Page 2 of My Dangerous Duke

“Anytime, dear,” the beautiful noblewoman whispered back as she squeezed Eleanor’s arm. “Now go with my daughter and have a good time. Do not let your parents dampen your spirits.”

“Come, Eleanor,” Cordelia said excitedly as her mother moved gracefully off toward her friends, “I see Marina by the refreshments table. Let us go meet her.”

Starting to feel the stress of the evening begin to melt away, Eleanor smiled as she and Cordelia made their way through the crowd of elegantly dressed socialites and toward their dear friend, Marina. As the three young women came together, they embraced and quickly fell to talking.

“Have you heard the latest gossip?” Marina whispered, picking up a glass of champagne.

“Heard?” Eleanor laughed dryly, picking up her glass. “We experienced it. Thank heavens for your mother, Cordelia, or I would still be outside with my face red as a beet.”

Marina gave her a quick, sympathetic look before shaking her head. Eleanor was no fool and knew that word of what had just unfolded outside had already spread through the entire party.

“Trust me, darling, no one will care about that tonight,” Marina replied quickly. “Not with a certain gentleman’s arrival.”

“Intrigue!” Cordelia hissed excitedly, stepping closer to her two friends. “Do not keep us waiting! What is the news, Marina?”

Though Eleanor was no fan of theTon’s gossip,even she was curious. It had to be someone quite special for them to blot out the embarrassment that was her parents' entitlement. She took another sip of her champagne and took a quick look around the room, wondering who Marina could be talking about.

“Well,” Marina started, her voice dripping with giddiness, “It seems that the mysterious Duke of Larsen has finally decided to step out of his secluded little kingdom and summer here!”

“The Duke of Larsen?” Cordelia gasped, immediately looking around. “Gosh, my father speaks of him. Says he is an absolutemonster in the boardroom. Mama says it is a shame he is so ill-tempered. Supposedly he is quite handsome–”

“Oh, come now,” Marina laughed softly, her lips curling up into a smirk as she wagged her eyebrows, “He cannot be as cold as they say.”

“Cold?” Eleanor mused. “I heard that he is heartless, dangerous even.”

“What is the difference?” Cordelia asked.

According to my books, quite a lot,Eleanor mused silently.

“It does not matter,” Marina interjected dismissively. “What matters is there is excitement. And you know how the Ton is when there is a new eligible bachelor around. I cannot wait to watch all these desperate ladies fall over themselves to get to him.”

“So wicked!” Eleanor laughed.

“I do not care,” Marina retorted, throwing a look around the room. “It will be satisfying to be the ones laughing at them and not the other way around for once.”

Eleanor’s smile diminished a little as she looked away from her friends. It was true. The three of them were often the most teased by their peers for being wallflowers. And, while she did not mind the possibility of spinsterhood, she knew her twofriends ached to be wooed by a handsome nobleman as soon as possible.

Cordelia and Eleanor shared a quick glance, then Cordelia nodded toward Marina and pulled her away from the refreshment table.

“Very well, then,” Cordelia encouraged gently, “Let us take a look around, shall we? See what effect this new mystery man has on our adversaries.”

“Let’s hope that is all we spot,” Eleanor murmured under her breath as they walked into the fray.

As she looked around, her eyes searched not for the duke, but for her parents. Neither of them was anywhere to be seen, which worried her greatly. She was not exactly sure what new plan they were up to, but by the way, they had been acting, it could not have been good.

I know they are up to something.

“Jesus and God Almighty, would you look at that one! I think I am in love!” Richard groaned as he gawked at the latest group of ladies that had passed them. Xander rolled his steel grey eyes and then cast them over to his overly excited cousin.

“For heaven’s sake, Cousin,” Xander pleaded, his dark voice laced with an edge, “I am only here to get you out of trouble, not help you get into it. It is bad enough that I had to come all of the way up here to clean up this messy deal you have gotten into. And I have put up with you dragging me to this awful, stuffy thing of a party. But I willnotduel for you for taking some young lady’s honor. Keep it in your pants while we are here or I swear I will cut it off the moment you pass out drunk again.”

Some would say that Xander’s low, threatening words to his cousin were a bit too rough but after everything the twenty-five-year-old idiot had put him through, the man was lucky Xander had not done the deed already. Xander despised the hypocrisy and pettiness of the EnglishTonand wanted nothing to do with it. Now, for the good of the family, he had been forced out of his haven in order to clean up the mess his cousin had made.

“Do not be so cross, Cousin,” Richard pouted, looking annoyingly more like a petulant teenager than a grown man. He raised his tumbler of whiskey- his fourth- to his lips, and added dryly, “You should be happy. You solved the issue, got everyone their money back, and the family’s reputation is once again stellar. As usual, you have saved the day, and tomorrow morning we will be on our way back home.”

Xander bit back the bitter words gnawing at his throat, refusing to let his cousin goad him into a petty fight. Not after finally clearing up his latest near-scandal. He needed to walk away, just for a minute, and cool his temper. He had no doubt that left to his own devices, Richard would cause a new scandal but he could not take it anymore.

“Where are you going?” Richard called after him as he began to walk away.

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