My Three Lords by Juniper Bell

Author:Juniper Bell
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc.
Published: 2013-12-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The Duke, mounted on a sleek bay gelding, and the Marquis, on a white mare whose color seemed meant as an ironic comment on the state of his soul, trotted into the woods in search of the Earl.

“What news?” the Marquis asked in an uncharacteristically subdued voice.

The Duke shook his head. “Not yet. I will not repeat myself.”

They rode in silence through the dappled light cast by fluttering birches and mighty oaks.

The Marquis adopted a lighter tone. “Is the new Countess not everything I suggested?”

“You never mentioned that I’d find her in your lap, dripping with water.”

“You must admit her tousled condition interfered in no way with her appeal. The way she stood her ground under your withering gaze was truly endearing.”

The Duke shrugged. “If you must know, I found her overly wanton and lacking in proper comportment.”

“Don’t be such a prig.”

“A prig? If I were truly a prig, I would have turned tail and run for the hills. And yet I stayed and attempted to converse with a girl who you, it was clear, had just finished tumbling.”

The Marquis slanted a sly glance at the Duke. “Jealous, perhaps?”

The Duke frowned. “I have not often been accused of such an emotion.”

“Which perhaps accounts for your unaccountable behavior. Why, you treated that poor girl as if she were one step below a maidservant.”

“Did I? I did not mean to.” A ground squirrel ran across their path and made his horse shy. With a soft chucking, he calmed the bay.

“She was merely in the midst of tickling me. This is a favor she routinely granted her brothers. I was honored to share in the experience.”

“She does seem to bring out another aspect of your character,” admitted the Duke. “I do not believe I have ever seen, or imagined, that you would be the object of a good tickling.”

“At the hands of a master, no less.” The Marquis chuckled. “If I were you, I should work to make amends so that you might enjoy her ministrations.”

“Dare I ask how the main event, which I assume preceded the tickling, unfolded?”

“Clearly you dare to ask. You are the Duke. The Duke dares anything. But the Marquis will only disclose such details as do not encroach on my dear young friends’ privacy. Dorch and his Countess are entitled to commence their marital adventure accompanied only by those who have their best interests in mind.”

The Duke threw back his head and laughed so long and hard the gelding’s ears pricked in alarm. “And that would be you, I presume?”

“As both Dorch and Lady Alicia would attest.” The Marquis gave a thin smile. “An otherwise painful occasion was rendered quite delightful thanks to my intervention.”

“You’re chivalry itself.” More laughter shook the Duke’s lean body.

“A philanthropist, you might say.”

The two men emerged from the woods and looked out over an expanse of pastures dotted with grazing cows. In a fenced-in field, a bull snorted and feinted. The Marquis smiled. “Remember when Dorch climbed into the bull pen and flaunted his red jacket at the beast?”

“Of course I remember.

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