The Grace of a Duke Read Online Free PDF

it sound as if there was no need for her to make an apology and that she was spared of having to ask to be relieved of her duty to marry him.
    Shaking her head, Charlotte regarded him. “Your Grace, I fail to see how your wounds would prevent you from marrying me,” she replied, trying hard to keep the growing panic she felt from coloring her voice.
    If Joshua Wainwright refused her as his wife, Charlotte would have no where to go. She had spent the last six months claiming, quite publicly, that she would be married to him after her twenty-first birthday. The fact that she’d been betrothed for nearly eighteen years meant that there were no suitors for her hand, certainly none she knew of at that very moment. To be rejected by the duke would mean a stain on her character. The members of the ton would shun her.
    Joshua reached out to grip her arm, a move he’d forgotten was forbidden with an unmarried woman. But Charlotte allowed him the impropriety and merely glanced at his hand as he held onto her gently. He leaned in and said, in a very quiet voice, “I have no intention of subjecting you, or any woman, for that matter, to a life with an abomination,” he countered, his impatience growing.
    Despite her very best attempt at decorum, Charlotte gasped, her mouth open in an expression of shock. How can he think such a thing? Despite the mask he wore, he was still a handsome man. His wavy dark hair had grown a bit too long. His brown eyes, which at the moment looked nearly black, were framed with dark lashes and set upon broad cheekbones split by a wide nose. And that mouth. She had often thought of that mouth and how it would feel to have it pressed against her lips. She practically shivered at the thought of it. “And I have no intention of not fulfilling my obligation to this duchy,” she retorted in a hoarse whisper, suddenly angered at his stubborn attitude.
    It was Joshua’s turn to be shocked. “I am giving you the opportunity to gracefully bow out of this arrangement!” he stated, his voice growing in volume.
    “And I am refusing to take it!” Charlotte countered, her voice still a loud whisper.
    At some point during their verbal volley, the footman had opened the door for the housekeeper. Mrs. Gates, carrying an ancient silver tray with a tea service, hurried to where Charlotte and Joshua sat. “Your Grace,” she said as she curtsied in his direction, well aware that she had interrupted a discussion that was becoming somewhat heated.
    “Mrs. Gates,” Joshua acknowledged with a nod, his lips set in a thin line. How can Lady Charlotte continue to look so damned composed after that bit of disagreement? he wondered, unable to tear his gaze away from her perfect oval face, her lips – the bottom one plump and quite kissable –, her straight nose that ended quite prettily (not nearly as long and hooked as some of those other women of the ton , he thought), and her clear green eyes, in which he was getting quite lost at the moment. 
    The round, older woman, all dimples and grins, set the tray down on the tea table and began pouring for the suddenly quiet couple. She wore her gray hair in braids that had been wrapped around her head several times to form a silver coronet. A white apron, newly ironed, covered her long-sleeved black gown. Her happy grin was accompanied by a wink – a wink! – upon giving a cup of sugared tea to Charlotte. “Lady Charlotte! ’Tis so good to see you again!” she said in an excited voice.
    The earl’s daughter felt a flush of color creep up her face at the gesture and the comment. Again? She’d only been to the estate one other time in her entire life. When I was three! And how much of their discussion had the woman overheard?
    When Mrs. Gates turned to give a cup to Joshua, after she had added a lump of sugar and a bit of cream, she frowned at him as if he were some recalcitrant schoolboy. Aware he was being watched, Joshua tore his gaze from Charlotte to stare back at the