Page 19 of Sincerely, the Duke
The duchess pressed her hand to her forehead as if that might help her think as she looked from one side of the garden to the other and back to him, clearly distressed. It was unlike her not to know exactly what she wanted to say.
“I know I saw you—” Her voice halted. She compressed her lips in concern and looked up at him. “Wait, no, I remember now.” Lowering her hand, she continued. “I didn’t give the letter to you. I laid it on the desk in front of you without looking at it and walked away. You stayed there, and I didn’t return to the desk for the rest of the evening. The list of names my assistant made for your consideration was lying beside it.” Horror filled her eyes. “Is it possible you threw the list into the fire instead of the letter?”
Anything was possible that night with the way he’d felt. He barely remembered going to his mother’s house and had no memory of getting back home. Her explanation was probably true. The letter wasn’t a forgery. He was certain of that.
Rick bit back an oath and with a grumbling pitch to his voice, asked, “If you didn’t mail it, who did?”
“I have no ide— Oh, dear saints in heaven!” Her eyes widened as she covered her mouth with her hand for a moment. “My new assistant. I’ll turn him off immediately. No, I’ll strangle him first and then let him go.”
“Maman, what has he to do with the letter?”
Shaking her head, his mother started pacing in front of the steps. “Probably everything.” She stopped and looked at Rick. “He failed to post an important letter for me his first day of work. I was quite put out about it and told him if a letter with a signature was left on my secretary he was to seal and mail it promptly that day. I might have been a bit harsh with him, but he has been overly attentive since.”
Rick’s mother was never harsh with anyone.
“This one had my name on it,” Rick reminded her. “It wasn’t even on your stationery.”
She looked aghast. “Perhaps he thought I was mailing it for you. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I do know he wouldn’t read my private correspondence.”
Did she really believe that? “It was one sentence. Anyone could have read it with a passing glance.”
“I didn’t,” she swore almost defiantly. “As I said, I didn’t even know who you wrote the proposal to. I’ll discuss this with him tomorrow, of course, but I’m sure he’ll confirm that he simply saw her name andasignature and did what he was supposed to do. There isn’t that much difference between theDukeof Stonerick and theDuchessof Stonerick if one is only glancing at something. The poor man is so afraid of being dismissed he jumps at his own shadow.”
“How in Lucifer’s name would he have known where she lives, Maman?”
“And how would I know that, Stonerick?” she asked just as quickly. “It’s his job to find out such things, not mine. I can’t be hunting down addresses for him. What would I need him for if I had to address my own letters?”
The sound of carriage wheels rolling over the street in front of the house caught Rick’s attention and he looked away from his mother. What she said was true. At least he felt better knowing she hadn’t intentionally set him up to marry, even though that night he’d given her permission to do so. Besides, for all her tart retorts, Miss Fine fascinated him. She was loyal to her father and passionate about her sisters.
“So.” His mother’s voice returned to its normal softness. “Miss Fine received the letter of proposal and came to see you about it?”
“Yes.”
Alberta folded her arms across her chest, drummed her fingers of both hands lightly on her arms, and asked, “To say or do what?”
“Query if it was a legitimate offer from me.” There was no reason to reel off the particulars of their conversations or Miss Fine’s stipulations.
“Oh.” His maman seemed to hum low in her throat, letting him know she was warming up to the idea of him marrying, even if it was brought on by such extraordinary circumstances and to someone she had never been introduced to. “I don’t recognize the name Fine. What do you know about her family?”
“She’s related to Viscount Quintingham. Distant cousins.”
“Oh,” she said again, softer, clasping her hands behind her back again and shrugging. “I don’t know much about him or his extended relatives. No one in the family seems to be social. Do you know him?”
He couldn’t say he did, but that wouldn’t make his mother rest easy so he said the next best thing, “Enough.”
Alberta brushed at a strand of hair that had escaped from beneath her hat. “Is she pleasant? I’d be pleasant if a duke proposed to me.”
“One did, Maman. Father.”
She smiled and so did Rick.
“Besides, days are pleasant,” he added.
“Well, yes, of course they are, Your Grace. Females are either comely or homely. There seems to be no in-between these days. Being with her for a time, did you find out sufficient things to know whether she might be an acceptable bride?”
Rick thought back to his invigorating and contentious conversations with Miss Fine, and then to the way she felt so pleasing in his arms, and the softness of her lips beneath his. He wished their first kiss could have been different. He hadn’t wanted it to be so shocking and hard, but she’d left him with few choices. He would make it up to her with the next kiss. And the next. And the one after that. The breeze fluttered his hair, and suddenly he envisioned Miss Fine brushing it away from his forehead. The nice thought made him feel good and eager to see her again.
“She is lovely.”
