Page 55 of It's All About the Duke
How dare he. She had received very inappropriate, expensively bottled smelling salts from the duke and Justine was given confections. Confections that were properly wrapped in brown paper and tied with a common string. Not expensive lace and pretty blue ribbons. And to bring Justine sweets after he’d kissed Marlena. Kissed her so thoroughly she would never forget his touch.
What nerve he had! Not that Marlena cared, of course. He could bring Justine all the sweets he wanted to.
The more the better.
What he did or didn’t give Justine, or how he chose to present it to her, meant nothing to Marlena. She’d told him she wanted him to give her her first kiss and he had. The mystery of what a kiss would be like was solved. That was the end of it, and that was the way she wanted it.
But her mind reminded her she hadn’t expected the kiss to be so powerful, so delicious that she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of the duke kissing her again.
“Oh, my, so tempting,” Justine said as she looked at the bounty nestled in the box. “Small apricot tarts glazed with sugar. You must have remembered they’re my favorite from my first Season. They’ll be divine.”
The duke acknowledged her gratitude and then gave his attention to Marlena. “Back to the reason I’m here,Miss Fast,” he said. “I told you a friend was helping me find someone to guide and provide you with the things I couldn’t do for you during the Season.”
“Of course we remember,” Justine answered for Marlena with another generous smile to the duke. “We’ve been patiently waiting to hear from you about this.”
He nodded to Justine and then gave his attention back to Marlena. “I had a note from her this morning telling me she’d found someone and asked that I meet her here at your house this afternoon. She’s bringing the person to meet you.”
“Splendid.” Justine beamed. “We are most appreciative, Your Grace. Perhaps it’s Mrs. Seagrove. She’s the best, I’m told. Or Miss Provost. Though she never married, I’ve heard outstanding things about her as well. Either would be perfect.”
“Who is she?” Marlena asked him, suddenly feeling wary.
“I don’t know who the Duchess of Griffin has found. She didn’t say, but I trust Esmeralda. You’d have no reason to know this, but Her Grace once worked with an employment agency. She’s very familiar with most of the women who know what to do.”
The Duchess of Griffin was coming to her house? Marlena knew very well about the duchess. She had written about her inMiss Honora Truth’s Scandal Sheetfor a Season. And now Her Grace was on her way to meet Marlena. Face-to-face. Marlena’s stomach quaked at the thought, but she managed to mumble, “It was kind of the duchess to take the time to find someone.”
When Marlena continued the scandal sheet after the first Season she should have known it would come back to haunt her in some way, but at the time she was only thinking she had to continue to help Eugenia and Veronica.
At the back of her mind, Marlena was furiously trying to remember exactly what she’d written about the duchess when she was the chaperone for the Duke of Griffin’s twin sisters. It was impossible to recall it all. It was more than two years ago and she’d written many columns since then.
Yet, some of the sentences she’d written came back to her.Perhaps the most scintillating gossip from the first ball of the Season wasn’t about the Duke of Griffin or his sisters. It centered on their intriguing young chaperone, Miss Esmeralda Swift.
That wasn’t a bad thing to say. It was actually nice. Marlena remembered she’d commented on the announcement of the duchess’ engagement, too:
The Duke of Griffin has made his intentions known,and the maiden who made the prized catch of the Season is none other than the chaperone for his twin sisters, Miss Esmeralda Swift.
Marlena couldn’t remember saying anything unkind about the duchess. Thankfully, her rebukes were usually reserved for the Rakes of St. James and not others she mentioned in her scandal sheet.
The front door knocker sounded. Justine’s eyes lit up again. “That must be the duchess. I do hate to bring it to your attention again, Your Grace, but this is a perfect example why we need more servants in the house. Mrs. Doddle is making tea but will have to stop and go answer the door because we don’t have enough servants to fulfill all the duties around here.”
“I’ll help her with the tea,” Marlena said, wanting to prolong meeting the duchess and quite happy to leave the duke’s presence for a few minutes to collect her thoughts.
“Thunderbolts and lightning, Marlena.” Justine placed the box of tarts on a nearby table. “That will never do. Neither of us should have to do it, but it will be better ifI take care of this until other arrangements can be made for us. It’s my house. Imagine one of us having to answer the door for a duchess!” She turned to the duke and smiled. “If you’ll excuse me, Your Grace.”
He nodded.
“I’ll take care of the door, Mrs. Doddle,” Justine called as she swept out the room with her tiered skirts billowing behind her. “You continue in the kitchen and add two more cups to the tray.”
The duke walked closer to Marlena. “You are looking quite fetching today, Miss Fast.”
“Am I?” she asked, tilting her chin up and realizing she still felt a little miffed at him about the sweets even though she didn’t want to care enough about him to feel that way.
“I should have said you are fetching every time I see you, but your cheeks are a little more flushed today and your hair is curling beautifully about your face.”
She made a move to swipe her hair behind her ear again.
He softly grabbed her wrist to stop her. “No, don’t change it. There’s something enchanting about it.”
Marlena looked down at his hand on her. It was warm. There was strength in his fingers even though he wasn’t holding her tight. Little pricks of delight were dancing inside her.
