The Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James Read Free Book Online

you that you have absolutely nothing to do with whom I marry. Nothing!”
    James narrowed his eyes. “We’ll see about that.”
    “There is nothing to see,” she snapped. “If I want Geoffrey, I’ll marry him.”
    “Not unless you want to share your silk stockings.”
    Theo gasped. “You’re being unspeakably rude, and you should apologize. I don’t know why you would say such a thing of Geoffrey.”
    “Because it’s the truth. I lived with him. Only when he put on skirts—which he did at the slightest pretext—did he stop being so nervy that he bit at someone every five minutes. But go ahead. I gather you think you know him best.”
    “I do know Geoffrey best. You may have played at charades when you were at school. But he’s grown up now, even if you haven’t.”
    “Right. It’s all my fault.”
    “Not your fault,” Theo said. “But I think I understand men a bit better than you do, James. After all, you’re still thinking of Geoffrey as a boy. I see him with a woman’s eyes.”
    James scowled at her. “Woman’s eyes! Piffle.”
    “If you accompany me just one more time,” Theo coaxed him, “just to the royal musicale tomorrow night, after that I’m certain I will not need the attention I get from dragging you with me. Geoffrey has noticed me now, you see. One more encounter will be enough.”
    “For what? True love?”
    “Perhaps,” Theo said, thinking of the way Geoffrey’s mouth curved up on one side and not the other. “Maybe.”
    “You wouldn’t know true love if it hit you on the side of the head,” James said, folding his arms over his chest.
    “Well, you are no more of an expert. Don’t tell me that you feel true love for Bella, because I know perfectly well you don’t. You are infatuated with those enormous bubbies that she was displaying to everyone on Oxford Street.”
    “Look here,” James said, looking a bit alarmed. “You mustn’t start using that word. It’s not polite.”
    “Bubbies!” Theo repeated, just stopping herself from sticking out her tongue at him. She was seventeen, after all. She had to act like a lady. “I know what you see in Bella,” she contented herself with saying. “And it isn’t love.”
    “Bella’s attributes are not a matter for our conversation,” James retorted.
    Theo laughed. “Then her pretty face? I don’t think so!”
    “No more!”
    “Who’s going to talk to me about this sort of thing, if not you?” she said, relaxing back into the corner.
    “Not me.”
    “Too late. You’re the closest thing I have to a brother,” Theo said, feeling a little sleepy. “Can you wake me up when we’re home?”
    James sat rigidly in his own corner and stared at her. Even with the dim lantern that lit the carriage he could see the line of her thigh. Not to mention her bubbies, breasts, whatever.
    Trevelyan had certainly noticed them. James had to stop himself at the ball from reaching over and jerking the man’s head out of Daisy’s décolletage.
    She would not marry Trevelyan. Not under any circumstances.
    Even—even if he really did have to marry her himself to prevent it.

Six
    The next evening
    Carlton House
    Residence of the Prince of Wales
    T o Theo’s extreme annoyance, James not only didn’t accompany her to the Prince of Wales’s private musicale, but also didn’t bother to show up until it was almost time for supper.
    “Where have you been? You were supposed to be here hours ago,” she hissed at him, pulling him away from the group to the other side of the drawing room, out of earshot. “Claribel has turned herself into a plaster and applied herself to Geoffrey; he’s hardly had a moment to breathe, let alone notice I am in the room.”
    “Well, I’m here now,” James said.
    Theo took a closer look. He wore a beautiful indigo coat with dark green velvet lapels, entirely appropriate for a private musicale hosted by the Prince of Wales. But there was something about his face, and his eyes . . .
    “You’re