The Duke’s Desire Read Online Free

everlastingly, I don’t doubt,” Nancy said as she started to fold one of Verity’s plain petticoats. “She only asked you here because she was curious to see you in widow’s weeds, if you ask me.”
    “Nancy!”
    “Well, it’s true,” Nancy answered defiantly.
    “Partly, perhaps,” Verity agreed. “So it’s not so very strange that I want to go home, is it?”
    “Not a bit, and ’scuse me for kicking up any fuss at all. When are we leaving?”
    “I shall ask Eloise if we may have a carriage to take us to the inn for the post chaise early in the morning. You will be able to have everything packed in time, won’t you?”
    “Oh, aye, I will,” Nancy confirmed.
    “Thank you. I shan’t stay late below.”
    After Nancy nodded, Verity went into the adjoining bedroom. It was really intended to be a dressing room, but rather than have Jocelyn far away in the nursery, Verity had asked Eloise to fit it up as a bedchamber. Nancy also slept here, so between their cots, there was not much extra room.
    Jocelyn was already washed and in bed. A single candle burned on the small table beside her.
    “You look pretty, Mama,” Jocelyn said with a satisfied smile.
    “Thank you.” Verity tucked the covers around Jocelyn’s shoulders. “Try to go right to sleep, little girl. We shall have to be up very early in the morning.”
    “I don’t want to go home.”
    Taken aback, Verity sat on the bed. “I thought you didn’t like it here.”
    “That was before I met the duke.”
    Verity briskly tucked the covers around her some more. “Won’t you be happy to be back home?”
    “I liked him. He was jolly. Not what I thought a duke would be like at all. He’s not very good at football, but he tried. Didn’t you like him?”
    “He seems nice.”
    “I thought we weren’t leaving till Friday. That’s another four whole days.”
    “I know, dear. However, Lady Bodenham has so many other guests now, and I am feeling a little homesick, so I thought we should leave.
    “Now be a good girl and try to get to sleep. We have a long journey ahead of us—but home will be at the end.”
    Still not mollified, Jocelyn nevertheless nodded and snuggled beneath the covers. “I wish I could say goodbye to the duke.”
    “Nancy’s got to finish the packing. She’ll be in the other room if you need her,” Verity said, ignoring her daughter’s comment. She blew out the candle. The moonlight bathed the small room in silvery light. “Good night, sleep tight, my little girl.”
    “Good night, Mama.”
    Outside in the corridor, Verity took a deep breath before heading below to Eloise’s finely furnished drawing room. There were several other guests already in attendance, including, she notedat once, the Duke of Deighton, leaning against the mantelpiece and smiling at young Lady Mary.
    She wouldn’t look at him again if she could avoid it, Verity vowed as she continued to scan the room for Eloise. Not when he looked so handsome and elegant in his black evening dress, his pose casual yet reminiscent of a lion sleeping in the sun.
    A lion quite capable of pouncing and trapping his prey, if he so desired.
    Unfortunately, Eloise was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she was still upstairs trying to coax her husband into his evening dress. It was no secret that Lord Bodenham detested parties of any sort, unless they were hunting parties involving horses and his beloved hounds.
    Well, she could not linger at the entrance like a dressmaker’s dummy, Verity thought, so she started toward the group of women nearest to the door.
    “There was that actress at the Royal Theater, and then the dancer from Paris,” the wife of General Ponsonby said excitedly as Verity came near the small cluster of women wearing very lovely, expensive and colorful gowns. They were also laden with jewelry, and their ornate hairstyles were adorned with pearls, feathers and ribbons.
    Verity told herself she should not feel like a pauper at the feast. She had every right to