Winning Back His Duchess by Amanda McCabe

Author:Amanda McCabe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-12-09T16:57:19+00:00

Chapter Eleven

A Lady in Society Tells All

London is desolate this week, my darlings, as the Duchess of B. has gone off to the countryside. And not merely the country—to the ancestral pile of the Dukes of B.!

Shall she ever emerge from those ancient halls at all?

This Author is on tenterhooks to find out, as I am sure are all the eligible gentlemen of town...

Rose was very glad when Johnston informed her that dinner was to be served in a small breakfast chamber instead of the grand dining room. She’d peeped into that magisterial space and was quite sure she and Jamie would be lost in there, with its mahogany table that surely could seat a hundred, its dark red walls and hangings, its Venetian glass chandeliers and buffets lined with silver. She already felt uncertain enough about what she was doing in that grand house, where everyone treated her like a duchess when she felt like anything but. To preside over a multiple-course dinner at the foot of that massive table might feel as if she was slowly being crushed by velvet and mahogany.

Yet when she saw the breakfast room, she wondered if the state dining room wouldn’t have been better after all. She would have been so far away from Jamie they would have been shouting to be heard if they spoke at all. She would not have felt the danger of his nearness, the temptation to move even closer to him.

Here, in this pretty little octagonal space with tall windows looking out on to a moon-dappled garden, everything seemed so intimate and romantic. The round table, draped in white damask and laid with white and yellow china, the yellow striped cushions and yellow silk curtains, spoke of sunniness and newness.

Jamie stood waiting to hold her chair, looking strangely nervous and far too adorably handsome. ‘I hope this room will do, Rose. We can go to the dining room if you like, but it always feels cold in there to me. I thought you might prefer it here.’

She nodded, daring to wonder if she could have this one night with her old Jamie. With her old self. ‘It is very pretty, thank you.’ She sat down and carefully smoothed her leaf-green silk skirts around her as Jamie seated himself across from her. She’d dressed with particular care that evening, in one of her favourite new Worth gowns, foaming with white lace and tulle, and her wedding gift pearls. Jenny had pinned up her hair in one of the latest styles, a loose, low knot made stylish by Princess Alexandra, twined with pearls and fastened with a diamond crescent moon Jamie once gave her. She hadn’t worn it since they parted and she wondered if he would notice.

All of England called her ‘beautiful’ now, though she was never entirely sure if that were true. She’d really only ever wanted one person to think her beautiful and once upon a time he had. Once he had looked at her as though she was the very moon and stars and sun.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.