Lady Hope and the Duke of Darkness: The Baxendale Sisters Book 3 Read Online Free

trust you will find them entertaining.”
    “I’m sure the evening will prove vastly entertaining as always, Countess,” Daniel said, as he kissed her hand.
    After a lengthy private discussion in one of the rooms set aside for the purpose, the men joined the guests. A few débutantes stood out in their white gowns, their hands clasped tight, their gazes darting about. One young woman caught Daniel’s eye. She coolly nodded to him while the other young women around her blushed and dropped their gaze. They’d met before. He remembered those eyes of the purest blue. She had a pretty mouth, which would curl up at the corners if she smiled he felt sure. She was not smiling now. The heavy coil of hair exposed a swan-like neck. His gaze dropped to her softly rounded bosom displayed by the low neckline of her gown and the pale expanse of skin between her glove and her capped sleeve. A desire to stroke that skin, which would be velvet soft, shot through him. The flash of lust, hot and heavy, surprised him.
    He turned to Miles at his elbow. “Who is that young woman with the gold sash? I believe I met her in Paris.”
    “Lady Hope, one of Baxendale’s pretty daughters.”
    “Ah, yes.” Something about Lady Hope made her stand out amongst the other attractive ladies in the room. The confident lift of her chin, perhaps, and her challenging gaze, unusual in one so young. Feigned perhaps. She was an innocent barely out of the schoolroom, here to find a husband. He could not slake his lust with that pretty armful. “Can you see our hostess?” he asked Miles. “I wish to take my leave.”
    As they left one room and threaded their way through another, the dark-haired woman who’d followed him earlier, stepped into Daniel’s path. Her black eyes flashed, before she fell into a deep curtsey. “Your Grace.”
    “ You followed me from my hotel. Did you not ?”
    “Yes. I needed to speak with you.”
    “How did you manage to get inside?”
    “I came through the servants’ quarters. No one stopped me.”
    He cocked a brow. “Forgive me, I’m about to leave.”
    She stood her ground, defying him to push past her. “It’s to do with your father, Your Grace.”
    Daniel stared, nonplussed. “My father?” Some sort of ruse he had no time for. He would send her on her way. Daniel touched Miles’s arm. “I shall be with you shortly.” Miles nodded and left the room.
    The woman led Daniel to a deserted corner and turned with a swish of her black skirts. She was no ingénue, in her mid to late twenties. Prepared to repel her, he paused, caught by her novel approach. “Who are you?”
    A slight smile hovered on her mouth, making her somehow familiar. “Your father, Your Grace, is also mine.”
    “ Pardon ?”He stared at her, his shoulders tightening at her effrontery.He was about to move away, but again, something held him back. He’d discovered another similarity in the diamond shape of her face. The portraits of du Ténèbres women in the picture gallery in France had the same broad cheekbones and pointed chins. Could she be his father’s by-blow?
    She gave him a level glance. “I am not what you think. Your father married my mother here in England. I am the result of their union. My name is Lester, but I was born a du Ténèbres.”
    Daniel huffed out an exasperated laugh. “That’s absurd. I would know of it.”
    “After my mother died in childbirth, I was sent away to be reared by a family in the country.”
    “My father would never do such a thing.” Marry an Englishwoman and keep the marriage secret from his son? Unthinkable.
    She gazed around. “We cannot talk here. Meet me tomorrow. I have a room at The Feathers, an inn near Russell Square. I shall be there to receive you at noon.”
    Would she indeed? Bemused, Daniel shook his head. “Mademoiselle, if you wish to put your case to me, I am staying at Reddish’s Hotel in St James’s Street. I shall receive you tomorrow at noon.” He bowed and left her.