Duchess in Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

as Pendleton Sladdington.”
    â€œMarissa is not plump yet,” Cam observed mildly. Then he reached over and swatted Stephen on the shoulder. “It feels good to argue with you again. I missed you, old moral sobersides that you are.”
    Rounton cleared his throat cautiously. “Am I to understand that you will join the earl in a visit to Troubridge Manor, Your Grace?”
    Cam nodded. “I just remembered that I have a gift for Gina, sent from her mother’s estate. I’ll deliver it in person…if Stephen arranges for a one-foot-cube of marble to be delivered within a day of my arrival.”
    â€œIf you fashion it into something other than a female body,” Stephen snapped back.
    â€œA challenge!” Cam said gleefully.
    â€œNo less,” his cousin retorted. “I doubt you know how to model anything but life-size female torsos.”
    â€œI can hardly make a life-size torso out of a block that size. But promise me you’ll display whatever I make in your house and you’re on,” said Cam.
    â€œDone.”
    Rounton sighed inwardly. Now he had to depend on the duchess’s beauty to win her husband’s heart. It was the best he could do, to throw them together for a brief period and let nature take its course. The young duchess was famed for the vivid beauty of her red hair and green eyes; Rounton returned to London, offering a brief prayer to the gods that Girton would find himself unable to resist her hair, if nothing else.
    Stephen stayed on at the Queen’s Smile with his cousin. He sent Cam’s man back to London to fetch his own valet, some luggage and one-foot block of marble. It felt oddly comfortable to be sitting in an inn in the back of beyond, drinking brandy and amiably quarreling with his only living relative.
    Tuppy Perwinkle joined them as evening wore on. Apparently, the cartwright would not be able to fix his gig’s axle until the following day.
    â€œHow do you do, sir?” he asked, shaking hands with Stephen.
    Stephen immediately warmed to the man’s blue eyes. “Very well,” he replied. “Are you a resident of these parts?”
    â€œLeave him alone, Stephen,” Cam said, looking up from his fifth attempt at making a dart. “Tuppy’s house is in Kent, so he’s out of your bailiwick. No votes there.”
    Stephen’s mouth tightened. “It was merely a polite question,” he snapped. Seeing that Tuppy’s eyebrow was raised, he explained, “I’m the MP from Oxfordshire.”
    Tuppy nodded. “Congratulations.”
    Stephen bowed slightly and turned to his cousin. “How on earth did you find out that I’d made it into the House, then?Don’t tell me the London Times makes its way over to Greece!”
    â€œActually, it does. Not that there’s much of interest to read in it,” Cam said. “I heard from Gina, of course. She’s written me about your campaign. I even got you a vote.”
    Stephen looked deeply skeptical.
    â€œI did!” Cam protested. “Some old fussbudget named Peter Parkinson ended up at my table. He was from Oxford and he solemnly promised to vote for you.”
    â€œThank you. Are you getting many Englishmen over there?”
    â€œMore and more,” Cam replied. “Come out of curiosity, I suppose. You don’t even have to pay tuppence to see the cracked English duke. What’s more, you can take a statue home to plant in your garden, if you have the money. I charge absurd amounts these days.”
    Stephen snorted. “Using your title to get yourself sales?”
    â€œAbsolutely. It’s useless in every other respect. Only good for handing on to a son, and I’ve got no wish to acquire one.”
    â€œYou might well marry once you get this annulment out of the way,” Stephen pointed out.
    â€œNot bloody likely,” Cam grunted. But when he said nothing further, Stephen changed the