Page 1 of A Duke to Undo her
Chapter One
Lady Josephine Thomson yawned and sat back on the wooden bench in St. James’s Park, hands behind her auburn head and ankles crossed in front of her extended legs. She turned up her face towards the sun with closed eyes and a lazy smile.
“This is the life!” she declared with satisfaction, not expecting any answer from her sister Vera and Vera’s husband, Norman, the Viscount of Elmridge, further along the bench. “All I need is a footstool and a glass of lemonade and then this would be a perfect morning.”
Lord and Lady Elmridge were entirely absorbed in one another, with little thought for twenty-year-old Josephine, whom they were meant to be chaperoning on a walk around the park. Even after three years of marriage, the pair seemed like newly-weds in the joy they took in one another’s company. It made Josephine quite misty-eyed to see Vera and Norman together sometimes.
Like Constance, the eldest of Josephine’s three older sisters, Vera had found a love match. Their other sister Ophelia had done the same, marrying Percival Tamblyn, Lord Kilderhorn five years earlier. Having watched all her sisters fall in love and marry so happily, it must be her turn soon, Josephine thought longingly as she daydreamed under the summer sky.
This was her third Season and surely the perfect time to meet the man of her dreams. In her first Season, she had been too young, and in her second Season, too set on having fun, to focus on finding a husband. Yes, this third Season was the right time, Josephine decided.
While she was not in a hurry, nor did she wish to leave marriage too late. Popular and much in demand among the younger set for her vivacity and confidence, even if older society figures often raised their eyebrow at her manners, Josephine still felt as though she was waiting for her real life to begin.
This year, Lord and Lady Kilderhorn were sitting out the Season following the birth of Ophelia’s second child only a few months ago. Still without children of their own, Vera and Norman had volunteered to see Josephine through this third round of balls, dinners and parties. Constance, Lady Norfield, had already done her duty in launching her youngest sister at court in her first year out in society.
Life in London this summer was proving very pleasant although Josephine still hadn’t met any man she could remotely imagine marrying. Never mind, there were still weeks and weeksof parties and balls to come. Anything could happen, and Josephine sincerely hoped that it would.
As she basked dreamily in the morning’s sunshine, some unpleasantly low and sniping voices approached and intruded on her reveries.
“Did you ever see anything like it? Disgraceful! In my day, such an attitude was unthinkable in a young lady.”
“Look how she’s sitting! How on earth was she raised?”
Opening her eyes a crack, Josephine took in the disapproving faces of two passing older ladies who evidently took exception to her relaxed and easy pose. What miserable whispering old bats! She was tempted to put out her tongue at them and really give them cause for disapproval but she did not wish to cause trouble for Vera and Norman. Instead, she got to her feet.
“I’m going to walk around the lake over there for a while,” Josephine told her sister and brother-in-law, receiving only a faint sound of acknowledgement from the pair who sat hand-in-hand, gazing into one another’s eyes. “I won’t go far.”
Why did Josephine always seem to attract the attention of such nasty old busybodies? No one ever whispered unpleasant things about Constance, Ophelia or Vera. Then, of course, none of her older sisters ever did anything inappropriate, or seemed to want to. They all seemed to have been born naturally perfect. Josephine, however, felt cast from a different mold.
Banishing the disapproving ladies her thoughts as they passed from her hearing, Josephine let her mind drift to the novel she had just finished reading, loaned to her by Lady Rose, now as firm a friend as Madeline.
The Fated Lovers of Fentimorewas a thrilling story with an equally thrilling hero, the tall, dark and charismatic Sir Edmund Venner. In the course of the novel, Sir Edmund rescued the beautiful heroine, Lady Jane Tremayne, not once but three times from robbers, a mad dog and an unwanted suitor of rakish inclination.
At the edge of the lake, Josephine stopped and sighed to herself. Why couldn’t her life be more like Lady Jane’s? Now entering her third Season, she couldn’t recall a single man who had “made her blood sing” or “called to her soul in the most primal way” as Sir Edmund apparently did to his beloved.
Perhaps this was because Lady Jane was so prone to fainting and Josephine was not, she thought wryly. While relatively petite in form, Josephine was as strong and resilient as a little pony. She did not believe she would know how to faint. Even when she tripped, she generally bounced straight back up onto her feet. Maybe she just wasn’t built to be rescued.
Picking her way around the lake, Josephine trailed her hands through the long grasses and bushes at the water’s edge. This year would be her year, she told herself again, willing it to be true. This year, it must happen, her hero would appear and she must surely fall in love at last…
Suddenly, a large white shape flapped out from the brush in front of Josephine with a loud grunting sound. Startled from her revery, she jumped back and lost her footing on an irregularly shaped rock at the water’s edge, emitting a small cry as she realized she was about to fall in.
Just as abruptly, a strong hand seized her forearm and pulled her firmly back towards the shore where she stumbled anew and was steadied once again, this time with two hands and a very strong arm behind her shoulders.
“Oh!” gasped Josephine, looking up at the handsome blond-haired young man who had caught her up.
Her preserver was tall and well-built, with the sun behind him giving a kind of golden halo. Over his shoulder, Josephine could see a noble-looking black horse standing patiently on the path.
“It was only a pelican,” the man said with an amiable grin, righting Josephine on her feet once more and releasing his hold. “I think you disturbed its nest. They’re not very dangerous but they do make rather a surprising noise, don’t they?”
“I forgot the pelicans were here,” Josephine replied breathlessly, taking in the young man’s pleasing features, well-cut suit and beautiful steed.
Was this it? Was today the day she finally fell in love..? All the right ingredients seemed to be here, and this scenario was so very close to the thousands she had imagined. Josephine couldn’t say that her blood was singing but she did note withsatisfaction that the young man before her seemed to be very fashionably dressed.
“I’m Benedict Emerton, by the way,” offered the man in a friendly voice. “My brother is the Duke of Ashbourne. Are you quite well, Miss…?”
“Lady Josephine Thomson,” she gabbled quickly. “Oh, yes, I am perfectly fine. More than fine, considering that I just avoided soaking a new dress and hat with lake water. Thank you for your assistance, Lord Benedict…”
“Oh, please don’t both with my title. I never do, and go by plain old Mr. Benedict Emerton whenever can.”
