The Ugly Duchess Read Online Free

that rot.”
    “What? She’s not an opera dancer?”
    He scowled. “You’re supposed to pretend that women like that don’t exist.”
    “Don’t be thick, James. Ladies know all about mistresses. And it isn’t as if you’re married. If you carry on like that once you are married, I’m going to be terrifically nasty to you. I’ll definitely tell your wife. So beware. I don’t approve.”
    “Of Bella, or of matrimony?”
    “Of married men who run about London with voluptuous women with hair the color of flax and morals that are just as lax.”
    She paused for a moment, but James just rolled his eyes. “It’s not easy to rhyme extempore, you know,” she told him.
    He obviously didn’t care, so she returned to the subject. “It’s all very well now, but you’ll have to give up Bella when you marry. Or whatever her replacement’s name is by then.”
    “I don’t want to get married,” James said. There was a kind of grinding tension in his voice that made Theo look at him more closely.
    “You’ve been quarreling with your father, haven’t you?”
    He nodded.
    “In the library?”
    He nodded again.
    “Did he try to brain you with that silver candlestick?” she asked. “Cramble told me that he was going to put it away, but I noticed it was still there yesterday.”
    “He demolished a porcelain shepherdess.”
    “Oh, that’s all right. Cramble bought a whole collection of them in Haymarket and strewed them all around the house in obvious places hoping your father would snatch those as opposed to anything of value. He will be quite pleased to see that his plan is working. So what were you rowing about?”
    “He wants me to marry.”
    “Really?” Theo felt a not altogether pleasant pang of surprise. Of course James had to marry . . . someday. But at the moment she rather liked him as he was: hers. Well, hers and Bella’s. “You’re too young,” she said protectively.
    “ You are only seventeen and you’re looking for a husband.”
    “But that’s just the right age for a woman to marry. Mama didn’t let me debut until this year precisely because of that. Men should be far older than nineteen. I expect thirty or one-and-thirty is about right. What’s more, you’re young for your age,” she added.
    James narrowed his eyes. “I am not.”
    “You are,” she said smugly. “I saw how you were flitting about with Bella, showing her off as if she were a new coat. You probably set her up in some sort of appalling little house draped in blush-colored satin.”
    His scowl was truly ferocious, which, rather than alarming her, merely gave Theo confirmation. “At the very least, she could have chosen some shade of blue. Women with yellow hair always think that pink shades will flatter their skin. Whereas a blue, say a cerulean or even violet, would be far more pleasing.”
    “I’ll let her know. You do realize, Daisy, that you’re not supposed to mention women like Bella in polite company, let alone offer advice on how they should design their nests?”
    “When did you become polite company? Do not call me Daisy,” Theo retorted. “Whom are you thinking of marrying?” She did not like uttering that question. She had something of a possessive bent when it came to James.
    “I have no one in mind.” But the corner of his mouth twitched.
    “You’re lying!” she cried, pouncing on it. “You do have someone in mind! Who is she?”
    He sighed. “There’s no one.”
    “Since you haven’t been to a single ball this year, I cannot imagine whom you could have fixed your eye on. Did you go to any balls last year, when I was still confined to the schoolroom? Of course, I should play an important part in choosing your betrothed,” Theo said, getting into the spirit of it. “I know you better than anyone else. She’ll have to be musical, given what a beautiful voice you have.”
    “I am not interested in anyone who can sing.” James’s eyes flashed at her in a way that Theo secretly rather