When You Give a Duke a Diamond by Shana Galen Read Free Book Online

of the first water.
    She was tall and willowy, her figure slim and graceful. Her cheekbones were high, her eyebrows winged elegantly on her brow. Her lips were impossibly red, her skin impossibly white with just a hint of pink on her cheeks.
    Yes, Pelham knew in that moment he was a liar. He wanted this woman as he’d never wanted another in all his life.
    “They certainly know how to make an entrance,” Fitzhugh murmured.
    Pelham had to turn his head to catch Fitzhugh’s words. The man had spoken into his bad ear. “I’m not interested in courtesans,” Pelham said as much to remind himself as to inform his friend.
    “No, you don’t look interested at all.” Fitzhugh laughed. “The one you can’t stop staring at is Juliette, the Duchess of Dalliance.”
    Pelham tore his gaze from her to peer at Fitzhugh.
    “Yes, that duchess. And the more you stare, the more you fuel all those rumors. Ah, good evening, Lady Elizabeth.”
    Pelham blinked, coming out of his stupor as his fiancée and her parents approached. Fitzhugh was bowing and expressing his pleasure at seeing them. But Pelham saw Lady Elizabeth’s gaze was on him. She’d obviously seen him looking at the duchess. Devil take it, he hoped he hadn’t given tinder to spark the ton ’s blaze of rumors. And he certainly didn’t need his fiancée questioning his associations just as their engagement was formalized.
    Pelham moved to stand beside Lady Elizabeth, turning his back to The Three Diamonds, who were now mingling among the crowd. The hum of voices had risen again, and Pelham swore he heard his name bandied about, but he was resolute in his decision to ignore the courtesans and all the conjecture surrounding them.
    “I was supposed to fetch champagne,” he said. It wasn’t an apology. Dukes did not apologize. “Fitzhugh distracted me before I could return.”
    “It is good to see you again, Mr. Fitzhugh,” Lady Elizabeth said.
    “Do forgive me for detaining Pelham. I had no idea the importance of his errand. But I am glad to have this opportunity. I understand congratulations are in order.”
    Pelham was always amazed when a man like Warrick Fitzhugh, a man who by all accounts had a rather seedy past and an equally murky present, presented himself so properly and in such a charming manner. But Pelham supposed that as the son of an earl, Fitzhugh had the training, if not the desire, to live respectably.
    Lady Elizabeth bowed her head in a show of modesty. “Thank you, Mr. Fitzhugh.” She glanced at Pelham. “I am overwhelmed by happiness.”
    Pelham could feel more sentimentality in the air as Lady Elizabeth’s mother began to speak, and he fled with the promise to return posthaste with champagne. He felt no qualms about leaving Fitzhugh alone with the women. After all, the man had brought it upon himself. No man even alluded to the topic of nuptials without expecting at least tittering, and quite possibly tears, from members of the fairer sex.
    Pelham approached a footman carrying a tray of champagne, but before he could take three flutes, Lord Ridgebury, another of his school chums, cut him off. “Pelham, old chap!”
    Pelham nodded stiffly. At school, Ridgebury had always tried to copy Pelham’s answers. “Ridgebury.”
    “I see you were finally able to break away. If you hurry, you might still be able to claim a dance with the duchess.”
    Pelham stared at the man. “You cannot possibly be suggesting I dance with a known courtesan in the presence of my fiancée and her parents, the Marquess and Marchioness of Nowlund.”
    Ridgebury shrugged. “My understanding is you’ve done a lot more than that.”
    “And do you believe everything you read, then, Ridgebury? Personally, I prefer my fiction in book form.”
    “Then you deny the relationship?” Lord Casterly, a viscount with whom Pelham had at best a negligible connection, asked. Pelham realized he had inadvertently attracted quite a crowd.
    “I do deny it. Not that it’s any of