This Duke is Mine by Eloisa James Read Free Book Online Page B

wanted it. I know that. She would have told me that I had to allow him to grow to a man, no matter how much I’d prefer to keep him tied to my apron strings.”
    Olivia blinked. She knew very little about the duchess; her parents had always said she was ill and lived in seclusion.
    “Elizabeth almost died during his birth,” the duke said heavily. “She lived, but she was never the same again. She can’t eat by herself; she doesn’t recognize me. She lives in the country.”
    “Your wife and son were impaired by the same event?” Olivia blurted out, before she could catch herself.
    “Aye,” the duke said. “That’s the devil of it. But Rupert has a good heart. He’s a kindly, cheerful soul, and if I don’t think about what might have been, the two of us rub along fairly well together. And my dear, I’ve talked to you about your brains and your hips, but the most important thing is that you’ve always been kind to him. It’s not easy. He tends to jabber, but you have never made fun of him.”
    Olivia tightened her grip on his hand. “I promise to be kind to him,” she said, and in that moment, it was as if she said her vows.
    The duke gave his odd smile again. “I’ll send him to you.”
    And he was gone.

    Five

    Events That Warrant No Introduction

    R upert customarily entered any room with a hearty stream of greetings; having been coached as to the proper salutations, he took a clear delight in observing the appropriate rules. But now he walked into the library without a word, his eyes lighting on Olivia’s face and sliding away.
    Olivia let fly a silent, if heartfelt, string of oaths directed at their parents. She had forgotten—again—to consider what Rupert might be thinking of all this. From the look on his face, she and Georgiana had been right in their surmise that Rupert had not been tutored in the particular situation he now faced.
    No more than she had, actually.
    But then, people had been getting through the business for years. Luckily, her father kept a brandy decanter in the library, and she handed Rupert a brimming glass and poured one for herself as well, and the devil with the fact that her mother considered spirits to be unladylike. Still without a word, they sat down on the sofa before the fire.
    “Left Lucy in the sitting room,” he said suddenly. “Didn’t seem right.”
    Olivia nodded. “She will be more comfortable there.”
    “No, she’s not comfortable,” he stated. “My father doesn’t like her. Says that she’s fit for hunting rats and nothing else. She doesn’t wish to kill rats. She wouldn’t even know how. And your parents don’t care for her, either.”
    “My parents never allowed us to have a pet of any sort,” Olivia said.
    “You like dogs, though,” Rupert stated.
    “Yes.”
    “Said I’d do it because of that.”
    Olivia blinked. “What?”
    “Marriage.”
    Apparently she had underestimated Rupert’s strength of will; she hadn’t realized that he was allowed any part in the choice of his duchess. Nor had she the faintest idea that the meat pies she’d saved for Lucy comprised her audition for the role.
    She would have eaten them herself.
    “It’s not that I don’t like you,” Rupert said earnestly. “I do. But you like Lucy too, don’t you?”
    “She’s a dear dog.” They were on common ground now. She and Rupert had spent many an evening in the last year talking of Lucy.
    But Rupert seemed to have exhausted the subject of Lucy, and with his silence the air turned edgy and nervous again.
    “We needn’t do it, you know,” she said, after a bit.
    “I must,” he said, taking a big gulp of brandy and shuddering. “Told my father I would. Be like a man. Do— be a man.” He looked confused.
    Olivia took a sip and thought about how much she’d like to throw her parents and the duke off Battersea Bridge. “Shall we not, and tell them we did?” she offered.
    He turned to look at her for the first time, eyes round. “Lie?”
    “More