What the Duke Doesn't Know Read Online Free PDF

customs when it does you no harm to observe them.”
    â€œPr-precisely.” She passed quite close to him on her way out. Her long fall of black hair swayed seductively with each step. Was he really throwing her out of his room? Her initial words came floating back. She’d come up to thank him. Perhaps with something warmer than words? Some marvelous island custom? No. She hadn’t meant that. Clearly, obviously. No sign whatsoever of any such thing, despite her unembarrassed mention of bedding. Besides, it would be an awkward complication, as they were living together in his brother’s house. Not together. As fellow guests. Strangers, in fact.
    â€œGood night,” said Kawena.
    â€œGood night,” James replied, shutting the door firmly behind her.
    He leaned against it, listening to her soft footsteps retreat along the corridor. Perhaps helping her wasn’t quite such a burden. It would give him a chance to become better acquainted with one of the loveliest, and most unusual, girls he’d ever encountered. Her courage and fire drew him—now that she’d stopped calling him names. How many women, how many people, would have done as she had, sailing halfway around the world to find justice? Very few, hardly any, really , he thought. She’d looked positively intrepid, stepping out of the shrubbery with her gun. And under his hands, on the turf, she’d felt… James fell into a pleasant reverie. It was some time before he returned to his letter.
    * * *
    Kawena was wakened the next morning by a young maid bringing her a cup of tea and pushing back the draperies on the windows. Kawena didn’t really like tea, but she took a polite sip and suppressed a grimace at the bitterness. Her father, who had been inordinately fond of the dark beverage, claimed it was much more palatable with milk added, but milk had never agreed with Kawena’s digestive system. When the maid went out, she set the cup aside.
    Sunshine streamed through the windows. Apparently it did not rain all the time in England, as she’d been told. She could see a corner of the garden below, bright with unfamiliar flowers. It was a comfortable house, the largest she’d ever been inside. And her hostess, Ariel, seemed very far from hidebound and prim. Had her father been prejudiced by his decision to abandon his home country? Immediately, Kawena felt disloyal. Ariel Gresham was probably not a typical Englishwoman.
    Surely James Gresham must be an odd sort of Englishman. Mustn’t he? Last night, in his room, he’d been clucking over her behavior like the circle of watchful old women at home on the island. In her experience, young men did quite the opposite. They were always on the lookout for ways to circumvent rules and get you to go off alone with them into the trees. Were they so different here on the other side of the world?
    Kawena stretched and threw back the bedcovers. No doubt she had much to learn about her father’s homeland. She only hoped it would all end well.
    Dressed in her borrowed gown once more, Kawena found Ariel and James at the breakfast table in a bright room at the back of the house. “I’ve made a list of the crew from my ship,” James was saying.
    â€œBut there’s no sense doing more until we see if Nathaniel knows an admiral,” Ariel replied.
    As Kawena sat down, James nodded.
    Ariel picked up the teapot and gestured toward the cup beside Kawena’s plate. “No, thank you,” Kawena said.
    â€œWould you like coffee? Cook could make some.”
    Kawena shook her head. Coffee was even more bitter than tea. She didn’t see how anyone could stand to drink it.
    â€œYou must be used to quite different foods,” Ariel added, setting down the pot. “Perhaps I could order—”
    â€œI am in England. I will eat English food.” Kawena smiled to show that it was no hardship. She was deeply grateful for their