Candice Hern Read Online Free PDF

suspect she is a queen."
    "Well, then, they would truly be shocked to learn how a real queen behaves, would they not?"
    "I would not know, milord," Luckett said with a sniff.
    "Hmm. Well, it seems we have a mystery, Luckett," Robert said, stroking his chin. "Perhaps Bath will not be so dull after all."

Chapter 3
     
    A short time later Robert, wrapped in his blue silk dressing gown, sat at a fall-front secretaire and penned a note to Augusta and her parents explaining his absence and sending his regrets that he could not escort Augusta to those dinners and routs to which they had been expected. This would not please Lady Windhurst, he knew. He tried to smooth over this obstacle by mentioning the dowager's intention of holding an engagement ball. This bit of news should send Lady Windhurst into high alt. The dowager countess was well known and respected in the beau monde and had many friends of high rank who could be expected to attend her ball.
    After sealing and franking the letter to Augusta, Robert sat absently trimming the quill as he pondered the engagement ball. He suspected his grandmother had hidden motives, and the ball was merely a ruse to get to London and meddle in his affairs. No, that was not fair. Lady Bradleigh had never actually interfered in his life. In fact, he was often grateful that his grandmother was not one of those managing females who made it her business to find him a wife, despite his increasing age and his obligation to the succession. He had seen several friends over the years succumb to the machinations of mothers, aunts, sisters, or grandmothers who continually threw eligible young misses in their paths. It was almost like a game with these women, and he was happy that the two most significant women in his life, his grandmother and his sister, were content to leave him to his own devices. It seemed they were satisfied to have his respectable cousin Simon continue as the heir apparent. Robert was fond of Simon and knew he would be a worthy successor to the earldom. But as he grew older he was forced to admit that he would much prefer a son of his own to inherit the title. Hence his recent betrothal.
    Robert had no trouble picturing the beautiful and coolly elegant Miss Windhurst in the role of his countess. He dismissed the egregious Lady Windhurst as an insignificant burden, since he had no intention of allowing her to live in his pocket. He would remove Augusta to his seat in Derbyshire away from the persistent prattling of her mother, which he secretly suspected Augusta would appreciate. He did not fool himself that he was in love with Augusta. Nor she with him. But he was sure that they would rub along well enough together, and that she would provide him with beautiful children. What sort of a mother would she make? he wondered. Would their children be able to warm her cool and distant nature? Would he?
    Robert forced himself to cease his woolgathering and dress for dinner. His grandmother had a marvelous French chef who could always be counted on to provide extraordinary culinary delights. He was certain that the dowager would insist on bringing Anatole to Bradleigh House, and he began to ponder the inevitable battles in the kitchen with his own cook.
    Later that evening Robert made his way downstairs to the drawing room, after having been fussed over by the fastidious Luckett. He wasn't totally indifferent to his appearance, but he was not obsessive about it, as was his valet. For Luckett it was a matter of honor that his master be turned out in distinction. Fortunately for Robert, Luckett was an advocate of the Brummell school of simplicity and elegance. He would not have been nearly so indulgent of a valet who attempted to turn him out in dandified extravagance. As it was, Robert simply trusted Luckett to see to it that he was appropriately attired, and paid little more attention to the matter. He could not even boast of tying his own cravat, as did many fashionable gentlemen of the ton