Page 60 of A Duchess Bound
“Truly?” He barely heard her.
“Truly,” Gerard echoed, his voice soft. “I do not go where I am unwanted.”
And he meant it. While Gerard had an insatiable appetite for ladies, he only wanted those who wanted him in return. There was nothing more detestable than a gentleman who imposed himself against a lady’s will.
Lady Dorothy sighed and took a breath, which seemed to shudder in her chest. She turned to him and smiled, the gesture tentative. “That is a relief to know, Your Grace.”
He smiled.
“Then, I assume that you will kindly cease these attempts at courtship with my sister,” Lady Dorothy continued, her expression hardening. “She has no desire for a man like you.”
Gerard knew that Lady Dorothy’s concern was for her sister’s reputation, but he dared to think that—perhaps—a small part of the lady’s warning came from a desire to keep him all for herself.
“And I have told you that I am uninterested in your sister,” Gerard said.
“I find myself unable to believe you.”
He laughed heartily. “Why? I have given you no reason to think otherwise.”
“Because your behavior is putting me and Bridget in jeopardy! We cannot be seen associating with a rake. It will ruin my sister’s prospects for the Season. I do not imagine this fact is unsurprising to you.”
“It is not. I am a little saddened, however.”
Lady Dorothy’s eyes flitted past him. “I must speak to Bridget.”
Gerard blinked; he was a little startled. He turned his head to see if Lady Bridget had, indeed, some need of her sister. Gerard assumed not, for Lady Dorothy had seemed simply eager to be rid of him.
But Lady Dorothy approached her sister and gently adjusted the right sleeve of her sister’s gown. The two ladies exchanged words, too softly for Gerard to hear. Of course, he could have stepped forward and joined their conversation, but doing so didnot feel right. Lady Dorothy’s face was so soft when she gazed at her sister, and Lady Bridget’s face was flushed with happiness.
Something warm stirred in his chest. Did Lady Dorothy know how fortunate she was to be a part of such a loving family? One who seemed to delight in one another’s company? He sighed softly and tried to force away the forever-angry face of his father and the coldness that filled the halls of his ancestral home.
“Are you enjoying yourself?” Lord Coatney asked, joining him.
“I am,” Gerard said absentmindedly. “Very much.”
Lady Dorothy and Lady Bridget parted ways, the elder sister going to her brother’s side. Gerard’s lips twitched in amusement, his mind devising the next encounter with the charming spinster.
CHAPTER 21
His Grace was proving to be especially insufferable since their encounter at the cottage. The man she had only seen occasionally suddenly seemed as though he was everywhere, making sly comments and slipping her notes at every ball, garden party, and soiree.
“How are you enjoying the ball, my lady?” he had asked at Lady Hart’s ball.
She hated how she had flushed at the question.
“I love the solitude of the country,” the duke had said on another occasion. “Do you? There are simply so many pleasures that one may find away from London.”
Those words had been accompanied by a smirk and a gleam in his eyes.
No one seemed to have realized, or even suspected, that she might hold some measure of attraction for the wretched man, much less that she might be engaged in an affair with him. Still, his attentions had drawn a handful of remarks.
“His Grace was rather unkind just then! Why do you think he said such cruel words?”
“Did he pass you a note?”
“It is strange that he would ask you to dance. I believe he favors young, unmarried misses.”
Enough was enough. That was what brought Dorothy to that rakish man’s house after her own household had long since gone to bed. She had thought that His Grace might be asleep and that she might have to rouse him from bed, but firelight flickered merrily through the windows of his townhouse.
