After Dark with the Duke by Julie Anne Long

Author:Julie Anne Long
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The sitting room that night was filled with chatter and the homey, domestic snick of scissors and the rustle of industry. All feminine hands were needed to fashion stars and roses and to embroider the initials TGPOTT into twenty surprisingly fine white handkerchiefs. No consensus had yet been reached about how to make the ceiling of the ballroom midnight blue.

Captain Hardy, who knew how much handkerchiefs cost, had eyed them askance on his way into the smoking room.

So far he hadn’t asked any questions.

The duke was out. Perhaps dining with a family who were blessed with a pretty daughter or two. Mariana could hardly stop it. Why wouldn’t he enjoy their company?

But she’d excused herself from the sitting room earlier than usual that evening, to be alone with the enormity of the things she felt that she had no business feeling.

She settled gingerly in at the little desk in her room and stared at the foolscap, her old friend, and thought:

Dear Mama,

I hope this finds you well.

Help me. Oh, help me please. I need help. I am worried.

I think you would be pleased to know that the duke called me extraordinary. I was so proud. He would know, wouldn’t you think? Because he is.

But how can I be? He has already endured so much. He can be a bit of a bastard, but he is practically a bloody national saint. He is expected to be good, and he is. He is a very fine man. I am grateful to know him.

Oh, but Mama. When I am with him . . .

The way I feel about him is neither small, nor wise, nor bearable.

I so wanted a very different life. A life like the one we had. At the moment, I’ve no business wanting anything at all, unless it’s a paying job.

I suppose some would call me a fallen woman. But I still feel just like myself—just Mariana. No different inside. So I am worried that what I did with Lord Revell was not so much a mistake as simply my nature. And then, what does that say about me? Am I what the newspapers say I am?

Is that why I want to tempt the duke? Is that why he is tempted? Would I be his downfall?

But what are bodies for, if not for this?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.