The Doxy and the Duke by Lee Caroline

Author:Lee, Caroline
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

I would’ve agreed, Cash.

It hadn’t been an empty boast, but Raina couldn’t stop thinking of her words to the man who’d broken her heart.

And aye, she knew having one’s heart broken required one to be in love, and she was smart enough to admit that’s exactly how she’d felt about Cash.

Excuse me, His Grace the Duke of Cashingham.

Cursing her own stupidity—and stubbornness—Raina kicked at a stone in the muddy path, sending it skittering along the edge of the otherwise finely manicured garden walk.

It had rained that morning and the air still held a feeling of heavy, damp potential. Overhead, the gray clouds swept across the sky, blown by a wind higher up than she could feel. Still, Raina tamped down a shiver she didn’t quite feel and wrapped her arms around her waist as she walked.

Walked? Nay. She was sulking, and was bright enough to recognize it. At least none of her friends were there to tease her, and Ewan wasn’t there to see that, sometimes, adults threw tantrums as well.

Her son had thrown a tantrum on Saturday, the morning after that disastrous ball. She’d gone up to the nursery to find Annie preparing him to leave with her for their daily outing to the river, and Raina had to sit her son down and explain they wouldn’t be swimming in the river that day, or any other day.

He’d looked so confused, her heart had broken. Gathering him in her arms, she’d promised him, “We can swim in the river on Fangfoss property, sweetheart. Just the two of us.”

That’s when the poor lad had begun to wail, demanding Matthew. Knowing how close the two lads had become over the last weeks, her own tears had flowed. She was denying her son the first true friend he’d had, simply because she had quarreled with Matthew’s father.

Nay, it was more than a quarrel. They’d realized, despite the act they’d been putting on all summer, there was no future for the two of them.

Love sought is good, but given unsought better.

Aye, she hadn’t intended on falling in love with Cash, but somewhere along the way, it had happened. To her, he wasn’t a cold imperious duke. He was a reserved man, aye, who had required some coaxing to emerge from his shell, but one who took the time to truly be with his son, who cared about her son in a way which surprised Raina, and who was gentle and loving and damned arousing.

But he was also a duke.

She sighed and tilted her head back to glare up at the clouds, refusing to allow the tears to form.

He was a duke.

Had he been just a simple landowner, or perhaps a baron, she would’ve felt free to engage in the physical relationship they’d started on Friday at The Sword and Sheath. She would’ve felt free.

I was going to ask you to be my mistress.

The word “mistress” implied being a kept woman, being beholden to one man, in exchange for gifts and securities. Raina still wasn’t certain if she would’ve gone that far, despite what she’d boldly claimed to Cash.

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