintly and looked up searchingly at him.He turned away to cough and when he looked back at her she thought that he had turned gray. “Sit down. Papa.” She gestured to another chair and he slowly lowered his tall frame into it.
    “Do you like the Duke, Tracy?” he asked directly.
    “Yes, Papa, I do.”
    “I had a chat with him this afternoon,” Mr. Bodmin went on, watching her closely. “He asked me for permission to address you.”
    Tracy’s eyes had turned a grass green. “And what did you say,