Rules to Catch a Devilish Duke Read Online Free PDF

Bedouin’s tent.”
    Sophia snorted. “Mrs. Brooks has promised to inquire. I won’t take anything that someone needs, however. At church on Christmas they will wish to wear their Sunday best, and I doubt they’ll appreciate me wearing it beforehand.”
    He shook himself free of the abrupt thought that her Sunday best would be wearing nothing at all. “Have you had a tour of the house?”
    “I have not.”
    “Well, I happen to be momentarily available.” Rising, he walked around the desk. “At the risk of repeating myself, I could purchase you a gown or two,” he added, deciding her mother must have been Irish. Hennessy certainly wasn’t, and he couldn’t conjure another reason for her deep red, curling hair. “I believe there’s at least one seamstress in Hanlith.”
    “Thank you for the offer, Your Grace, but you know I cannot accept. If you purchased me a single gown, by the time I returned to London everyone would know it. While that might make me the envy of some of the other girls at the Tantalus, the … penalty would be more than I am willing to pay.”
    “A penalty? For being seen as my mistress.”
    She nodded. “Precisely.”
    “And you don’t wish to be my mistress? You did accept my invitation, after all.”
    Color touched her fair cheeks. “I thought you invited me here so I could spend Christmas with Cammy. Was I in error?”
    Adam stifled a frown. He hadn’t expected a gentlemen’s club employee with standards. Several things he’d taken for granted about Sophia White had evidently been wrong. She certainly wasn’t dull-witted or grasping, for one thing. And while he wouldn’t say that she embraced her scandalous birth, she didn’t seem overly troubled by it, either. And then there was the fact that she was employed at quite possibly the most scandalous establishment in Town with the exception of an actual bawdy house. And yet she hadn’t considered becoming some wealthy gentleman’s mistress. “I doubt my failure to provide you with clothing will prevent any rumors.”
    “True enough,” she conceded, “but I’m accustomed to rumors. A gown from you would be proof.”
    “You are an unusual woman.”
    Amusement touched her meadow-colored eyes. “Thank you, Your Grace.”
    “That wasn’t a compliment.”
    Sophia lowered her gaze briefly. “Well, then.” With a breath she visibly shook herself. “Camille told me that you always have a large house party at Christmas. Is it a family tradition?”
    He left his office and gestured for her to join him. “It was a tradition of my father’s. After his death, my mother stopped it. When she died eight years ago, I began it again.”
    “She didn’t like the gatherings, then?”
    “No, she didn’t.” Generally hearing of his mother’s death, no matter how long ago it occurred, the listener expressed his or her unfelt condolences. Not so Sophia White, though her own mother had expired at approximately the same time, he knew. Curious, that. Perhaps they each held the same level of affection for their maternal figurehead.
    “So did you invite me here simply to create a stir? I’ve noticed that you seem to … enjoy being surrounded by scandal.”
    “Do I? How so?”
    “You allowed Keating Blackwood to reside at your house in London,” she returned promptly. “Bloody Blackwood, himself. And then you went to his cousin’s wedding when you knew Keating would never allow the ceremony to take place.”
    “You have me deciphered, then.”
    “Not even a little.” She grinned briefly, her green eyes dancing. “But I do think you enjoy a ruckus.”
    Adam wondered if Sophia had any idea how few people jested with him. As long as she was his only distraction from winter and from solitude and from his sister, he hoped she wouldn’t realize it. “I’m a duke,” he said aloud. “It would be very easy for my life to become unbearably dull and dusty. So yes, I suppose I do have a certain appreciation for people who thumb their