A Duke Like No Other by Valerie Bowman

Author:Valerie Bowman
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

They left for Surrey early the next morning. Nicole wore a dark blue traveling gown, matching pelisse, and a new bonnet that she’d gone shopping for on Bond Street. Mark and Nicole had agreed not to wear the customary black of mourning to maintain the façade of not being related to the Colchester family, but they still wore dark clothing as a sign of respect.

Nicole’s shopping outing had been a disappointment. She’d hoped to meet old friends, run into acquaintances. Instead, no one recognized her. She shouldn’t have been surprised. She’d been gone for ten years. The debutantes she’d known were married ladies … with children. Apparently they weren’t shopping at the same time she happened to be. Still, it had been bittersweet, strolling with Susanna and one of the footmen through London’s shopping district. She hadn’t realized how much she missed the teahouses and the good English milliners. It was lovely to speak in English and have no one turn up their nose.

Her outing was filled with memories and no one to share them with. She’d purchased a few items and come home to stare at the blank piece of vellum that should contain a letter to her mother. She’d almost hoped she’d run into her mother on Bond Street. At least that way she’d have been spared the need to write her. But Mother was in the countryside this time of year. The empty page had haunted Nicole until she finally tossed it into a drawer and slammed it shut. She would write her mother when she returned from Surrey.

Nicole glanced across the coach at Mark. She couldn’t read his emotions. He was the stone man today. Was he sad to have lost his cousin so early? Even though he barely knew the man, John had been family, after all. Did Mark regret not having known him before his death? Was he kicking himself for not having visited his uncle until after the news? Probably not. Mark wasn’t one to regret things. It begged the question, however. Did he have any regrets? If so, what were they?

She traced a finger along the coach’s windowpane. These were the sorts of questions she would have asked him if things were different between them, but she didn’t know where she stood with him. He’d made no attempt to touch her in all these days. She wasn’t about to press the issue. He was dealing with a lot and it hardly seemed right to demand sex from a man whose uncle was dying and cousin had just been murdered.

But how was Mark feeling? He didn’t need comforting. The man never had. She studied his features. He was reading the paper, the set of his wide shoulders dwarfing the seat on his side of the coach. No. He wasn’t sad. He was more … angry. Angry at the killer. Mark would discover who had taken his cousin’s life. Nicole had no doubt. He was not a man who suffered blows to those in his inner circle without retribution.

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