The Irish Duke Read Online Free PDF

only consider an alliance with a powerful, noble family.”
    “But I have no wish to marry! Being a wife and mother of an unruly horde of children does not appeal to me.” Though Louisa loved her father, she thought it the height of male selfishness for him to give her mother ten children, on top of the three sons from his first marriage.
    His eyes flickered with amusement. “The alternative of being left on the shelf and having to depend upon the charity of your brothers would be far less appealing, I assure you. Far better to have a grand estate of your own to run as you see fit.”
    Mr. Burke, her father’s steward, arrived to help the duke navigate the stairs, so he could dress for dinner. Louisa left the library and slipped through a French door out onto a veranda. She wandered down to the grotto with the seashell walls. She sat beside the reflecting pool to ponder the sobering things she’d learned from her father.
    To Louisa, marriage was inextricably connected with having children. She had questioned her mother about childbirth, but she always told her not to worry; it was natural for a woman. None of her fears had been lessened. Sometimes the unspeakable happened, and babies were born dead. It had happened to her mother, and Louisa dreaded the possibility that it could happen to her. She shuddered at the memory of her recurring nightmare. Since she was a small child she had dreamed of seeing her mother covered in blood. When she became older, it was sometimes herself who was drenched in blood. Finally, last year, she had summoned the courage to ask her mother if she had ever suffered a miscarriage.
    “Yes. We were picking flowers in the garden, when it happened quite suddenly. I sent you running for help. But you couldn’t possibly remember it—you were only about three at the time.”
    “What were the flowers?”
    “They were lupins, darling.”
    Louisa was distracted from her dark thoughts when she spotted Georgy returning from her ride. She joined her sister, and together they walked up to the house.
    “Did you know that the only home we’ll ever have will be our husband’s?”
    “Yes, Lu, and I’m about to turn twenty. I have far less time than you.”
    “If we refuse to marry, we will have nothing,” Lu said indignantly.
    “Well, I shan’t refuse to marry. I shall relentlessly pursue every male who crosses my path and enjoy every moment. Husband hunting should be a lot more fun than bagging game.”
    “I don’t want a lord and master who will use me as a brood mare. I would far rather be a dancer on the stage than a wife and mother.”
    “But even a dancer can’t manage without a man to pay her bills. Girls on the stage have lovers to pay for their rooms, and clothes, and carriages.”
    “Lovers? Men who expect to sleep with you?”
    “Men who expect sexual favors. Don’t be so naive, Lu. It’s far easier to marry a doting husband. Men are putty in your hands when you use the right bait.”
    Lu glanced down at her sister’s grass stains. “You’d best change before dinner, Georgy. If Father ever finds out you act provocatively with your groom, there will be hell to pay.”
    “I know you won’t tell him, so how the devil will he find out? Besides, everything I do, I learned from Mother. Men cannot resist her. She feeds on courtly love. I’m just using Dick for practice.”
    “Courtly love is innocent. Uncle Holly dedicates poems to her beauty. It’s platonic.”
    “Don’t be naive. There’s no such thing,” Georgy insisted.
    Louisa changed the subject. “What would you like for your birthday?”
    Her sister winked suggestively. “What I’d like and what I’ll get are two different things. I’d like some suitors, but until they come along I’ll make do with Dick.”
     
    A few days later, Edwin finished the portrait of Louisa in her ballet gown and allowed her to see it.
    “Oh, Lanny, you have made me look beautiful. It flatters me.” Her pulse was fluttering wildly