An Unlikely Duchess Read Online Free PDF Page A

many scrapes—but none quite as nasty as this one. Why in heaven’s name had she not at least brought a maid with her? The taproom had been full and rather noisy when she came in. It grew noisier as she paced her room, with the result that she was reluctant to go downstairs to investigate the long delay. But it was growing dusk outside, she saw every time her steps took her past the window—every ten seconds, that was.
    When there was a knock at the door, she threw it open and only just restrained herself from hurling herself into Mr. Porterhouse’s arms, so great was her relief. But his face was as serious as could be, and he stepped inside the room and closed the door behind his back and set her valise against the wall.
    “I am afraid the carriage will not be ready for travel until tomorrow, Miss Middleton,” he said. “I am most awfully sorry. I feel quite dreadful.”
    “You feel dreadful!” Josephine could feel only panic. “But what are you going to do about it, sir? There must be another carriage for hire.”
    “There is not,” he said. “And even if there were, I would be loath to endanger your life on dark roads. No, I am very much afraid, ma’am, that we must spend the night here.”
    “But Papa will kill me!” she said, her squeak sounding very undignified to her own ears. “And Aunt Winifred will turn me off. And Grandpapa will lecture me for a week.”
    “But perhaps it is for the best after all,” he said. “Even if you go to your aunt’s, the chances are that you will eventually be forced to marry the lecherous Duke of Mitford. My heart bleeds for you at the very thought, ma’am. I have a better idea.”
    Hope stilled Josephine.
    “You must marry me instead,” Mr. Porterhouse said. “You must know I have a regard for you, ma’am. It is the dearest wish of my heart to rescue you from a bleak future.”
    “Oh, nonsense,” Josephine said, her first panic subsiding. “That is the silliest notion I ever heard. We will just have to be on our way as early as possible in the morning, that is all, and hope that everyone’s anger will cool within the next month or so. I suppose it is not the end of the world.”
    “We are on the road north,” he said, possessing himself somehow of her hands. “Come with me to Gretna Green, ma’am. There we may marry and you will be safe both from your lecherous suitor and from the wrath of your family. They will have no more power over you once you are my wife.”
    “You are serious!” she said in some surprise. “You are indeed a very kind gentleman, but there is no need whatsoever to make such a sacrifice, I do assure you. My papa is not a monster.”
    “But your reputation will be in ruins after tonight,” he said. “Do you not realize that? You must marry me. Would it not be better to do so before you have to face your father?”
    “Nonsense!” Josephine snatched her hands from his grasp. “We will be spending but one night in the same inn. Papa will understand, though he will scold me for my thoughtlessness and my cowardice in not being able to talk to him instead of fleeing. If you will return to your own room now, sir, I shall settle for the night and be ready to start for my aunt’s at the crack of dawn.”
    “But the inn is full,” he said. “I thought you realized that. I took the very last room, ma’am. I am afraid we must share it.”
    “Share it?” Josephine stared blankly at him for a moment until incredulity and indignation set her tongue to wagging.
    Share a bedchamber at an inn with a single gentleman and one whom she scarcely knew? Who did he think she was? Did he think she knew nothing at all about how to go on?
    She felt only increased wrath rather than alarm at first when Mr. Porterhouse turned, locked the door, and pocketed the key. Increased wrath and increased eloquence.
    And then he laughed.
    And moved toward her.
    “Perhaps by tomorrow morning, my sweet,” he said, “there will be no doubt left in your mind