What I Did For a Duke Read Online Free PDF

brothers, which is precisely what would happen when they discovered he’d been rescued by a girl. And the fact that he’d been a hairsbreadth away from an ignominious death—though they’d been accused of numerous things over the centuries, but not one Eversea had been caught until Colin—was still a slightly sensitive topic.
    Ian said, “Given the opportunity, you’d have done something very like it if you hadn’t married, and you know it. The bit with the countess and trellis—”
    Colin interjected hurriedly. “Well, you got away with your life if not your clothes, so why do you still look so bloody enervated? Did he call you out?”
    Ian opened his mouth. He hesitated.
    Colin flung himself back in his chair and stared at his brother balefully. “He called you out, didn’t he? Oh, God. You’ll die of a certainty. And yes, I’ll be your second.”
    “Oh, ye of little faith. The bastard makes a lovely large target. I’d hardly be likely to miss.”
    Colin snorted. “So you’d cuckold the man and then shoot him dead. I’ve never been prouder of you.” He drained his ale and waved futilely for another one. Polly Hawthorne, Ned Hawthorne’s daughter, still hadn’t forgiven him for marrying Madeline Greenway, crushing dreams she’d harbored—well, that she and nearly every female in Pennyroyal Green between the ages of twelve and eighty had harbored—since she was eight. She was just sixteen or seventeen years old now and she’d perfected pretending he was invisible. “Ian, if you would . . .” he said desperately.
    Ian sighed and beckoned to Polly with a flap of a hand. She flounced over. To Ian she gave a radiant smile. To Colin she gave a view of her back.
    “A light and a dark, Polly, my sweetness.”
    Her smile broadened, her dimples deepened. “Of course, Mr. Eversea.”
    And off she went.
    “Truth be told, Colin, and I would only say this to you, as you’ve spent nearly your entire life in the pursuit of absolutely the wrong women—”
    “All excellent women,” Colin hastened to defend.
    “I’m sure they seemed so at the time,” Ian humored. “And all very wrong. I mean, dangling from that trellis outside of Countess Malmsey’s window—”
    “Your point?” Colin interjected darkly.
    “Well, you see, regardless of what I’ve done, of course I’d attempt to shoot him. I won’t stand there and be shot by the duke for the nobility of the thing. But do consider that I may have done him a favor. I shall never tell a soul beyond you, but Lady Abigail Beasley is . . . no lady. Good heavens, she is as bold as either you or I and she knows one or two things she cannot have come by at the knee of her governess. And oh, what I would have learned on the fourth night . . .” He shook his head. “Anyhow, you’d think she’d have the sense to stay true to a man like the duke. His reputation is hardly a secret. Better he should know of her faithlessness now, aye?”
    “Yes. It was all altruism on your part, I’m certain. You deserve a medal. And I’m certain one day you’ll share a good laugh about it with Moncrieffe next time your paths cross in White’s if you don’t kill each other first.”
    Ian froze. Somehow it hadn’t yet occurred to him that of course he’d be seeing the duke about town, and an encounter in White’s wasn’t only possible, it was entirely likely. He was feeling bolder, however, and as though he could survive the ignominy of an incidental meeting.
    “I’ve heard the engagement has been ended. Upon ‘mutual agreement of both parties,’ ” Colin added. “And that she departed the country.”
    He had no doubt the duke had ordered her to leave the country.
    “And where should the likes of you get gossip like that?”
    “Adam. Someone in the village told him, as it had filtered into the village from London. Women tell him everything .”
    His tone said everything about why this was both a marvelous advantage and a terrible curse. Adam Sylvaine was