Duke and His Duchess Read Online Free PDF Page A

to choke its way past the tenderness.
    “Thomas tattled on me?”
    That was not a no. Percival closed his eyes and prayed. Not a prayer for wisdom or for guidance or for strength to know how to stretch their coin yet further, not even a prayer for strength to endure.
    He sent up a prayer for his wife.
    ***
    How long had it been since Esther had enjoyed her husband’s embrace? Between the baby being not quite weaned, the older boys climbing all over her, and Victor grabbing at her hands and skirts, Esther often felt her only privacy was in the bath, and then only if her husband did not walk into the room and offer his dear and dubious brand of “assistance.”
    Something he hadn’t done in… quite some time.
    And yet, Percival still wore the sandalwood scent he’d used when they courted, and she still loved it. She still loved how his hands felt caressing her back in slow, smooth sweeps, still loved that he could tease about locked doors and broad daylight.
    Loved him .
    The realization brought relief, because it was also true she didn’t always like the man she’d married, and often didn’t agree with him.
    “I don’t know if I’m carrying. My monthly is not regular.” Hadn’t been regular since she’d started keeping company with her husband. Percival shifted beneath her while Esther tried to recall if they’d even had relations since last she’d bled.
    His hand on her back went still. “Ah.”
    What did that mean? Ah?
    “Do you want more children, Percival?” In the name of marital diplomacy and not shouting at Percival when anyone could hear, she refrained from bellowing: You can’t possibly want more children, can you, Percival? Not so soon…
    He was silent for a moment while his fingers resumed tracing the bumps of her spine. Esther strongly suspected he wanted some daughters. Once upon a time, they had both foolishly admitted to wanting a large family, equal cohorts of sons and daughters.
    “I want my wife to be healthy and happy more than I want anything in the world.”
    He sounded like he meant it, also like he only realized he meant it as the words left his lips.
    “I’m in good health. I’m just… tired.”
    “Tired to the point of fainting, Esther?” He kissed her brow again, something he did with breathtaking tenderness.
    “Thomas should be pensioned. I swore him to secrecy, and I was light-headed only because I stood up too fast.”
    When she had been pregnant, she’d expected the occasional swoon, though none had befallen her. Ladies in the country, particularly women with a baby at the breast, wore front-lacing corsets without stiff reinforcement and were thus able to breathe easily.
    Esther closed her eyes and let herself enjoy the languor her husband was weaving right there in the nursery.
    “Come to London with me, Esther.”
    In his way, that was a question, an invitation phrased as an order. Put like that, the idea of leaving Morelands, with its confused duke, its ailing heir, and its upset household staff held a wistful sort of appeal.
    “I’m still nursing Valentine every evening. He won’t settle without it.” And sometimes, the little mite woke up fretful in the night, and Esther indulged him again because nothing else consoled him. The man who snored the night away beside her might have known this. He might also have known that most midwives swore breastfeeding made it harder to conceive babies in close succession.
    Percival was quiet in the manner that told Esther he was strategizing, weighing alternatives, considering angles. The military had lost a great general-in-the-making when Percival had sold his commission. Esther felt not the least twinge of guilt over their loss.
    “I would miss you, were you to remain here,” Percival said. This time he kissed her closed eyelids. “Keeping the army in decent boots and dry powder is important too. Lives depend on it.”
    Despair tried to push aside the sense of sanctuary Esther felt in her husband’s arms. His Grace