Why Do Dukes Fall in Love?: A Dukes Behaving Badly Novel Read Online Free

been there a few months, and already they’d learned how
     to best keep the mice from getting into their food, and late at night Edwina and Gertrude had been awoken by the singing of
     the sailors who took rooms there while onshore. Thankfully Gertrude didn’t understand the words to the sea chanteys, but Edwina
     did, and she made sure to bolt the door as well as push a chair or two in front to keep any unwanted visitors out.
    As she’d told the duke, they had very few possessions—just their clothing, a few toys of Gertrude’s, and the books Edwina
     had kept when she’d married George. They all fit into one valise, as long as Gertrude was able to carry Honeychop, her favorite
     doll.
    She was. Although she was not happy with having to do anything at all after the first half mile. “When are we theeere?” she
     said, stretching out the final word in the specific way she’d found would most annoy her mother. Or at least that’s how it
     sounded to Edwina, but Edwina had to admit perhaps she was not the most tolerant person at the moment, given that she was
     toting all their possessions across London.
    “It’s right around the corner.” Edwina could feel how damp her gown had gotten from the exertion—perhaps she should have taken
     the duke up on his offer to send a footman or two with her, but she didn’t want to have anyone see where she and Gertrude
     had been living. It was already going to be an awkward thing, to be the duke’s female secretary; she didn’t want his staff
     to know just how straitened her circumstances were prior to taking the position. She didn’t want to go into the house using
     the servants’ entrance—that would set a very bad precedent for who she was, and how she was to be treated—but neither did
     she wish to make a bad first impression when she walked into the house.
    She hoped the duke was not near the door when she entered—she did not want that supercilious gentleman to see her anything
     but perfectly gowned.
    Thankfully, George had wanted her to look like the prize he’d thought he’d won, so while he was miserly in other areas, he
     was generous enough with her clothing. She’d worn her best day dress to meet with the duke—a striped gown that George had
     bought for her only a few months before his death. Its stripes were tan, dark red, and green, and it had full skirts and a
     small waist with a modest bodice. Now, however, she’d changed into her worst gown for the walk, a gray gown that was a few
     years out of date, styled very plainly.
    It wasn’t dreadful, but neither was it particularly attractive. Then again, she shouldn’t be worrying about how attractive
     she appeared, not any longer—she was to be a secretary, not somebody’s possession, not a wife whose husband only viewed her
     as a representation of his own success. Not a woman who had to survive on her looks. She was done with that; now she had to
     survive on her brain.
    So if she made a bad impression, what did it matter? She would do her work well, and thoroughly, and give the duke no cause
     to complain, no matter what she looked like.
    Thus prepared, she held her hand out for Gertrude and walked up the stairs to the duke’s house, bracing herself for the new
     chapter in her life, but very grateful she had been able to turn the page.
     
    Michael frowned as he glanced at the clock in the corner. It had been two hours and twelve minutes, and his new secretary
     hadn’t returned yet. Was she regretting taking the position? Would he have to resume the search?
    Please just let her be late so he wouldn’t have to go through all that again to find someone else suitable. Although he did
     abhor lateness. But lateness was the lesser of the two evils, if one of the evils would be having to resume his search.
    “Your Grace, if you would care to examine the documents, I believe you will find all the information you require.”
    The gentleman from the railway had been prompt, arriving some