The Once and Future Duchess by Sophia Nash

Author:Sophia Nash [Nash, Sophia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Historical Romance, Regency
ISBN: 9780062273635
Google: pg76lwEACAAJ
Amazon: B00BATNOGC
Barnesnoble: B00BATNOGC
Goodreads: 17331448
Publisher: Avon
Published: 2013-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

It could not be true. James was certain. Amelia Primrose would not marry a man who was three sheets to the wind and not in possession of his faculties.

Especially not the Duke of Sussex.

Unless she had had no choice. And he would wager his last farthing that at the heart of her actions, she had married Sussex to somehow protect his own family’s secrets or the Duke of Sussex. God, he was sick of secrets. Sick of burdens. Tired of the game. And Isabelle . . . dearest, loveliest Isabelle. At so many points during the round she had made him remember what he had felt during his youth—the joy of shared laughter and lighthearted fun. And when she worried the edge of her bottom lip with her teeth as she addressed her ball in the rough, he had wanted to pull her behind a tree and kiss her senseless.

But it was not to be. He should know better than to indulge in that dangerous game.

He only wished he had pulled her along with him when he left the hellish scene. There had been a look in her eyes that he wanted to ease. But he had a more powerful urge to protect her from the secrets and the ugliness that he had to untangle on his own.

And so he churned on, toward the gathering house, and forced his mind toward a plan. At least now he understood why Amelia had asked him to bring the archbishop to Sussex’s estate.

Abruptly, he changed direction, cutting through a small wood toward the archbishop among the last foursome behind him on the course. He would pin down His Grace, Mr. Divine High and Mighty Divert All Questions right now.

Too late, he spotted Calliope Little in his direct path. Bent over, obviously searching for her ball in a stand of trees, she looked up and then straightened.

“What’s going on?” she asked with her usual disregard for his station. “It looked like you were about to knock down Sussex.”

“Not your affair,” he ground out.

“Nothing ever is,” she retorted. “Since when has that mattered?”

“For once, we are in complete agreement.” He kept walking, and she glued herself to his side, trotting to keep up like one of his greyhounds. “Miss Little, for the love of God . . .”

“How ridiculous you always are with me. Look, I know you like me. You don’t have to pretend the opposite all the time.”

He stopped dead in his tracks. Sometimes, if one was very lucky, and one truly paid attention despite the chaos all around, one was given the chance to learn a truth.

He looked into Calliope’s wide brown eyes, brimming with intelligence. “What did you say?”

She snorted. “They say hearing is the first thing to go with age.” She chewed on a thumbnail as she examined him.

“Stop that,” he said stiffly. “It’s inelegant.”

She did as he bade. “I said sometimes you are extremely pigheaded.”

He refused to comment.

“I said, ‘I know you like me.’ ”

“No. The other part.”

She gave him a look that suggested he was an idiot.

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