The Duke's Undoing (Three Rogues and Their Ladies) Read Online Free PDF

for Joshua pour over her. How did I ever think I could be happy with someone less than he? I’d better pull myself out of this self-pity, or I shall go off my head and they will put me in Madame Tussaud’s! “The Woman of a Thousand Fiancés.” Smiling at the absurdity, she realized that an onlooker would indeed see her life since Joshua’s death as one long comedy of errors.
    Aunt Clarice had been urging her to take the first step out. An opera this evening. Not a ball. She must start sometime. And operas were good fun, for using her opera glasses, she could always “collect characters” as well as scenes in pantomime by looking into the other boxes.
    Eventually, Elise felt a change in the wind and looking up, noticed storm clouds approaching. Rising, she called to Kitty and started on her way home.
    When she arrived just moments ahead of the storm, she was astonished to see Gregory’s high-perch phaeton standing in front of her aunt’s house. She might have kept walking, leaving her former fiancé to cool his heels until he gave up, but Gregory, apparently divining her thoughts, came running out the front door.
    “Oh, my darling,” he said, as though they had never been apart. “I’ve heard the news! Robert is back, Violet tells me.”
    Walking into the house, she pulled back her veil, hands suddenly shaking. It just needed this! Robert! What havoc will he wreak on my life this time? Memories of struggling against his manic strength rose from deep inside, threatening to take her breath away.
    “Darling, you do look careworn,” he said at the sight of her. “Has he threatened you?”
    Clenching her teeth, she handed her bonnet and gloves to Bates, her aunt’s butler.
    “No. I have not heard from him at all. Perhaps he has become reasonable. But if not, Aunt and I will manage as we did before,” she said.
    “But he tried to kidnap you!”
    “Aunt fought him off very handily with a poker.”
    “That doctor ought to have sent him to Bedlam!”
    “It was that threat that sent Robert to Italy. Now you must be on your way. Aunt’s expecting me for tea, and then I must dress for dinner. We are going to the opera, Aunt and I.”
    “Come with me a minute,” he said gently, leading her into the navy blue parlor her fanciful aunt had fitted out in a nautical theme for gentleman callers. Shutting the door behind him, he leaned his compact form against it and said, “I have been courting Violet, as you have probably heard. My heir has spread the word that your engagement to me is broken.”
    She nodded. “You are well-suited, Gregory.” She walked to the window and gazed out at the now-slashing rain, her back to her former fiancé.
    He came up behind her and encircled each of her upper arms tightly with his hands. Leaning toward her, he whispered, “I can’t marry Violet, Elise. You gave me a month, remember? Well, I’ve made my choice. The truth is that I still love you.”
    Gently he turned her so she could not help but see the entreaty in his eyes. Looking into her face with what she perceived now as lust, undiminished by their days apart, he said, “I apologize if my unsteadiness caused you pain. I thought I might be happy with Violet and her simple purity, but I’m not. Even if I did marry Violet, my heart would still belong to you. You have bewitched me, I think.” He kissed her. It was a hard kiss, and he did not seem to notice that she did not return it. “As I told you once already, I love you body and soul. There is no other way I can explain it.” He ran his hands up her arms and neck, and cupping her face, smiled down at her. “Is this certainty of mine what you wished to accomplish with this month’s trial you devised?”
    “You don’t love her?” Elise was astounded. The impression she had received at the house party was branded on her mind. She could not be mistaken.
    “She is a friend, Elise, nothing more. She has been a comfort to me, and I’m certain she would make a