The Duke's Downfall Read Online Free PDF Page B

start into the room with Lady Hampton, and turn to greet—of all people—the Countess of Clymore.
    “Blister it,” Teddy muttered, ducking out of sight as the dowager duchess and the dowager countess strolled toward the vacant pair of cut-velvet chairs set before his hiding place.
    “Elizabeth is truly lovely, Hesper,” he heard his mother say, and shrank lower behind the palms. “To your credit—and to Lydia Parkinson’s chagrin it would appear—she has obviously taken.”
    “Is that silly woman still looking daggers at her?” The belligerent tone of Lady Clymore’s voice caused Teddy’s ear to throb anew. “I told her a period would shortly be put to Betsy eclipsing her Sarah.”
    “She’s made a match so soon?”
    Teddy felt a stab in the region of his heart, and for several moments could hear nothing but the rustle of the ladies’ gowns as they seated themselves. Holding his breath, he strained closer, but the countess’s reply was further muffled by a nearby trill of laughter.
    “But you’ve always detested the Dameron connection!” his mother declared surprisedly.
    “Indeed I still do,” her ladyship confirmed heartily, “yet I cannot refuse. He can make his own way, to be sure, for no hostess will refuse the Earl of Clymore. But Julian Dameron is not, I assure you, above bruiting it about that I declined to introduce him to Society.”
    “Then you’ve no choice,” replied the duchess. Teddy heard a faint tapping, which told him his mother was drumming her fan against her chin, a habit she fell into when distracted. “I’d wager he thought all along to follow you to town.”
    “Though Betsy foretold it, I can scarce credit it,” the countess said bitterly. “She warned he would not overlook any opportunity to ruin her chances. And what better way than to drape himself like a millstone about her neck?”
    “I’d wager further,” the duchess went on, “that he claims to have urgent business in the city.”
    “Just so,” Lady Clymore retorted furiously. “How could I be so easily gulled? Though it is, I suppose, my just desserts for taking the word of a mushroom as that of a gentleman!”
    “You’ve not told Elizabeth?”
    “No, and I’ve no intention. His letter said he will arrive within the week. That’s soon enough to pitch her into the dismals.”
    “Or see her betrothed,” the duchess replied pointedly, which sent Teddy’s heart plunging.
    Chilling as it was to think of the lovely Betsy married to an odious upstart, it was even more maddening to know he could do nothing to prevent it. If he were of age, yes, but three years and two more forms of Latin—which could very well prove to be the death of him—lay between Teddy and his majority.
    “A happy thought,” the dowager said, with a sigh, “but I fear ‘tis impossible in such short time.”
    “Perhaps not,” the duchess said encouragingly. “According to the latest on-dit, Elizabeth is the toast of the town.”
    “And I’ll tell you how long that will last,” Lady Clymore predicted sourly. “So long as Betsy can refrain from engaging an exquisite in a discussion of Plato, or until she outrides a whip on Rotten Row. It is merely a question of which will befall her first.”
    “Oh, my.” Teddy heard his mother’s fan begin to tap again. “Is she often prone to such mad starts?”
    “At least once a day.” Her ladyship sighed gloomily. “She has vowed to be on her best behavior, and she will try to be, I know, for she is fundamentally a good gel, but she is a Keaton through and through. The same rash impulse that overcame Edward when he sent his hunter at that impossibly high wall will sooner or later compel his daughter to an act of equal insanity. And I would not put it above Julian Dameron to purposely goad her.”
    “What the circumstances call for,” the duchess replied pragmatically, “is a gentleman of similar interests.”
    “Do you know of such a one among the ton?”
    “Sadly,” Eugenia