The Wicked Duke Read Online Free Page B

“She is not fit for marriage. Surely you can see that.”
    â€œTosh. When the duke proposes, she will be her old self again. What woman would not come around at once at the expectation of being a duchess?”
    â€œTruly, she will not. She guessed your plan. She told me upstairs after you left that she will kill herself first.”
    â€œPeople always say things like that when they want their way.”
    â€œDare you risk she would do it? If ever a woman might, it is she.”
    â€œThat is why you are here, Marianne. Why your mother is already making free with my home and giving the servants orders. Why you will dance at parties again, and meet some man who will support you throughout your life. Unless you want to live on the pittance my brother left you, you are to convince Nora to have that wardrobe made, and to step outside of herself enough so I can see her get her justice. Nora is still beautiful, if a little vague. Once he meets her, he will not be averse to my plan, I think. Assuming she is not raving, of course.”
    He sank back into the chair. His pose formed a dismissal. Marianne stood.
    â€œWhat if it is not what she wants, Uncle? What if she accepts the wardrobe, and steps out, and meets this duke, but when the proposal comes, she does not want it?”
    â€œWhat she wants does not signify. This is a matter of family honor.”
    Biting her tongue, and furious that her uncle expected her to be an accomplice in this scheme, she strode to the door. As she did, she heard Uncle Horace muttering to himself. “Wants it? Hell and damnation. Of course she will want to be her seducer’s duchess, or she is truly mad and it will be Bedlam for her.”

C HAPTER 4

    R iding with Uncle Horace proved useful in some ways, Marianne decided.
    Although a wealthy man now, he fawned like a green squire whenever they passed a person of a higher station. He introduced her to everyone, and many remembered the daughter of Malcolm Radley.
    Horace insisted on riding right through Dutton, the village near Trenfield Park, so neighbors could either approach to complain about something or make the same joke about his position.
Have a good batch of rogues for the petty sessions, do you?
His role in organizing a local militia during the war had gotten him knighted, and that in turn had gotten him made a justice of the peace. He loved the status, and presiding over trials.
    Sometimes he responded at some length about the sessions. Marianne had a particular interest in local legal proceedings, and she paid close attention to those conversations.
    He stopped to talk with other people on social matters that interested her too. She did not approve of gossip, but she always listened to it. This day it helped bring her up to date on the region.
    Eventually all the conversations rounded toward one topic she truly cared about, and her uncle’s responses to the questions worried her.
    â€œAnd how is your daughter, sir? Is she visiting with Miss Radley here? Has she come back?”
    â€œNora is doing very well, thank you. Very well indeed. She was a bit tired from the journey, but I expect she will be riding out with me soon. A few years of quiet has done her the world of good, and she is her old self again, I am happy to say.”
    When they finally left the village and rode farther west, Marianne kept quiet for fifteen minutes, but then could do so no longer.
    â€œWhy are you telling people that Nora is fine? You know she is not.”
    â€œIf she chooses to be fine, she will be, is what I think.”
    â€œYou are wrong there. It will be cruel of you if you persist in this plan of yours, or force her to a level of sociability beyond what she wants.”
    â€œAm I to take the advice of a girl barely of legal age, after all my years leading men and knowing what is in people?Once she has a decent riding ensemble, I will expect her to join us. If you come as well, that should reassure