Page 4 of A Virgin for the Duke of Thorns

Danger. Perhaps that is what she had been missing. Why she had all but forsaken her usual hobbies.

Her latest forays simply did not hold the same thrill that they once did.

She needed an element of danger in her life. One great adventure she could embark on. A daring tale that she would be able to tell her grandchildren when she had become nothing more than a boring Society Lady as Scarlett had feared.

A slow smile spread across her lips. “I think I know exactly what to do this weekend.”

“Oh no, Alice, you can’t! You absolutely cannot be thinking of getting so close to that horrid Duke of Thorns!” Phoebe exclaimed.

“Phoebe is right.” For once, Scarlett looked serious. “He might not even be part of the Wolves anymore, but there is still something about him. They are still talking about the fire in Blackthorn Estate from five years ago. No one truly knows what he is capable of?—”

But Alice only cut off her best friend’s tirade with a raised hand.

“Well, man or monster, no one is going to stand between me and a rare book!” she declared.

Even if that man is probably the most enigmatic member of the Wolves.

CHAPTER 2

“I still do not think that this is a good idea at all, Alice!”

Alice averted her gaze from Phoebe’s worried one. Her sister had just cause to be worried—the Wolves were not personages to be trifled with, after all.

Even the one who had chosen a life away from the eyes of the ton.

If anything, that should make him all the more dangerous. After all, heaven only knows what the man has been occupying himself with in all that time!

“Do not worry too much about it, Phoebe.” She smiled at her younger sister instead. “We are not going into Blackthorn Estate or engaging the Duke of Thorns at all. We are merely conducting some reconnaissance…”

“Reconnaissance prior to theft!” Phoebe hissed at her. “If Mama finds out about this?—”

“Mama should never find out about this,” Alice told her younger sister firmly. “Besides, what harm is there in simply taking a look? If His Grace did not want anyone looking in, then he would not have countenanced an open gate, would he?”

Phoebe opened her mouth as if to argue but then shut it as she looked out the window of the carriage contemplatively. Meanwhile, Alice simply let out a sigh of relief.

It would be disastrous if her mama was ever to find out what she was thinking of doing. Unlike her father, the Marchioness of Brandon did not find her eldest daughter’s antics charming at all—which was only understandable, as she was currently responsible for ensuring that her two daughters found good matches and married well enough to maintain their current standard of living.

“Phoebe is right, you know,” Scarlett told her with a worried frown. “The Wolves are not to be trifled with.”

“I daresay that he might be a little annoyed at having strangers gawking at his estate, but nothing more,” Alice replied, shrugging her shoulders in as nonchalant a manner as she could.

As much as she wanted to appear so carefree, she could not help but feel a thread of apprehension at the thought of crossing one of the famed Wolves, and the Duke of Thorns at that.

Fortunately, Scarlett did not say anything more on the matter even as she continued to look pointedly at Alice. It was clear that while Scarlett might not agree with her friend’s admittedly harebrained scheme to steal a priceless and obscene book from the collection of a known rake, she was still going to stand by Alice and support her. For Scarlett’s steadfast loyalty, Alice was grateful.

“Well, we are here.”

Alice smiled as the carriage slowed to a stop before the wrought-iron gates of an estate that might have looked impressive in its prime. Now, it simply looked forbidding. An apt residence for someone who was feared to have become more beast than man.

Phoebe nervously twisted her handkerchief in her hand as she eyed the estate. “Now that you have seen it, can we please go back home?”

Alice, however, found it all the more intriguing.

“Wait a moment. I wish to take a closer look,” she told her younger sister.

Phoebe let out a mewling sound of despair as Alice merely patted her sister’s hand reassuringly.

She fixed her bonnet as she descended from the carriage. She paused slightly and turned towards the two young ladies who remained inside.

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