The Lady and the Duke (3 page)

Chapter Three

The fourth course was going to be the death of him—if he was lucky.

William Langston, the ninth Duke of Halford, smothered a yawn and struggled to look as though he was attending Lady Witte’s every word as she expounded at length about the sad state of affairs regarding the decline in popularity of serving sole during the fish course. Duke or no, only when he dined at Carlton House did he ever see a more abundant or excessive display of food.

By the glares Lord Witte was sending his chattering, oblivious wife, this was not the typical menu when they hosted an event. Clearly Lady Witte had outdone herself in anticipation of a duke coming to supper. Will idly wondered how much longer they would be at the table. It had been almost three hours since he and fourteen other guests had sat down to dine.

Surely the larder must be bare by now.

He bit back a sigh as the door to the dining room swung open, revealing several footmen carrying laden trays of sugared fruit and nuts, piles of pastries and multiple bowls of trifle topped with whipped cream. Lady Witte clapped her hands in delight as her guests murmured their approval.

"Oh, Your Grace, I hope you saved your appetite," she said, ignoring her husband’s outraged muttering. "Our chef has a most deft hand at dessert. Why, his trifle is like silk."

Will was distracted from replying by the barely audible snort from across the table.

"Do you not enjoy trifle, Miss Ellis?" He raised an eyebrow at the reason he was sitting through this bizarre epicurean orgy.

"Oh, yes, most assuredly. After all, everyone loves trifle," she said, widening her eyes at him with not the least bit of regard for his consequence. "Small children, the elderly, people with no teeth…"

He couldn’t stop the snort that escaped his own mouth and their eyes connected, laughing silently.

If he was being honest, it was Miss Ellis’s witty and amusing spirit that had truly drawn him to her parents' home this evening. He did not really have time for socializing, and had only attended the ball the previous evening in hopes of tracking down that treacherous scoundrel Viscount Claremont.

Will could not help but admire Miss Ellis’s persistent good cheer.

Neither her mother’s subtle criticisms nor her father’s dismissive regard had affected her mischievous, blithe spirit in the least. It did not seem to bother her that the haughty, aging dandy to her left had snubbed her all evening or that the portly earl to her right bumped her elbow every time he reached for his wine.

"I like trifle," he replied, just to see what she would say. Her sly wit was the best part of the evening.

The corner of her mouth twitched. "Well, Your Grace, I am not sure what that says about you."

 "Audrey, what has gotten into you?" Lady Witte hissed. "Your Grace, I apologize for my unruly daughter. She usually has better manners than this."

Although her smile remained firmly fixed upon her face, the corners of Miss Ellis’s eyes tightened, just the slightest bit. Will had misjudged her. She wasn’t unaffected, but a brilliant actress.

"Please, do not—your daughter’s manners are perfectly delightful," Will replied. He was truly starting to dislike Lady Witte . "I was teasing her and she was merely defending herself."

"You are most generous, Your Grace." With one last frown for her daughter, the baroness turned her attention to the man on her left, as he expounded to the table at large about the time he had met the great General Wellington.

Once her mother’s attention was diverted, however, Miss Ellis sent him a small smile and rolled her eyes. Will grinned back, relieved that she did not seem overly bothered by the incident.

Finally, the seeming endless parade of dishes ended, the meal concluded, and the women rose to take their leave. Will watched as they filed out the door, reluctant to look away until he could no longer spy any glimpse of peach colored silk. This unwilling budding fascination with Miss Ellis was going to complicate things. He should probably make good his escape now, cut it to the quick, before it could burrow in and take root.

The problem with his plan to make a dash for it was that Will didn’t want to leave now. Foolish perhaps, but there it was.

"Would you care for a cheroot, Your Grace?" Lord Witte stood next to his chair, one silvered, bushy eyebrow raised in inquiry.

With a nod, he stood and followed the older man to the doors to the terrace, where several of the other male guests had gathered.

"Lady Witte gives me hell when she smells smoke in the house," grumbled the older gentleman as he handed a cheroot to Will, leaning forward to light it for him. "Makes me stand outside of my own home, regardless of the weather. Women."

Will puffed, enjoying the rich taste of fine tobacco, and blew a ring over his head. "Perhaps Lady Witte is just concerned you do not get enough fresh air. I have been told it’s good for the constitution."

"You've never been married, have you?" Lord Witte let out a sharp chortle that was echoed by several the gentlemen standing nearby. "Women want to be in charge of everything. They require a firm hand, lest they turn into Napoleon in skirts."

"You do not believe that of all women surely." Will thought of his older sister. He couldn’t conceive of a more giving, sweet, trusting person.

Too trusting sometimes, which was what had brought him to London.

"Perhaps not all, but most." Lord Witte conceded skeptically as he puffed away.

"My wife had such foolish ideas when we were first wed," interjected the blond dandy who had been sitting next to Audrey at dinner. "But once I made her aware of how our marriage was to work, she settled down quickly enough."

Poor woman. Will puffed on his cheroot and concentrated on not rolling his eyes.

"Now, now, gentlemen." Lord Witte clapped Will on the back. "Let us not frighten the duke off marriage altogether. I'm sure there's a lady out there just right for you, my Grace."

The baron slanted a look at Will, who pretended to inspect his cheroot. Sensing his guest's unwillingness to continue the line of conversation, the baron changed the subject to his stables' newest acquisition of fine horseflesh.

Will wasn’t in any position to even consider taking a bride until he straightened out his sister’s mess. It would unfair to bring a lady into his life now, with a potential scandal waiting to explode. The only reason he had even come to Town was to track down Lisle's blackmailer. Her beloved husband had died two years past, leaving her in a maelstrom of sadness and depression, and she had taken as a lover last summer to stem her grief. Using one man to numb her love for another was disastrous in more ways than one, and Lisle was paying the price for her foolishness.

 Regardless of his sister's lack of thought before embarking on the ill-advised affair, Will wanted to kill Viscount Claremont for taking advantage of her grief stricken state. According to Lisle, he was now in possession of some scandalous letters she had written him at the height of their affair and was threatening to expose her, and the family, to society’s disdain if she did not pay him five thousand pounds. It wasn’t that Will couldn’t afford to pay the blackmail amount fifty times over.

It was the principle of the matter.

This man had used Lisle heartlessly and now thought to profit from the affair. Will couldn't imagine a lower piece of pond slime and he intended to make his sentiments known to the viscount in a way that could not be misconstrued. No one threatened the Duke of Halford’s sister and got away with it.

Chapter Four

Audrey glanced at the doorway as the men joined the ladies in the sitting room, but Halford still did not appear. Had the duke had made good his escape? Her father entered the room alone, the last of the gentlemen it seemed. She pressed her lips together, determined not to allow anyone to see how the duke’s defection bothered her.

No—good for him. If only she had such a choice.

Taking the next best option available to her, Audrey slipped out the doors to the terrace, unnoticed by the merry crowd gathered in her parents’ salon. She drifted down the stone steps, following the path through the orderly and manicured garden, toward the gazebo near the back wall of the property.

Reaching the wooden structure full of silver-edged shadows in the moonlight, she mounted the steps, coming to an abrupt stop at the entrance.

"Miss Ellis." The Duke of Halford rose from the seat he had been occupying and inclined his head.  "Care to join me?"

Audrey looked at him across the darkened gazebo, barely able to make out his form. His face was completely cloaked by shadows. Sitting in the path of a stream of moonlight, she hoped her own expression had not given away the surge of gladness she had felt upon spying him.

He had not left.

She wasn’t sure what to make of that.

"Why not?" Walking to the bench furthest from him, she sat down, aiming for a carefree manner. She was grateful for the dark, not sure if she was truly disguising the tension she felt at being alone with him.

"Why not, indeed," he said softly and settled himself on the wooden ledge again.

They sat in companionable silence and after a time, Audrey relaxed. The chirp of crickets and the rustling of small night creatures was soothing after the chatter of her parents’ guests. She closed her eyes with a sigh, leaning her head against the post behind her.

"Your mother is a very determined woman."

The abrupt sound of his voice made her jump. She opened her eyes to see that he had leaned forward and was watching her intently. The pale light of the moon bathed him, turning all his features indeterminate silver.

"Yes, well, I apologize for her. She can be quite persistent, but she doesn’t mean any harm."

He looked skeptical. "She all but offered you up on a serving platter at supper."

"I was hoping you had not noticed that."Audrey laughed and shook her head ruefully. "She cannot help herself around an eligible man. It brings out the worst in her. Just ignore her matchmaking attempts and she will eventually cease."

A lock of hair slid into his eyes and he shoved it back impatiently. Her heart beat a little faster under his steady regard. He was not how she had pictured the Duke of Halford, but she quite liked his understated style. He looked as though he would be equally comfortable in a ballroom or astride a horse. Quiet confidence and competence. It was more alluring to her than flashy good looks or an expensive wardrobe.

"I promise I did not put myself in your path the other evening on purpose. I know it must have crossed your mind, now that you’ve met Mama." Audrey felt the need to clarify. It would be mortifying if he thought her to be an adventuress.

"The idea had not occurred to me." Halford looked surprised, then thoughtful. "I would have never asked you to walk with me if I suspected it of you. I've had years to develop my ability to discern an underlying motive, and you seemed too honest for such devious behavior. I noticed that immediately."

The chocolate velvet of his eyes warmed her. "It’s rare among the women of the
ton
, and one of the things I like most about you."

A flush of pleasure at his words rushed through Audrey.

"Do not be fooled, Your Grace, I can be quite devious if it is called for." She wrinkled her nose at him. He sent her a slow smile, dimple winking, and her stomach flipped.

"Shall we dispense with the Your Grace this and Miss that?" Halford rose from his seat and strolled closer before stopping a few feet away and resting one hip against the railing. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at Audrey. She wondered if he could hear the thump of her heart from where he stood. "Perhaps we can merely be Audrey and Will."

Audrey and Will. As if they were somehow linked.

"When we are alone, of course," she hedged, a buoyant feeling rising in her as they carried on the scandalous conversation. She had not realized how thirsty she was for interaction with someone who valued her opinions and wit, until the duke had nearly plowed her down in the hallway the other night.

"Does that mean we will have another opportunity to be alone?"

Halford watched her still, his gaze intent. A yearning hunger that she thought she had tucked away after her fruitless and humbling Season last year, awakened and stretched.

"Perhaps." Audrey had ever been blunt, something that had landed her in the suds more than once, but a new boldness rose within her under his caressing gaze. She felt positively forward, and liked it. "Would it matter to you if we did not?"

The duke’s expression went hot at her flippant question and he slowly straightened from where he had been leaning. He stepped forward and grasped her hands, drawing her to her feet and pulling her forward, in one fluid motion. The movement took her by surprise, causing her to stumble a bit and bump against him, and he slid one arm around her waist. Losing her breath, Audrey tilted her head back to look into his shadowed face, his broad shoulders blocking most of the moonlight. Will leaned in and she wet her lips without conscious thought, full of nerves and anticipation.

This time he was really going to kiss her.

His voice was low and almost too soft to catch as he answered her question. "It shouldn’t matter. I shouldn’t
let
it matter, but then, I am a fool."

With that inexplicable statement left hanging in the air between them, he crushed his mouth to hers.

Audrey’s head spun, the feeling of his firm lips against hers provoking a heady feeling. She gasped and he took immediate advantage, his tongue darting out and tasting her.

She had been kissed before, but never with the intent to devour her whole. Halford kissed her as if she was a map and he was reading her plains and valleys, highest heights and deepest depths, all with the touch of his mouth on hers. No corner was left unexplored, every path traced with gentle caresses, tiny nips and kisses.

Her teeth tingled with the sheer lushness of his mouth moving against hers.

With a moan, she threw her arms around his neck, letting her lids drift shut, concentrating on the sensations racing through her body. He made a humming sound deep in his throat and strong hands slid down her back to settle on her hips. Fingers tightened minutely, crushing the delicate silk of her dress, and he pulled her lower body flush with his. Something hard and long and warm pressed against her belly through the thin layers of her evening gown and Audrey’s eyes snapped open.