Page 15 of The Devil's Accidental Duchess
CHAPTER 5
Ashbrook was… nothing like she had ever imagined.
Selina had grown up with her father’s deep hatred for the former Duke of Ashbrook and, by extension, his family. When she had first met and duly gotten to know Lizzy, she realized that perhaps her father was mistaken about many things pertaining to that family. Her friend, however, had promptly dissuaded her from the notion that the present Duke was one of the nice ones.
Or even vaguely likeable.
“Goodness, he is awful,”Lizzy had complained one day at their secret book club.“He walks into a room, and the temperature drops. He grumps and glooms around, making everyone else miserable. I cannot even breathe without eliciting a sharp look or a cutting remark from him. Sometimes—and I know I shouldn’t—I wish he had just stayed away. I was perfectly content with just my grandmama. Shehas never called mespoiled or snarled at me for having an extra morsel of dessert at dinner.”
That was the least worrisome of her commentary about her brother.
Selina was certain she would not like a man who scowled coldly at every little inconvenience, or spoke rudely all the time, or behaved as if he were superior.
Why, then, was Philip so vastly different from everything she had heard about him?
“Well, if that is not the strangest thing I have seen all day,” Lizzy murmured.
Selina turned toward her friend. “What is so strange?”
Lizzy tilted her head toward the door that her brother had just disappeared through. “That. Him.Smiling.”
Selina wanted to correct her; he waslaughing. At her expense, perhaps, but a chuckle counted as a laugh, did it not?
“I have never seen him smile at anyone before.” Lizzy looked genuinely bewildered. “Not unless it is in that sarcastic way of his, at least.”
Selina wanted to burst out laughing herself. Perhaps the Duke found their entire predicament just as hilarious. Perhaps he truly found her amusing. Who knew what he was thinking?
“Well, I do not want to stand here all day wondering about my brother’s mercurial moods,” Lizzy announced, looping her arm around Selina’s. “Come. Let me show you to your rooms.”
“My rooms?”
“Why, you are about to become the Duchess of Ashbrook in a fortnight.” Lizzy grinned at her. “You did not think we would have you quartered just about anywhere, did you?”
“I must admit I had feared you might put me in a cupboard.”
“Iwasconsidering the dungeons, but those have not been available for some time.”
“How charming. A dungeon.”
Her best friend would never put her in a dungeon, of course. The Duke, however… Selina was not too sure about that.
Perhaps he was only playing at being nice. After all, she could not forget his mastery during the non-duel, but he had made a darker impression long before that. She had sensed the danger radiating from him in waves from the moment he had stepped out the door, his unbuttoned tailcoat flapping behind him, eyes like a storm, pistol in hand.
Lizzy was much taller than Selina, but the Duke was absolutelymassivein comparison, with broad shoulders that tapered to a narrow waist in a tempting V. And how could she forget those steely bands he had for arms, the very ones that had caught her with such ease when she had stumbled?
But then he had smiled at her. Teased her.
Thatwas even more worrying.
He was already dangerous enough, but knowing that he could easily tease her? Make her all flustered and warm? Make her so distracted that she would foolishly walk right into the back of him?
She was in even greater peril than she had thought.
“You have a lovely house,” she said, needing a diversion.
“It is much improved,” Lizzy agreed. “My grandmama’s touch.”
The entrance hall was airy and bright, with pretty landscapes hanging on the walls and wallpaper a pleasing shade of warm yellow with white accents. A curving stairwell tongued upward and split in two, leading to the east and west wings.
