Blushing in Blue: The Brothers Duke: Book Two by Felicia Greene

Author:Felicia Greene [Greene, Felicia]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

After midnight, Pembroke Manor slumbered. Even the most chaotic guests finished their last dances and games of whist, and more often than not could be found sleeping in the shrubbery. The lawns stretched out in front of the house, black as the sky above, the moon and stars doing their best to illuminate the view.

Robert stared out of his window at the lawns, trying to count the leaves on the silhouetted trees. His bed was still pristinely made, with sleep so far away it felt like a distant land.

She had avoided him all evening—but oh, why hadn’t he insisted? Why hadn’t he made sure he sat next to her at dinner, instead of having her glare at him from soup to nuts? Why hadn’t he tried to make her stay for dancing, stay for games and laughter and gossip, rather than ineffectually watch as she made her way to her bedroom with a presumably feigned headache?

People were gossiping, of course. Her father seemed immune to it all, or simply unaware, but the more scurrilous whispers that commonly circulated in the ballroom had begun again with a vengeance. Robert tried to care about what it would mean for the arrangement, for Charlotte’s continued funds—but as much as he wanted to feel concerned about money, it was concern for Charlotte as a person that filled his soul.

He couldn’t sleep. He always slept, even when the world appeared to be crashing down around him. But the memory of Charlotte’s wounded gaze, the steely pride with which she had put down her bow and vanished into the house, had Robert staring out of the window long after midnight.

If only there was someone to speak to. He had never been one for self-examination; he always needed another voice to verbalise his thoughts. Thomas was good for stern advice, John for gentleness, Edward for making him laugh. Henry never seemed to listen, even when the dilemma was very great—but he would look at you as you were about to leave, and say something of great clarity.

He needed clarity now, and gentleness, and sternness. Even a bit of laughter. But his brothers were sleeping, and Robert was loath to wake any of them. Especially as it would involve explaining the whole pretence, or half-pretence, or…

… what he had felt looking at her today had been no pretence. That deep groundswell of attraction, elemental, potent. That tenderness when he had touched her, that sheer admiration of her skill with a bow—all of it had been as real as anything he’d ever known.

But he’d ruined it. He’d ruined it by playing the part of a typical suitor, happy to let his favoured lady come second place to himself, rather than the man who really was. The man who knew a better archer when he saw one, even if the better archer was the most irritating, beautiful, exciting woman of his acquaintance.

The woman he had the privilege of courting in the open, even if the courtship was a sham.

The shadows edging the lawn moved.

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