The Duke's Disaster (R) Read Online Free PDF Page B

seen Thea make. “Some fellow on Bond Street.”
    “That narrows it considerably,” Noah said, his sarcasm clearly escaping Grantley’s notice. “Ladies, shall we?”
    “Bye, Tims.” Nonie hugged her brother. “You should go back upstairs and have a little more rest, I think, and don’t forget your tooth powder.”
    Thus warned, Thea merely extended her hand to her brother. “I look forward to seeing you at the wedding, Tims, and thank you for coming down.”
    He bowed over her hand, his expression bewildered as they took their leave. Some of Noah’s ire toward “Tims” abated when he saw how lost the earl was to be parting with his sisters.
    Noah knew how that felt. He’d forgotten he knew, but he did know.
    “This is the lot of it?” Noah asked as Hirschman set down a second trunk amid a paltry pile of bags beside the coach.
    “I haven’t many clothes that still fit,” Nonie explained. “This is it. My thanks, Hirschman.”
    “On your way, your ladyships.” Hirschman tugged his forelock. “Mrs. Wren and I will look after Master Tims, same as we always do.”
    Noah shot Hirschman a speaking look. “You have my direction. I’ll send a carriage, clothing, and a squad of dragoons to impress the pup into the wedding party. Warn him he’d best be sober. He’ll regret shaming my bride in any way.”
    Noah handed up Thea, then Nonie, and signaled the coachman to hold for a moment when the door was closed.
    “How bad is the earl?” Noah asked Hirschman, walking a few steps toward the rear of the coach.
    “For now?” Hirschman scrubbed a hand over his chin. “His lordship’s not awful, he’s just young and stupid as a stump. He gets took advantage of, but the solicitors curb the worst of it, and the old lord set it up so they can keep him from ruin for at least another year. Once he turns five-and-twenty, though, he gets the reins, and God help us then, Your Grace.”
    “If he lives that long. You and Mrs. Wren are adequately provided for?”
    “We take our wages out first when the quarterly money shows up. The rest is spread around as needs must.”
    “Do the best you can.” Noah pushed a card at him. “If the water gets too high, send word to me.”
    Hirschman tucked the card into a pocket. “Master Tims gambles,” he said quietly. “Drinking and gaming, and running with his cronies. That’s the worst of it, and many a young lord has found ruin on that road.”
    Ruin, disease, a tour of the sponging houses, idiotic duels, and penury. “His sisters are safe,” Noah said, “and they’ll stay safe as long as I draw breath.”
    “Good day to you, then, Your Grace,” Hirschman said, stepping back, “and felicitations on your coming nuptials.”
    The first such felicitations Noah had received.
    “My thanks, Hirschman.” Noah climbed into the carriage, taking the backward-facing seat, and wondering why, though he’d known Grantley was a useless puppy, he hadn’t considered that the man was also Lady Thea’s useless puppy of a brother. What manner of titled brother would allow his sister into service, for pity’s sake?
    The young men of England, Noah silently concluded, didn’t even have pudding for brains.

Three

    “You mustn’t let Anselm’s growling fool you,” Lady Patience said as the maid arranged Thea’s hair. “He was the best of brothers, and still is, though my husband accounts him excessively willing to engage in trade. You won’t mind that, will you?”
    Patience was a feminine version of her brother. Dark-haired, blue-eyed, with swooping eyebrows that turned a pretty countenance toward the dramatic.
    “I’m marrying His Grace,” Thea said, meeting Patience’s gaze in the vanity mirror. “This relieves me of any right to judge the man for decisions made prior to our union.”
    Thea desperately hoped reciprocal reasoning would apply, for there had been no opportunity to be private with the duke.
    Had he planned it that way?
    Patience smiled overbrightly.