My Last Duchess, стр. 4

“You are so unnatural,” her cousin interrupted, momentarily startled out of her examination of the infamous duke. “You meanto tell me that you actually rise with that child?”

“She comes to fetch me,” Ophelia said apologetically. The truth was that she was often awake before the patter of unsteadyfeet came down the corridor. She lay in bed, smiling at the ceiling, waiting for Viola to burst through the door.

Viola babbled incomprehensibly all the way from the nursery, but as soon as she came through the door, she would cry, “Mama!”She knew only a few words, but “Mama” and “no” were her favorites, and she shouted them both with great enthusiasm.

“I’m going home,” Ophelia said, wondering why she had come. True, she had put aside her half-mourning attire for the firsttime, and was wearing a lovely new gown, but that didn’t mean she actually wished to join society again.

It would have been much more fun to stay home with Viola.

“I don’t want to be caught in a snowstorm,” she added.

“Oh, nonsense,” Maddie said. “My coachman was grumbling about the same thing. If traffic snarls up, it might take a wee bitlonger to get home, but we’re not in the wilds of Lincolnshire! One scarcely notices snow in London.”

Ophelia wouldn’t have cared if Peter were still alive and traveling in the coach with her on the way home. She was more cautiousnow, or perhaps less adventurous.

“Oh, very well, I’ll walk you to the entrance,” Maddie said, taking her arm as they began to make their way through the crowd.She lowered her voice. “His Grace is standing just to the right side of it.”

Ophelia sighed. If Maddie started something with a duke whose wife had fled to the Continent—divorced or not—all society wouldtalk feverishly about it for months, or even a year. Her husband would be furious.

Lord Penshallow would not forget, even when society moved on to the next scandal. Maddie’s husband might not want his wifehimself, but Ophelia was certain he didn’t want another man in his bed. Men weren’t rational about that sort of thing.

“Maddie,” she said, striving for a tactful tone, “I believe you ought to rethink the idea of an affaire with Lindow.”

“For goodness’ sake, lower your voice,” her cousin whispered. “Do you see him now? He’s straight in front of us.”

Ophelia looked and froze, which made her stumble. It was mortifying, not helped by the fact that Maddie burst out laughing.

“Didn’t I tell you so?” she demanded.

No.

Maddie hadn’t “told.” She hadn’t said what the Duke of Lindow looked like. He had a square chin, high cheekbones, and a straightnose that somehow came together in a way that made a woman instinctively draw in a breath.

It wasn’t just that he was handsome, or broad-shouldered and tall. He was indefinably masculine in a way few of the gentlemen in the room were. He was wearing a magnificent peruke, befitting a duke, and a rose-coloredcoat that by rights should look effeminate.

It didn’t.

That square chin looked stubbornly male. Her husband had never been able to grow a beard, try as he might, but the duke’schin was shadowed, though his man had undoubtedly shaved him a few hours ago.

Next to her, Maddie was still giggling. “I told you so.”

Rather than respond, Ophelia kept looking. His Grace was clearly bored. He was paying no attention to the two ladies chatteringbeside him.

Ophelia flipped open her fan. “Why is he here?” she asked Maddie from behind its shelter. “I thought he was uninterested insociety, and he certainly looks it.”

The last two years she’d been in mourning, but before that, she and Peter had attended virtually every ball held in London.Peter had loved to dance.

“Keep walking,” Maddie hissed. “My husband is one of His Grace’s acquaintances, so I shall greet him. As for why he’s here,I expect he’s looking for another wife. Or should I say, broodmare.”

“What?”

“Phee, don’t you pay attention to anything? The duchess, the one he divorced, left four young children behind. That’s why the private act passed so quickly. Everyoneknows that he needs to marry again; apparently the discussion in Parliament circled around that issue.”

“Four children,” she echoed, wondering how the former duchess could have left her babies behind. She could no more leave Violathan she could cut off her own arm.

“There are more children than those four, because if I remember correctly, he had four or five with his first wife as well,though they must be nearly grown. If we don’t hurry, he’ll move away from the door and I’ll miss my chance.”

“More children than four?” Ophelia kept her fan up as they arrowed through the crowd. “How old is he?”

“Not as old as you’d think. Late thirties, I believe.”

They weren’t the only ones heading in the Duke of Lindow’s direction. There was an unmistakable drift in the room, as if thetide were coming in, and he was the shore.

“The three or four from his first wife,” Maddie said over her shoulder, “are all boys.”

“Slow down,” Ophelia hissed, tugging back. “You’re making a spectacle out of us.”

They were close enough now that she could see the duke’s eyes were dark green. His face was all hard planes and angles. Hewas standing with one leg bent in front of him, a silver-hilted sword on his left hip.

She felt heat rising in her cheeks just from glancing at his stance. His thigh was pure muscle, and anyone could tell thathis calves were not enhanced by horsehair pads. His was an aggressive leg, not a graceful one. She’d put a pretty chunk ofher jointure on a bet that he didn’t care to dance.

That sword? It wasn’t just for show.

He wasn’t the sort of man who would ever interest her. “I truly must leave,” she said, with sudden resolution. “You may stopand talk to His Grace, but I am going home to Viola.”

“All right,” her cousin said, not listening.

Ophelia thought about pointing out that a man intent on courting a mother for his children was unlikely