The Wicked Duke Takes a Wife by Jillian Hunter

Author:Jillian Hunter [Hunter, Jillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: love_history

Chapter Eighteen

I pursued a maiden and clasped a reed. Gods and men, we are all deluded thus!

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Song of Pan

Griffin danced the first dance with his cousin Charlotte, whose gaze, he noted, moved about the ballroom as if she were a master spy intent on thwarting an act of sabotage that threatened the security of England. In a way he supposed that an impromptu tryst might indeed be interpreted as such. For example, a duke’s ward could be caught alone with a rogue. The rogue, finding three or four Boscastle men breathing down his neck, would have no choice but to offer marriage. The prospect of the sullied maiden making a stronger alliance would be dashed.

And it was in the course of coming to this conclusion that he realized it was not Edlyn’s virtue that appeared to be at risk.

It was Harriet’s.

His niece was sitting sullenly with Primrose and the elite circle of ladies who had been invited to the party. One or two respectable young lords stood flirting with… well, it was hard to identify their quarry at this distance. He hoped to heaven it was not his aunt.

But the dashing gentleman who was leading Harriet around the floor had an infatuated look if ever Griffin had seen one. To be frighteningly honest, it might be what Griffin looked like during the unguarded moments he had spent in her company.

“Do you think,” he asked Charlotte, “that it is proper for a companion to dance in front of girls who are meant to emulate her?”

Charlotte clearly perceived this to be an odd question by her startled look. “But I saw you dance with Harriet the other night.”

“That was different. I am not obligated to abide by any rules of etiquette. Am I?”

Charlotte lifted her brow. “I was led to believe that Primrose finds her to be the perfect companion.”

So did he.

“I shall tell you a secret,” he said. “Primrose is very possessive of that young woman.”

“Well, so was I,” Charlotte confessed. “And your aunt stole her away from me.”

His gaze cut straight again to Harriet. She was laughing, out of pace with the line of other dancers but determined in her unpretentious way to keep up. She drifted past him as the dance ended. Her face was upturned to her partner, until she noticed Griffin watching her. She gave him a distracted smile, which he did not return.

He shook his head.

“Griff?” Charlotte said softly.

He led her back to the circle of chairs where his aunt sat with the marchioness and several other close family friends. The flame-haired figure in silver silk was whirled back into another dance. By the same man.

His aunt glanced up at him. “If he asks her to dance one more time, it will be your duty to object.”

Lady Jane seemed to hesitate, then glanced up at Griffin, her green eyes sparkling. “It’s all right. If it makes you uncomfortable to spoil Miss Gardner’s romance, we shall have Grayson, or even Weed, solve the problem.”

“It doesn’t make me uncomfortable,” he said in a dismissive voice.

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