My Scandalous Duke by Theresa Romain

Author:Theresa Romain [Romain, Theresa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-11-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

He awoke to the heavenly scent of tea. Strong tea, dark and fragrant, with a sugary edge.

“Mmm.” Bleary eyes blinked open. The world was too bright; he shut his eyes again. “Who’s there? I smell tea. Is it for me? I’d give an absolute fortune for it.”

“Don’t roll over!” Ellie’s voice, quick and sharp. “Careful. You’re on the sofa in your mother’s parlor.”

Squinting, Nicholas shaded his eyes and brought the world into focus. It was indeed his mother’s parlor; there stood Ellie’s piano at the center of the room.

He was lying on the long sofa, folded and propped up at head and feet by bolsters. His right ankle was encased in a great deal of batting. As if craving his further notice, it gave an angry throb.

Gingerly lifting his head, he took in the rest of his appearance. Waistcoat and shirt. No cravat, no coat. Breeches. A stocking, at least on the foot he could see. No shoes.

Memory flickered. Stone and nightfall. A clamor of voices around him.

“Damn those shoes,” he said. “It was the shoes, wasn’t it? The soles were slick as ice. How long have I been unconscious?”

“Not long at all.” Ellie bustled closer, kneeling beside him. She held a great earthenware mug and extended it to him. Carefully, he took it from her and sipped.

Ah. Heaven. He hadn’t noticed his head was throbbing too, as it always did of a morning, until the bracing tea eased the discomfort. “But it’s morning,” he said after a few more sips.

“You’ve been sleeping, not unconscious. You did strike your head, but you returned to your senses almost as soon as Lord Killian arrested your fall and helped you to sit on the lawn beside the steps.”

None of that sounded familiar at all. “That memory has gone begging, but it sounds well enough.”

She made some sort of a splutter. “You are lucky you are here and not in your family crypt.”

He blinked. “But you just implied I was not—”

“Oh, I don’t mean you nearly fell to your death. I mean that I was sorely tempted to murder you.”

That did not sound well enough. “How dire.” He looked into the depths of the mug. “Should I suspect poison?”

“Not today.” She brushed a falling curl from her face, then rose. She dragged the piano seat toward the sofa. “We’d better have this out.”

“What, you’re not going to play for me?”

She fixed him with a dire look. “No, Nicholas. I am not going to play for you.”

“I don’t understand what’s happened.” He struggled to sit up straighter without sloshing tea all over. “What do we need to have out? Why do you want to murder me?”

She held up her hand, ticking off reasons on her fingers. “You said you liked being told when you did something stupid. Then you immediately did something stupid again. You kissed me! In public, as if I were a doxy! When both of us are meant to be courting someone else!”

Oh. That. That, he remembered. “I am sorry?”

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