The Reluctant Duke (A Seabrook Family Saga) Read Online Free PDF Page B

graceful
figure. The plain black mourning dress had done little to hide the young lady’s
attributes. As willowy as she appeared, she possessed womanly curves in all the
right places. Places men like him dreamed about caressing. Never mind that she
looked like an angel from the neck up.
    And Miss
Hamilton was more than attractive. Warm heat surged inside Thomas’s body as he pictured
her oval face, high cheekbones, generous pink lips, and small pert nose, all
accentuated by milk-white, flawless skin. Her eyes were a soft pale blue, and
her strawberry-blond hair, carelessly pulled back with a ribbon, had done
little to tame the wild tresses clinging to her face and shoulders. The feature
he noticed most about her, and he’d had trouble not staring at during their
brief meeting, was the dimple in the center of her stubborn chin. And call it
gentleman’s intuition, but he knew her stubbornness would be difficult to curb.
Hadn’t her letter to him hinted at determination and stubbornness? He should
not find himself surprised by this attribute.
    Thomas refused
to acknowledge his body’s reaction to Miss Hamilton. Any healthy gentleman would
experience the same when looking at an exceedingly beautiful member of the
fairer sex. And he’d been on a ship for six weeks. It had nothing to do with
any attraction or awakening of desire he felt toward Emma—Miss Hamilton. She
was now another sister to take care of, and nothing more.
    So, added to
his two sisters, he now had a goddess to protect and deliver into a suitable
match. If Thomas’s good name didn’t plummet from scandal when the three of them
made their entrance into London Society, he’d consider himself a lucky man. And
if Thomas were to find three gentlemen of good social standing and family to
marry them, he would consider himself the luckiest man in all of England.
    Of course,
scandal was nothing new to the Wentworth Duchy. His father had seen to that.
Thomas still struggled with that to this day. Trying to forgive his father for
his recklessness and selfishness was an ongoing problem for Thomas. Oh, he
believed he finally had forgiven his father, but the memories haunted him, and
someday soon he would have to put them to rest. But he had to admit he would
hate for scandal to be attached to his family name again.
    Not so much for
him, but for his family. His sisters deserved better than their father had
given them, and it was not their fault their father had lacked scruples. Thomas
was determined to keep respectability attached to their family name.
    Thomas’s
fingers rubbed the fine hairs on the back of his neck. Miss Emma Hamilton, he
had the feeling, would turn out to be the bane of his existence. Could become
the reason to numb his mind with strong spirits, rip the hair out of his head,
and seek to slake his manly needs with his widow friends. If he survived with
his wits intact until he had her safely married off, a celebration with a
holiday on the Continent would be his reward.
    Thomas forced
his mind back to answering his friend’s question. “One could say the meeting
was satisfactory. Miss Hamilton should not be too difficult to marry off. Not
with her comely looks and her generous inheritance.”
    Myles burst out
laughing from the coach seat opposite. “Comely? She is much more than comely.
When I first spied her out in the foyer, I could no longer breathe. I have
never seen such a vision before. For a time I was convinced she was not real,
something my imagination created.” Myles paused, his brows drawn in
seriousness. “I might consider marriage to her myself.”
    “What?” Thomas
barked as his chest constricted painfully. “You can’t be serious.”
    Myles’s
lecherous grin was unnerving. Thomas did not like the look in his eyes, as if
Myles envisioned Miss Hamilton in a rather unladylike way.
    “Why ever not?
She will need a husband, and why not me? I would be doing you a favor taking
her off your hands. You need not spend your coin on