Page 3 of A Virgin for the Duke of Thorns

Alice’s brow furrowed. Her best friend was right. As soon as she married, she would not be able to guarantee that her husband would find her “antics” as charming as her beloved Papa did. No gentleman would allow his lady wife to gallivant about, indulging in her hobbies, unless those hobbies of hers benefited him socially at the very least.

“So… what are you going to do about it, Alice?” Phoebe asked her softly, her eyes wide. “I do hope you will not do anything too wild?—”

“There is one thing I have always wanted.”

Both her younger sister and her best friend turned towards her in surprise.

A mischievous smile bloomed on Scarlett’s beautiful face. “Well now, do tell us all about it, dear! Is it something absolutely scandalous?”

“You could say that.”

The redhead gleefully clapped her hands together. “Now, you have my curiosity all piqued. What is this scandalous thing you want to do?”

Phoebe, however, did not look too convinced that this was something they should be considering, let alone discussing it out loud.

“There is this book…”

“Another book?” Scarlett rolled her eyes dramatically. “Why did I ever think it could be anything other than a book?”

“A rather rare and forbidden book.”

“Now, this gets interesting! Why did you not say that in the first place?”

Alice blushed a little. “Well, it is a French book, and you might have an idea how the French can be so… so…”

She supposed she did not need to elaborate for her best friend.

Scarlett looked at her pointedly. “But, darling,” she reminded her, “you do not speak French. Not well enough to read an entire book of it.”

“But there is a private translation,” Alice insisted. “I heard some gentlemen whispering about it in Lady Milton’s ball!”

“But who would possess such a scandalous book?” Phoebe exclaimed, evidently scandalized.

Alice took a deep breath. The next words left her mouth in a rush.

“The Duke of Thorns.”

“The Duke of Thorns?” Scarlett shrieked. “Are you talking about borrowing a scandalous book from the Duke of Blackthorn?”

Alice nodded. “I remember hearing Mama and Lady Haversham talking about it just before my first Season. They were absolutely scandalized, I tell you. They say…” She dropped her voice and looked around to make sure nobody else was eavesdropping. “They say he came across it during his Grand Tour and had successfully translated it. Of course, I had thought that it was mere gossip, but then I heard Lord Crandall talking about it with the others.”

The two other young ladies fell silent. Scarlett, in particular, was looking at her as if she could not believe what she had just heard.

“Alice,” she said slowly, “we are talking about the Duke of Thorns—the man is a recluse, and that is just the beginning of it! There are all sorts of sordid rumors about him. Why, he is even part of that pack of Wolves that Alexander warned us about!”

“Wolves?” Phoebe gasped and shuddered. “Why are they called that? Do they eat people?”

“Oh, absolutely.” Scarlett grinned mischievously. “Rumor has it that they absolutely love devouring young maidens whole.”

Phoebe turned pale, although Alice doubted that her younger sister actually understood the insinuation.

Instead, she just laughed and reached out to reassuringly clasp her younger sister’s hand. “Scarlett is just teasing you, my dear. They are not beasts at all—just men with a certain reputation.”

“That is true!” The redhead laughed. “They are all rogues, the lot of them—well, the three of them who are still in the social scene, anyway. No young lady’s reputation is safe with any one of those Wolves, so you had best stay away from them as well, my dear.”

Phoebe nodded her head and bit her lower lip. “Now that you put it that way, it does make sense that only a scoundrel like that would possess such an obscene book…” She turned towards her older sister. “The Duke of Thorns sounds like a horribly dangerous person, Alice. I hope you would not get involved with a man like that at all.”

Alice just nodded, but her sister’s words sparked something in her.

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