Page 52 of It's All About the Duke
“Eugenia, are you all right?” Marlena looked over at him and asked, “Is she all right?”
Instead of answering, he said, “Do you still want to tell me she doesn’t faint often?”
“I swear she doesn’t,” Marlena insisted. “I mean, of course, she would faint this time. Heavens to mercy! She saw us kissing.”
“I’m well aware of that, Marlena.”
“That would put anyone over the brink.”
“Maybe.” He looked down at Eugenia and then over to the scandal sheet. “What did she mean byourarticle?”
Marlena’s throat constricted again. Suddenly she felt as cautious as she had the first afternoon the duke arrived at her house. As if he knew she was Miss Truth.
“It means that we share the price and buy just one,” Marlena said, thinking quickly. “We bought it together so it’s ours.”
“Oh.”
“Is she hurt?” Marlena asked, wanting to steer the conversation away from the scandal sheet as quickly as possible.
“She shouldn’t be. The ground is soft here and she didn’t appear to hit her head on anything as she went down.” Rath added, “Will she tell your cousin we were kissing?”
That thought hadn’t crossed Marlena’s mind. “Eugenia tell Justine? No. No, she wouldn’t tell Justine anything. She wouldn’t even tell her sister. Unlike me, Eugenia is quite timid about most things and wouldn’t want to create any trouble for me or anyone. I have no fear of her tattling.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” the duke said. “She does seem quite timorous.”
He reached over and picked up the article that had tumbled to the earth with Eugenia.
The duke turned to Marlena. “Apparently the two of you enjoy Miss Truth’s books and her scandal sheets.”
“Yes,” she answered after swallowing a lot more guilt.
“Do you read it every week?”
She nodded.
“I haven’t read this one,” he said and his eyes drifted back to the paper.
Merciful heavens! Was he going to read it right in front of her?
It was horrifying to have the duke holding the scandal sheet in his hand. Knowing as he did that both their names were written in it. And that she had been the one who’d written them.
Would he remember any of the words from the writings he’d seen that day in the drawer of her secretary? Was she about to be found out and have to admit she was the writer of the scandal sheet that had haunted him for almost three years?
Seconds passed and he didn’t accuse her so she asked, “Do you really read them?”
He looked over at her and said, “Most of the time. They’re never longer than a paragraph or two. It’s not like reading a book. I suppose you have read her book by now, too.”
Guiltily, she nodded again.
“I haven’t read it yet,” he offered.
How long could it take to read such a simple book, she groused silently to herself!
“I heard it’s selling rather briskly, which surprised me,” he said.
That surprised Marlena, too, when Veronica had told her.
“There’s really no reason you should bother yourself with such trivial entertainment,” she answered honestly. “You probably wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.”
