A Duke Stripped Bare by Greene Felicia

Author:Greene, Felicia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

Catherine. That was the name James clung to; the name that haunted his dreams, his idle moments, his quiet longings. The woman’s name was Catherine, she was a respectable lady of the ton, she was unmarried--Lord, how he hoped she was unmarried--and despite telling him how splendid he was, she seemed absolutely determined not to be found.

She had loved him for six years. What had he been doing for six years--what sort of blind, idiotic beast had he been, ignoring the magnificence that had been under his nose?

He hadn’t seen her at any ball, tea or festivity of any kind for a week. Lord knows he had skulked through every site of merriment like a ghost at a feast, searching desperately for a flash of dark hair and soft blue eyes. He had even, in a fit of madness, asked his ragtag group of disreputable friends if they knew of a dark-haired woman named Catherine.

‘Staunton, I know a brace of dark-haired girls named Catherine.’ Henry Marks, an earl of no importance of anyone but his own self, swigged at his glass of champagne with a braying laugh. ‘They line the streets from Covent Garden to Hooker’s Green. One of them can do a trick with a silk reticule that’ll make your eyes--’

‘No. Not a light-skirt.’ James stared at the man, wondering why he had ever been eager to hear such types of stories. A fortnight ago, he would have been hanging on every word. ‘A lady named Catherine, who moves in our circles.’

‘A woman in our circles? Why do you wish to speak of a lady of the ton?’ Reginald Horton, a man with an unpleasantly damp sheen to him at all hours, sniggered. ‘I assume she is married. I cannot recall you ever searching for a woman who is societally available.’

For a highly-charged instant, James considered throwing his glass of champagne in the man’s face. Only upon the realisation that Horton’s words were accurate--impolite, but accurate--did he change his response to a half-hearted curl of the lip.

‘I cannot recall a single girl of any notable features going by the name of Catherine.’ Henry looked at James with some curiosity. ‘Joking aside, Staunton--why are you in search of her?’

‘Because I fear I may have fallen in love with her.’

Henry and Reginald looked at one another. With identical looks of mirth, the two men burst into explosive laughter.

‘Good lord, Staunton.’ Horton slapped his thigh, wheezing. ‘That is your best jest yet.’

After a moment of horrified confusion, James had joined in the laughter. Better to mask his new-found passion, the only pure thing he had ever felt, rather than allow someone of Catherine’s unassuming goodness to be set upon by the company he kept.

Perhaps friends like these were no friends at all, if falsehood seemed a better path than truth. The only person who had shown the clear-thinking, rational maturity that James needed, much to his surprise, was to be found in the normally timid personage of Marcus Bennington.

The two men sat

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