Son of a Duke Read Online Free PDF Page A

to look like payment for untold debts and rights wronged and all of that glory nonsense that winners spouted about the morning after the duel in which they had survived and some other poor chap had not.   Alec did not know who really had the energy for such drivel.   What happened to being a gentleman and all that that stood for?  
    "You?   In over your head with a woman?   I doubt that," Nathan said, and Alec looked at him through the darkness.
    It still startled him to see a face so like his own, and he felt again the rush of affection for his older brother.   Although Nathan had been born first, it was Alec who had carried the title as Nathan had been born on the wrong side of the sheets.   It saddened Alec to know that a title Nathan so richly deserved was one he would never have.   But their father had not neglected Nathan, just as the Duke of Lofton had not neglected any person under his care in his entire life.   He had taken Nathan as a son when the baby's mother had died in childbirth, and Nathan had never wanted for anything.   And Alec had had a big brother to look up to.
    "Do not doubt, dear brother," he said now, "She's an eagle.   I thought I was going to have to ravish her right there on the dance floor to get her to stop eyeing everyone and everything."   He straightened his coat.   "I have never seen any one more observant in my entire life.   Including you."
    Nathan sat up.   "Including me?"
    "Yes, you."   Stryden watched the lines of his brother's face in the darkness.   "No."   His brother did not move.   "No, you are not going to meet her."
    "Why not?"   Nathan sat forward so a shaft of moon fell across his blue eyes, revealing features so like Stryden's that he paused again in consideration.
    This was his brother.   The one he fought next to on the battlefields in France and returning to England, they had been partnered by the War Office to fight in a more intellectual game, one of espionage and stealth, played out in drawing rooms and clubs instead of battlefields.   And now the bloody bastard was going to ruin everything he had worked so hard to accomplish that night because he wanted to meet a woman?  
    "I flirted outrageously with her in order to get you in there without her seeing you.   And now you just want to waltz in and meet the chit?"
    "Oh, come now, Alec, I would not call her a chit.   You just said she was an eagle.   Most gracious and noble bird that is."   He reached for the door.   "I believe I shall have a look."
    Alec grabbed his brother's hand in mid air.   "Think about what you're doing.   Your life may never be the same."
    Nathan sat back.   "Yes, maybe it will get better."
    "I think it will get a lot worse."
    "She's that incredible?"
    "She reminded me of Hurst."
    Nathan leaned further back in the seat.   "Hurst?"
    "Yes.   Holds her hands behind her back in just the same manner."
    "Oh my."   Nathan sat all the way back against the cushioned seat, remembering their commanding officer from their days in the field.    
    "And what about the mission, Nathan?" Alec tried a different tactic.   "This was supposed to have looked like a revenge killing."  
    Nathan seemed to ponder this.
    "Do you think anyone will believe that?"  
    Alec shrugged.  
    "I do not know.   I have never seen a revenge killing before.   It is not like they happen regularly at balls."  
    Nathan gave a sound as if to agree but spoke no further.
    The two sat for a moment staring out the window.   They heard the horses shift their feet in the cold, sending their reins jingling in the stillness.
    "They should be coming soon.   I should head back."   Alec opened the door and climbed down.   He turned to shut the door, but Nathan was climbing out behind him.  
    "No."   Alec tried to physically push Nathan back into the hack.  
    Nathan swatted his little brother out of the way.   "I think my life could use an adjustment."
    ~
    Standing in the doorway to the ballroom, he knew,