My Fair Duchess (A Once Upon A Rogue Novel Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the missive open, scanned the contents and handed it back to Bexley with a frown. She was summoning him. He barely contained an irritated grunt. They both knew he never adhered to her summons, but this time he would actually go. It was clear she needed to be reminded of the need for discretion.
    “Tell Lawrence to pack my bag for a four-day trip. I’ve a need to visit my mother.”
    “Certainly, Your Grace,” Bexley replied while handing Colin another envelope. This one brought a smile. He ran his thumb over Rhet― Colin stilled his finger. He was still making the mistake of calling his school chum Rhetford even though the man’s father had been dead for well over two years.
    Colin would save the Earl of Harthorne’s letter to read when he was alone. His friend was a wordy fellow, and his letters were usually several pages long and sprinkled with windy, comical descriptions of whatever scrape he had pulled his younger, hoydenish sister out of, or sometimes Harthorne’s letters would be rather sobering with news of the declining state of his properties. “Tell Lawrence to have everything ready by three. I’m going to go for a ride and then head out after lunch.”
    “And cake,” Bexley said, his mouth pulling into a smile.
    “No cake,” Colin said firmly.
    “If I may be impertinent, Your Grace, when will you allow your staff to show their appreciation for you by permitting them to celebrate your birthday as we used to? I know it’s unseemly for me to suggest such things to you, but I feel I must tell you that making new happy traditions in the present can help erase past memories.”
    Colin winced. That last part sounded close to advice his father had given him, and Colin still thought it an unsound recommendation. “I simply don’t want to celebrate my birthday, but if the occasion ever arises that I do, you will be the first to know.” He could never explain how his mother had screamed at him on the day his father had died, which was the day before Colin’s birthday last year, that everything had gone wrong with their marriage the very instant he had been born.
    “Go on, now,” Colin said, his words clipped because of the harsh memory.
    Bexley nodded and disappeared out the door. Without hesitation, Colin ripped into Harthorne’s letter, hoping there was a humorous tale of his sister’s antics inside. He needed something bloody cheerful in his life, even if it really had nothing to do with him.
     
    Dear Aversley,
I hope your birthday finds you not in the arms of any widow but of a young woman who adores you. I wish for you some dreams of what may come. To help you see what true love looks like, I am inviting you to my wedding to Lady Mary Treveport, which is to be in one week. I expect to see you at my home post haste so we may visit before I wed and am a bachelor no more.
     
    Colin groaned. Lady Mary was a well-known strumpet. Leave it to that dreamer Harthorne to fall under the spell of a woman who was about as virtuous as Colin was. He was sure Harthorne had no clue. “Damnation,” he muttered. “Bexley!”
    After striding over to his desk, Colin pulled out a piece of foolscap and jotted a note to Harthorne letting him know of his impending arrival in Norfolk in three days. He would see his mother first and then head straight to Harthorne’s After a few minutes, the clack of the cane echoed in the hall and Bexley appeared, red-faced from his efforts to get there. Guilt stabbed at Colin. He should have gone to find Bexley and not made the poor man trudge back up the stairs to him.
    “I’m going to be gone longer than expected. Tell my valet to pack my bag for a week and then draw my bath, if you will. I’ll be leaving shortly.” The sooner he got on the road, spoke with his mother, and headed toward Norfolk to save Harthorne from the mistake of marrying a strumpet―or even marrying at all, as far as Colin was concerned―the better.
    Once Bexley had gone to speak with the valet, Colin