Page 13 of A Virgin for the Ruthless Duke

Eli nodded much to his surprise.

“What did he say?” Richard asked unable to hide his curiosity.

“He is assuming his father’s place as the duke of Pembroke.” Eli answered.

“Why?” he asked. “I thought the duke’s health was improving.”

Eli shook his head looking grim.

The duke of Pembroke’s rapidly declining mental health had been a topic of controversy for years but considering he was started on a new trial of medication, he seemed to be have improved.

A somber mood settled over them but thten suddenly Eli clapped his hands together as though remembering something. He looked up to frown at his friend but spied his mother returning and said nothing.

“That reminds me,” he announced. “Lady Justina and her daughter Beatrice left early this morning before most of the house had awoken.”

“Lady Justina and Beatrice?” the Dowager Duchess asked, settling into her seat. “What happened?”

Eli leaned in close enough to whisper because, even though the incident had passed, he didn’t want the rest of the ton to know about it, and he didn’t want to shame the girl for the rest of her life because of a moment of foolishness.

He was a stickler for justice, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know how to mete it out with compassion.

She was young and desperate and obviously under much more pressure than she could handle to find a husband in the competitive marriage mart. It was almost pitiable.

“Lady Beatrice tried to trap Richard in marriage last night.”

The Dowager Duchess’s dramatic gasp made Richard roll his eyes. She placed a hand on her chest as though she had heard something utterly sacrilegious.

“My word!” she exclaimed. “What is wrong with young girls these days?”

Richard had informed Eli of the incident as soon as he had returned to the party, although he hadn’t expected his friend to act on it so quickly.

“Did you…?”

“I didn’t say anything to them,” Eli answered, shaking his head. “Perhaps she had the decency to feel embarrassed of her actions.”

“Hmm,” was Richard’s only response.

“You do realize that you are rather intimidating when you meet strangers. She must have realized that you would be even more intimidating once she’d tried to make an enemy of you,” Eli said.

“It is a necessary skill, my friend.”

“Thankfully, she had the decency to feel remorse for her actions,” the Dowager Duchess sneered.

Itwasa good thing that the girl had thought to leave before his mother caught wind of what she had done. His mother didn’t believe in forgiveness and would have no doubt made the girl and her mother’s lives a living hell.

She had used her influence as Dowager Duchess to build up and tear down the reputations of girls who didn’t live up to her standards of propriety in the past. Now would have been no different, and very few families would have been willing torisk her wrath by marrying their sons to anyone she deemed unsuitable.

Even now, Richard sincerely hoped that someone else would catch her attention, or the reason for Lady Beatrice’s ruin would fall entirely on him.

“I absolutely detest girls who lose all decorum in the rush for marriage,” the Dowager Duchess said with a frown. “In my day, we knew the power of flirtation and good manners. It just goes to show poor breeding if she could behave so filthily. What a disgrace! It just goes to show the extent of decadence that has taken over Society these days. It is a good thing she left, or I would have given her and her mother a piece of my mind.”

Richard wondered what his judgmental mother would make of his deal with Selina. She would no doubt sneer at her for depending on a man to help her secure a match, and Selina, with her short temper, would not hesitate to shove his mother off her high horse.

It was a battle he would love to watch, and the mere thought of it had him smiling. That earned him stares from Eli and his mother.

“What is it?” he asked with a frown.

“You think about her and smile,” Eli said, an awestruck look on his face. “I must meet this wonderful woman.”

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