The Temptation of the Night Jasmine Read Online Free PDF Page A

Penelope.
    ‘No, just India,’ said the newly returned duke, as though it were the merest jaunt.
    India! The very name thrilled Charlotte straight down to her bootlaces. She imagined elephants draped in crimson and gold, bearing dusky princes with rubies the size of pigeons’ eggs in their turbans. A thousand questions clamoured for the asking. Was it all as exotic as it seemed? Had he ridden an elephant? Did the men there really keep multiple wives? Why had he come back? And why couldn’t he have come back on a day when she wasn’t wearing an ancient cloak with her nose dripping from the cold?
    It wasn’t that Charlotte hadn’t known he would come back someday. He was the Duke of Dovedale. He had estates and tenants and all sorts of responsibilities that were supposed to be his, even if her grandmother had blithely appropriated them all years ago, as though the existence of a legitimate claimant were nothing more than a troublesome technicality. It was just that in Charlotte’s daydreams, his return had usually occurred at the height of summer, in a choice corner of the gardens. She was also usually a foot taller and stunningly beautiful, too, neither of which seemed to have occurred in the past ten minutes.
    Charlotte looked hopelessly at the barren stretch of ground, the empty stairs, the thick smoke from the torchères that smudged seamlessly into the early December dusk. This was no fit welcome for anyone, much less for the return of the duke after a decade abroad. There should have been fanfare and trumpets, servants in livery, and Grandmama there to greet him with her own peculiar brand of regal condescension. There was something shameful about so shabby a welcome.
    ‘Had we known you were coming, we would have made proper provision to welcome you home.’
    Her cousin’s eyes flickered upwards, over the vast and imposing façade of Girdings. ‘Lined the servants up and all that?’
    ‘Something like that,’ Charlotte acknowledged, feeling very small on the broad stairs with the vast stone bulk of the house towering behind her. ‘Grandmama does like the grand feudal gesture.’
    ‘I think I prefer this,’ said Robert, in a way that made the sentiment into a nice little compliment to her. ‘I can do without the banners and trumpets.’
    ‘Although a blazing fire would be nice,’ added his friend plaintively, rubbing his gloved hands together. ‘A flagon of ale, a few plump—’
    ‘ Tommy .’
    ‘—pheasants,’ finished Tommy, with a wounded expression. ‘We’ve been travelling since dawn,’ he added for the ladies’ benefit.
    ‘And by dawn, he means noon,’ corrected Robert. ‘Cousin Charlotte, may I present my comrade in arms and thorn in my flesh, First Lieutenant Thomas Fluellen, late of His Majesty’s Seventy-fourth Foot.’
    Lieutenant Fluellen bowed with a fluid grace spoilt only slightly by the broad grin he gave her in rising. ‘Many thanks for your kind hospitality, Lady Charlotte.’
    ‘It’s really Cousin Robert’s house, so it’s he you have to thank.’
    ‘I’d rather thank you,’ said Lieutenant Fluellen winningly, but his eyes snuck past her to Penelope as he said it.
    ‘Behave yourself, Tommy. It’s been a very long time since he’s been in the company of gentlewomen,’ Robert explained in an aside to Charlotte.
    ‘I would never have guessed,’ said Charlotte staunchly. ‘I think he’s doing quite well.’
    She was rewarded with a beaming smile. ‘My five sisters will be more than delighted to hear that. They all took it in turn to beat some manners into me.’
    ‘And all the sense out,’ finished Robert, banging his hands against his upper arms to warm them. His breath left a fine mist in the air.
    ‘Won’t you come inside?’ said Charlotte belatedly, gesturing towards the doors. The doors obligingly swung open, spilling out light and warmth. The servants at Girdings were impeccably trained. Charlotte looked guiltily from Lieutenant Fluellen’s red