Page 31 of Drawn to the Duke
“And you’ll stay with me until the morning? I want to wake up beside you.”
Selina blinked open her eyes and found that his look was dark, as if he really hung on her response.
She nodded.
“You are an enigma, Lady Boothe,” he murmured, adding after a long pause, “if you are indeed Lady Boothe.”
Was it her intake of breath that gave her away? Selina jerked her head up to find him studying her.
He sighed, though his look didn’t register the rage or suspicion she might have feared. “You admit it then?”
He took her silence for affirmation before going on, “Yes, Anna, I was disappointed to learn from someone else that you are not the Lady Boothe they recall from some years ago. Very disappointed… at first.”
“Please, your Grace, I can explain?—”
“Explain what? That you are not married to the gentleman whom you would have the world believe is your husband?”
Miserably, Selina shook her head. “Please, your Grace, I?—”
He cut her off. “But then I realized that if you were not respectably pledged to that little artist, why, you might be willing to come to an understanding with me.”
Selina gasped again as realization dawned.
He put his hand on her shoulder. “You are a remarkably competent actress, Anna, and I shall enjoy learning more about you in due course, my dear. But?—”
“Chauncy!”
Selina stepped back as a stocky, scarred gentleman intruded. “Excuse me, madam,” he said, bowing, “but I have something of importance to discuss with His Grace.”
CHAPTER 18
Deep in thought, Chauncy crossed the ballroom as he responded to Beth’s smile.
He wasn’t sure how he felt at having Sir Simeon’s suspicions confirmed. For a start, Anna had not been truthful and that didn’t sit well with him.
If she was not Sir Edward’s wife but rather, his mistress, where did she come from? What were her origins?
An actress? She’d certainly managed to ape the manners and modulated tones of her betters.
And while that might be impressive, it was, nevertheless, a deception. Could she be trusted?
“I hope you have an invitation to dance, Beth. You certainly look lovely tonight,” he told his cousin, even as his distracted glance flitted to the other side of the room where he was conscious of Anna standing near a vase of flowers on a plinth.
Was her name really Anna? And how did she come to be the mistress of so lacklustre a man as Sir Edward?
Well, she was lovely, and Chauncy would happily make herhismistress.
Certainly, it wasn’t as if he’d considered her in any capacity other than as his mistress for he’d look to the great families of Great Britain when he felt it time to take a wife.
And as he was in no hurry, in the meantime he could enjoy the carnal pleasures of the woman pretending to be Lady Boothe.
Nevertheless, dismay continued to color his reflections. How could he have been so easily taken in? The woman to whom he’d been in danger of losing his heart was an imposter?
A woman who gave herself to men for money?
“I have been asked, Chauncy, though I hope you will dance with me,” Beth said, smiling, before turning to answer her companion.
The orchestra was playing at the far end of the ballroom, but the dancing had not yet begun, though most of Lady Rushworth’s guests appeared to be here.
