The Trouble With Dukes by Grace Burrowes

Author:Grace Burrowes [BURROWES, GRACE]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2016-12-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

You’re very decorous about this courtship business,” Anwen observed. “If I had that much Scottish duke to cast longing glances at, I’d be bribing my sisters to lose sight of me while picnicking at Richmond Park, or to suddenly need a book from the library when my suitor came to call.”

Longing glances had been the sum of Megan’s amorous undertakings where Hamish MacHugh was concerned. Ever since he’d been caught kissing her in the garden, he’d been maddeningly proper, never dancing with her more than once an evening, never holding her an inch closer than propriety allowed.

At Richmond, his brother Colin had been more flirtatious than he had.

“I’m torn,” Megan said, pushing the cover back from the piano keys. “Part of me wants to gobble him whole, Anwen. Another part of me wants to stand absolutely still and marvel that not only do I have a suitor, but I have one I admire greatly.” One who treated her with every evidence of esteem.

Megan would rather a bit more passion and less esteem, though.

Anwen came down beside her on the piano bench. “You truly fancy him?”

Truly, passionately, endlessly—and intimately. “You don’t like Murdoch?”

“He’s impressive,” Anwen said. “Not pretty, not fancy, not clever, not … ornamental. I approve of him all the more for being in want of charm, sharing that characteristic myself. He’ll do for you, but I wish he didn’t live so far away.”

What mattered charm?

Hamish was clever enough to steal back letters undetected, but more than that, he was honest. I’ve killed with my bare hands, Meggie. This battlefield violence appalled the man who’d committed it, while the charming Sir Fletcher had been proud of a scheme that reduced Megan to marital chattel.

“London is hard for Hamish,” Megan said. “Did you notice that when we went out to Richmond, his coachman avoided taking us past Horse Guards? Hamish doesn’t belong to the clubs where former officers congregate, and he’ll never attend one of Wellington’s dinners. I can’t fathom exactly how or why, but I suspect part of Hamish MacHugh is still fighting the French.”

Or his own officers, may a blight afflict the hypocritical lot of them.

“St. Just took years to come home,” Anwen said. “I’ll visit you in Scotland. That’s a warning. You will marry Murdoch, won’t you? You’re not just using him to bring Sir Fletcher up to scratch?”

“Sir Fletcher is not what he appears to be, Anwen. Keep your distance from him.”

Anwen played a right-hand C major scale, the one that used only the white keys. That seeming simplicity actually made it one of the harder scales in Megan’s opinion, the fingers having no black keys to create a tactile frame of reference.

“This instrument needs tuning,” Anwen said.

“It always needs tuning when Beth gets in a Beethoven mood. The season drags on forever when a woman approaches thirty.”

A soft tap sounded on the music room door.

“Enter,” Anwen called.

The season could drag on forever when a woman approached twenty-six too.

Hamish followed the butler into the room, Lord Colin at his side.

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