Duchess by Mistake Read Online Free Page B

dashing figure at Almack's. And this brooding-looking, dark-haired man now standing before her would undoubtedly be the most handsome man to grace its chamber in years.
    Inarticulate sounds emanated from her vocal chords, then she spun back toward the door.
    He raced to bar her progress. "I beg that you not go away before I have the chance to apologize to you for . . ." Setting a gentle hand to her arm, he swallowed. "For this afternoon. All I can say in my defense is that I thought---"
    "You thought I was Belle Evans." Even in her innocence, Elizabeth had heard of the most notorious courtesan in London. Once Elizabeth had leave to think on the duke's exclamation that afternoon, she realized who he had been expecting to come strolling through his bedchamber door. Which still did not diminish her disgust with his behavior. To think that a tryst with a trollop was uppermost in his mind his first day home in half a decade!
    He nodded gravely. "I had reason to believe she was coming to my chamber--but not for the purpose you must imagine." He shook his head as if he had blundered. "Forgive me for introducing so delicate a subject. I am deeply sorry."
    She drew a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "I should never have gone to your house without a chaperon. I am deeply sorry." Then she shook her head as if she had blundered. "I assure you it was never my intention to accuse you of compromising my virtue, never my intention to wrangle a marriage proposal from my brother's dearest friend."
    "Nevertheless, I feel I have compromised your virtue."
    Suddenly, she realized why he was here. Her brother had forced him into marriage with her--a marriage neither of them wanted. She had thought she couldn't be more humiliated than she'd been that afternoon.
    She'd been wrong. "No, no, no!" She held up a hand. "If you mean to offer for me, I mean to refuse."
    His dark brows quirked. "Haverstock did not force me to come here tonight."
    "You can say nothing to persuade me that you favor a marriage with me."
    "I may not be able to make you see the truth, but I shall try. Why do you think I came back to England?"
    She felt his dark gaze boring into hers but was powerless to speak.
    "I wished to find a suitable wife, and you must know how agreeable I find an alliance between our two families."
    Her spine stiffened, and she put hands to hips. "But, your grace, I do not wish to be married."
    "Are your affections engaged?"
    "No. I mean to be a spinster."
    "May I inquire as to why a . . . confirmed spinster wished to call on me this afternoon?"
    "I intended to ask you to offer your house on Trent Square for the use of war widows and their children."
    He didn't say anything for a moment. Then it looked as if a weight had been lifted from his (ever so broad) shoulders. "How very commendable. I have heard of the good works your sister Charlotte and her clergyman husband are doing--as well as the sewing school Lady Haverstock established to teach a trade to the lowest sort of woman. I should be delighted to offer my house on Trent Square for so noble a purpose. I'll instruct my man of business to see to it." He shrugged. "I hadn't even remembered that I owned Trent Square."
    The man was sinfully rich. "Then that's all I ask of you--not that it's insignificant. It's very generous of you."
    He drew her hand into his. "Now I have something to ask of you."
    She had never before been alone with a man, never had a man hold her hand so intimately. Her pulse skittered, and she thought if she were asked to speak, she would be incapable of summoning her voice.
    Surely he wasn't going to ask her to marry him! Hadn't she done her best to exonerate him from blame for the afternoon's fiasco? Hadn't she made it clear she had no intentions of marrying?
    Nevertheless as they stood there facing one another in the semi-darkness, the ticking of the chimneypiece clock and the hiss of coals the only sounds to be heard, she unaccountably began to tremble.
    His voice was low