The Governess and the Duke (Renegade Dukes) by Lydia Drake

Author:Lydia Drake [Drake, Lydia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Historical Romance, Women's Historical Fiction, England, London, Europe, duke, duchess, rake, scandal, stepfamily, stepmother, stepsister, orphan, spinster, adoption, governess, womens rights, Historical Romances, Cinderella and the Duke by Lydia Drake, Historical Romance book, Regency romance book, Entangled Publishing, Amara, Mass Market Paperback romance, single title romance, stand alone romance, series romance book, Matchmaker romance, duke romance, Royalty Romance, Women’s Fiction romance, Lydia Drake, Modern Historical romance, Funny Historical romance books, Books like Bridgerton, Scandalous historical romance, Rogue historical hero, Cinderella and the Duke, dukes, Popular Romance, Sexy Romance, Romance with a happy ending, fiction with a happy ending, forced proximity romance, wallflower romance, secret crush
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2023-12-25T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Viola had slept fitfully.

She awoke from another heated and vague dream of the duke and lay in bed while Felicity snored beside her. She lingered over every detail from the night before.

The way Huntington had looked at her, the way he’d danced with her, and then the sudden passion of their moment outside her room. He’d made her angry, and anger apparently loosed all her inhibitions. Viola had never known she could yell at someone before, least of all a man. Even more astonishing, she was rather good at it.

Most astonishing of all, she’d liked it. And the kissing that had followed, the ecstatic embrace, the heated press of his lips, she’d more than liked that.

We must get out of here, she thought. Before I lose my mind entirely.

But first she must help her sister. To do that, Viola needed to get up.

“Go away!” Felicity growled when Viola opened the curtains. The girl jammed a pillow over her face and uttered some words Viola hoped she hadn’t heard correctly.

“Young lady, a girl of breeding does not snarl in the morning.” Viola took the pillow from her charge. “Nor at luncheon, nor at any other time of the day.”

“But men can snarl all they like, can’t they?” Indignant, Felicity sat up, her black curls now resembling a head of Medusa’s snakes. Brushing those out would be a chore.

“Gentlemen don’t snarl.” Viola poured water into the washbasin.

“They do in Mr. Winthrop’s books! Men in those books snarl, grunt, growl, purr, hiss, and do all other sorts of catlike things. I say, do you think when men fall in love, they become cats? That would be jolly amusing.”

The duke had certainly growled and hissed his words of desire last night. Viola’s heart sped at the memory.

“I think that this is a lot of nonsense for the morning.”

Felicity got out of bed and hopped her way to the basin with Viola’s help. The girl seemed to be doing better on that ankle. Hopefully they would be ready to go tomorrow morning. Viola smiled as her charge finished splashing water on her face and sat down, allowing the governess to disentangle her hair.

“I looked over your sketches yesterday,” Viola said. “Your sense of proportion really has improved.”

Felicity beamed. “Well, I still get tripped up by proper shading.”

“I can help with that. After breakfast, we’ll sit down for a bit and work together.”

“This has been the most wonderful holiday. Thank you.” Felicity did not smile sweetly often, but when she did, it had a way of parting the clouds around Viola’s heart. Maybe Viola couldn’t have Huntington, but she did have someone in this world who she loved very much.

“We’ll work a bit, then I must go on an errand. I want to look at your progress when I return later this afternoon.”

“May I sketch Cornelius again? He’s an excellent model.”

“If you can get him to stand still long enough, you may.”

The footmen helped Felicity back down the stairs and escorted the two ladies to the breakfast room.

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.