Page 53 of It's All About the Duke
“But you did,” he said. “Your reading group as well?”
Marlena was forced to nod for the third time, certain her throat was too dry to speak again.
Looking at him, with the breeze stirring his dark hair, Marlena remembered the passion she’d felt in his arms and she wanted the ground to open and swallow her. Her double life was catching up with her, but she couldn’t let it scare her. What she’d done, what she was doing might be wrong but she had to remember it was for a worthy cause.
“Apparently, Miss Truth has heard that I am now your guardian. Does that bother you? To have your name printed in here.”
Yes, it bothered her. Just as it now bothered her to write about him. It was much easier before she could put a face to the name of the Duke of Rathburne.
“I suppose it had to be done. Justine has been tellingeveryone,” Marlena said, more breathlessly than she would have liked to sound.
The duke glanced back to her. “Does she know who Miss Truth is?”
“I hope not.”
He gave her a puzzled glance. “Why is that?”
“She would probably tell everyone about that, too.”
He smiled. “And you wouldn’t like that. You’d then have one less scandal sheet to read.”
Eugenia rolled her head back and forth and started mumbling words that thankfully Marlena couldn’t understand. How was she ever going to explain what happened between her and the duke to her friend?
The duke held the sheet toward Marlena. “Here, you take this. Since your name is printed in it along with mine, I’m sure you don’t want to lose it.” He extended the scandal sheet to her. “You carry it and I’ll carry Miss Everard into the house. It’s time to try your smelling salts.”
Chapter 14
He could be a rake if he fails to detect a young lady’s distress.
MISSHONORATRUTH’SWORDS OFWISDOMANDWARNINGABOUTRAKES, SCOUNDRELS, ROGUES, ANDLIBERTINES
“Now again,” Justine said. “Step forward, left, left, back on the right, forward on the right, twirl, clap, and curtsy. That’s good. Keep going. Now again, step forward—”
“No, no, Justine,” Marlena said, walking over to the pianoforte, wiping her forehead, though it was chilly in the music room. “Please, I need to rest. You’ve had me dancing for over an hour now.”
Justine kept playing. “Only an hour? And you complain? You’ll be dancing all night, every night during the Season, dear girl, so I don’t want to hear your protest until you can dance for that long. Now back to the center of the room with you and let’s continue.”
“At a ball I won’t be dancing by myself to the same tune over and over again and it won’t be one dance right after the other without a break in between sets. I’ll havetime to rest, have a cup of punch, and hopefully a conversation or two.”
Justine took her hands off the keys and leaned an arm on top of the pianoforte as she stared at Marlena with no softening in her determined features. “I would hope not.”
“Really?” Marlena asked, confused by her cousin’s remark.
“If you’re going to be the diamond of the Season,as I was, you must be on the floor for every dance. All the acceptable and eligible bachelors should be lining up to dance with you and trying to gain your favor. Besides, I’ve been sitting here playing the pianoforte for you for over an hour. You don’t hear me complaining that my fingers are tired and need a rest, do you?” She started the melody again. “See. They are still moving, but you are not still dancing.”
“There’s quite a bit of difference between what you are doing and what I’m doing,” Marlena argued, though it wasn’t so much that she minded the dancing. She wasn’t actually tired, either, but she was nervous—again. She’d turned in another scandal sheet that morning, and hoped she’d made it outrageous enough everyone in London would want their own copy. If Mr. Trout saw the sales going up maybe he’d be more inclined to advance the money she’d written to him and asked about. Veronica was talking aboutWords of Wisdomto her ladies’ groups, but Justine had refused, saying she delighted in telling everyone she hadn’t read it and didn’t intend to. Even the duke had said he’d heard it was selling well.
Marlena didn’t know anything else to do to get enough money to help Eugenia purchase two or three gowns for the Season. Since the duke admitted to carrying the package of smelling salts down the street, it wasn’t a far stretch to assume someone had seen him doing it. Though she didn’t expect he’d be happy Miss Truth had written aboutit. There was no way Marlena would have if it weren’t necessary for her to help the sisters.
Since she couldn’t stop thinking about the duke, his kisses, or the very revealing scandal sheet she’d turned in yesterday, she’d decided to work on a complicated stitchery that happened to remind her even more of the duke. With a sharpened lead pencil, she’d painstakingly sketched a garden scene on a fine linen fabric suitable for framing.
First, she’d drawn the grass. Tall swaying blades tightly nestled by shorter straight ones and a few wide sprigs, too. Next, she’d added flowers springing up from the grass. Big ones with wide-open petals, tiny ones with little closed blooms, and even a blossom or two that was falling away from the stem. When she had the garden lightly sketched the way she wanted it, she’d added a bee, a wasp, a ladybug, and two butterflies. One in flight over the top of what would be colorful flowers and the other sitting on a petal.
It had taken her almost as long to pick out all the colors of embroidery thread she wanted to use as it had to sketch the entire scene. She was threading her first needle, eager to get started with her stitches and thinking about the duke, when Justine burst into the room and announced Marlena must practice her dancing. There had been no persuading her differently.
Marlena had also wanted to think on her conversation with Eugenia about why she was kissing the duke. To Marlena’s surprise, Eugenia had understood Marlena’s desire to be kissed. It was good to know other young ladies had great curiosity about it. Her friend admitted she’d often wanted Mr. Bramwell to forget propriety and kiss her, too, but it hadn’t happened yet. What Eugenia hadn’t understood was why it was the duke giving Marlena her first kiss. That had been harder to explain. Shewasn’t sure Eugenia believed her when she’d told her the truth: Marlena was the one who’d kissed the duke first.
“Did you hear me?” Justine asked.
