What the Duke Doesn't Know Read Online Free PDF Page A

because Nathaniel was there.
    With a lingering smile, James picked up his pen. He could write to that Nathaniel. It would be all right.
    He’d just started to do so when there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” he called without looking up.
    He heard the door open, and a lilting voice say, “Hello.”
    James turned in his chair. Kawena stepped through his bedchamber door, shut it, walked over, and sat down in the armchair by the empty fireplace. “I wanted to thank you,” she began.
    â€œYou can’t sit here,” James said.
    She looked down at the comfortable chair, back up at him. “Why not?”
    â€œThis is my bedroom.” The moment he said it, he became acutely conscious of the bed just a few feet away.
    â€œI know. I came up to thank—”
    â€œIt isn’t proper,” he blurted out.
    â€œBut you are taking some trouble to help me. When you don’t really wish to. I can see that, you know. It is only right that I thank—”
    â€œNot that. You shouldn’t be in a man’s bedchamber. Alone. With him. Me.” He heard himself stammering like a callow youth, and was revolted. She was just so very beautiful. Utterly alluring, really. The effect seemed multiplied here in his private quarters. And she appeared so at ease—as if they knew each other far better than they actually did. James could almost imagine her coming over to him, offering a hand to pull him to his feet, and closer… No, this line of thought was unacceptable. He stood and moved toward the door instead. “It isn’t done,” he added. “Young ladies do not visit gentlemen in their bedchambers.” Well, some did, if what he’d heard about country house parties was true, but that was irrelevant to this discussion.
    â€œWe must speak only downstairs?” wondered Kawena. “Is that an English rule?”
    Her honest bewilderment was rather charming. “If a man and a woman are alone in a bedchamber, people assume they’re…up to something improper,” James explained.
    â€œGetting into bed together, you mean?” Kawena replied, without a trace of embarrassment. She gazed at the wide four-poster as if it was on exhibit.
    James felt his cheeks redden. Years at sea might have left him unused to polite female company, but even his brother, Robert, the town beau, would have been confounded by this quite unusual young woman. “Er, yes.”
    â€œBut we are not.”
    â€œNo… Not in this case. However—”
    â€œAnd no people know that I’m here,” she pointed out. “I told no one I was coming up.”
    â€œYou can never tell when there’s a servant about,” James replied. The staff at Langford always seemed well aware of everyone’s movements.
    â€œDo they hide and watch?” said Kawena, looking surprised.
    James choked back a laugh, and then wondered if maybe they did. How else would that housemaid have seen Sebastian with the frogs…? But that was beside the point. He needed to remove a lovely young woman from his bedchamber—didn’t he? Yes, yes. And wasn’t that a problem he’d never imagined having? When had it become his job to preach the proprieties? He felt like a fool even trying. But if she didn’t go soon, he might not be able to resist… James decided to shift the onus off onto someone else. “This is my brother’s house. I wouldn’t wish to upset him, or his wife.”
    Kawena cocked her head. “Your brother and Ariel would not approve of my being here?”
    James assumed so. No, of course they wouldn’t. And that was beside the point. He nodded.
    To his relief, Kawena rose at once. “I would not wish to offend them. They have been very kind to me.” She shrugged as she moved toward the door. “My father always says…” She paused, swallowed. “Said that it is rude to disregard others’