Love Letters From a Duke Read Online Free Page B

She wanted him in livery? What sort of wanton nonsense was this?
    “You look surprised. But yes, we have livery for you,” she assured him. Not that he found it the least bit assuring.
    “Nanny Jamilla always said a footman should be well dressed,” Miss Thalia added.
    “A footman?” he stammered.
    “Oh, dear,” Miss Langley said. “They didn’t hint that you may have the butler position, did they? I told them quite plainly we sought only a footman who could—”
    He waved his hands at her. “Miss Langley, there’s been some sort of—”
    She didn’t let him get any further. “Yes, of course, you would want the more elevated position, but we are such a small household, and really only temporary at that, so we could hardly employ a butler and a footman, now could we?”
    She flashed him a smile that did something odd to his chest—left him a bit breathless and unable to jump into the opening she’d offered. Oh, this Miss Langley was an able opponent. As quickly as she’d feinted to the right, she closed ranks and turned in another direction. “You have some experience managing things, do you?”
    Twelve years in Wellington’s army. Commanding the 95th Rifles at Corunna, Badajoz, and Salamanca. Marches across Portugal and Spain with ill-trained, ill-fed men and having to find them not only the sustenance to keep them moving, but the bullets to keep them alive.
    “Yes. A little,” he answered wryly. “But Miss Langley, that hardly bears—”
    “Well, of course it does,” she told him. “We might be a small household—not by choice, mind you—but I am determined not to let anyone discover the truth of our situation…”
    The truth of her situation? What the devil did that mean?
    “…and having a proper footman is one of the things that will put just the right outward appearance on things. Not that our circumstances will remain like this, I assure you. With the Season approaching, changes are afoot.” She paused, but only briefly. “It is no secret that I will shortly be married to the Duke of Hollindrake—so yes, my sister and I, as well as our cousin, will not be living here for long, I daresay.”
    Care to place a wager on that? “Miss Langley, if you would but—”
    “Please don’t think our current situation will affect your position,” she rushed to add. “We are quite solvent enough to afford your wages—though you look as if you could use some decent meals.”
    She reached over and pinched his arm. “Dear heavens, you are quite starved. Well, we will just have to see about that.” She gave his sleeve a warm pat and smiled up at him.
    The maneuver effectively disarmed every discordantthought he’d been holding about her. For when she smiled, the lady looked like an angel, and her touch sent a shock of warmth through his limbs.
    He struggled to fortify his position by remembering his carefully wrought speech.
    Miss Langley , this betrothal was made without my knowledge and I find it impossible to—
    Yes, yes. That was supposed to be how it was going.
    So he opened his mouth and began, “Miss Langley, I believe there’s been a—”
    He was cut off yet again, but this time by the other Miss Langley. “Duchess, dearest, I fear he will never do.”
    “Duchess?” he managed. So she was already using the title? And without the benefit of marriage. The warmth from moments earlier fled in the face of this newest audacity.
    She shook her head slightly. “I fear it is a childhood nickname. My sister still insists on using it.”
    Even worse. She’d been set in this course since infancy. He suddenly had an icy sort of premonition that it might take more than an ill-cut suit and a curt dismissal to rid himself of her.
    In the meantime, she’d turned from him to her sister. “Whatever are you nattering on about?”
    “He’s too tall, Duchess. He’ll never fit the livery.”
    Her hands went to her hips. “Of course he will.” She slanted a glance back at him, sweeping her