Miss Honeyfield and the Dark Duke by Audrey Ashwood

Author:Audrey Ashwood [Ashwood, Audrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-14T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

His gaze burned like fire, his eyes shimmered diabolically.

It had only been a kiss, but it had changed everything.

Minerva only noted her aunt’s departure in passing, as if it happened in a dream. Her aunt had realised sour-heartedly that she was no longer needed, now that the Duke of Scuffold could accept the help of his sister-in-law. Minerva’s body made all the correct moves, her mouth said all the correct things, but none of what was happening around Minerva reached her inside.

Her mother had decided to stay. “Although the duke regrets that your aunt had to go back home, he was still kind enough to renew his invitation to you and me both,” she told Minerva during their breakfast. They sat alone at a grand table, and their conversation was only broken when one of the servants asked what their wishes were. “I am so very glad that you have finally made the acquaintance of a gentleman, whom you like. And what’s more, he is a duke, no less!” Her mother seemed to accept Minerva’s requirements for a husband, which – so far – she had found rather unnerving.

“Mama, he has not proposed to me,” Minerva replied, “... and he will not, because he has asked the Duke of Evesham for his daughter’s hand in marriage.”

“Oh, I am sure that he will present the question of all questions to you very soon,” Lady Beaufort said, as she joined them at the table. “Good morning to you, Mrs Honeyfield, Miss Honeyfield.”

A servant appeared at her side and filled her cup with steaming hot tea. In the bright daylight the woman had not lost any of the beauty that Minerva had noticed the evening before. Lady Beaufort had already passed the peak of her youth, and she was closer to forty years of age than thirty, but she took her place in the bright light of day without any reserve. Her hair had almost the same colour as her husband, a warm tone of brown with a slightly reddish shimmer, but on her it looked elegant. Neither her figure, nor her attitude followed the current fashion. With her voluptuous curves, deep voice, and unusually outspoken and direct manner of address, she was more than just a particularly fascinating personality.

Minerva found her extremely likeable, and she was pleased when Lady Beaufort asked her to accompany her on a short walk in the park after breakfast.

“Of course you may go,” her mother agreed, when Minerva looked at her with pleading eyes. “I still have to speak to the duke’s administrator about some details regarding his servants. The duke’s servants, not the administrator’s, of course.” She laughed nervously when she realised that with the arrival of Lady Beaufort, who was a female relative of the duke, her interventions were no longer necessary.

Minerva noticed how she was trying to find escape, not to have to face “the question of all questions”, as Lady Beaufort had called it, as the future mother-in-law of the Duke of Scuffold.

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