Page 1 of One Night of Surrender
CHAPTER 1
LONDON, FEBRUARY 1817
Isabelle Cortland tripped as she stepped over the threshold into the Duke of Eastleigh’s town house.Not a slight stumble from which she recovered, but a full-out loss of balance that sent her sprawling onto the marble floor in an ungainly heap, her skirts riding up the back of her legs in a most humiliating manner.
Was it too much to hope he hadn’t seen her?Or that she could melt into the gleaming white stone?
“Mrs.Cortland!”The voice of her employer, Lord Barkley, hit her just before he grasped her elbow.“Are you all right?”
“Fine, thank you.”Placing her palms against the floor, she pushed herself up and brought her legs beneath her.Once she was on her knees, Lord Barkley helped her up.
Caroline, the younger of Isabelle’s two charges, stepped forward and brushed at Isabelle’s dress.“You’re all disheveled now.Let me help.”All of ten years old, Caroline was always quick to offer assistance as well as her opinion.
“Thank you.”Isabelle looked around the hall in agitation.He wasn’t here.Thank goodness.
“Are you certain you aren’t injured?”Lord Barkley asked.
Just her pride, but even that had been spared in the absence of the duke.“I am certain.”
“His Grace apologizes for not greeting you personally,” the butler said.“He will be home shortly.”
Lord Barkley straightened.“Quite all right.Deuced hospitable of him to allow us to stay.”
Indeed it was.They’d arrived in London that morning only to find the town house Lord Barkley had leased for the Season was not yet habitable above the ground floor.It was undergoing refurbishment and would be ready in a fortnight—or so they’d been promised.In the meantime, Lord Barkley had asked his friend the Duke of Eastleigh if they could stay with him.The duke, who Lord Barkley assured her was a generous and magnanimous fellow, had invited them to stay as long as they needed.
The duke was also arrogant, clever, and far more charming than anyone had a right to be.At least he had been ten years ago.Was he still the same?
She doubted she would find out.Isabelle planned to keep as far out of his way as possible.If she were lucky, she would endure the entire stay without ever clapping eyes on him.Which meant she’d best flee upstairs with alacrity.
Turning to the butler, she offered him a smile.“May I accompany my charges to their chamber?”She glanced toward Caroline and her sister, Beatrice, who was older by three years.Their brother, Douglas, was at Oxford.
“Of course.”The butler inclined his head toward a white-haired woman with a kind smile and bright, earnest eyes.“Mrs.Watkins will show you up.”
The housekeeper, for that was what she had to be, beamed at Isabelle and the girls.“Come along.I have the perfect chamber for you dears.”She started toward the stairs.
Isabelle gestured for the girls to precede her.
“Barkley!Welcome to my humble home.I’m so pleased to see you.”
Isabelle nearly tripped again as she placed her foot on the bottom step.The unmistakable—even after all this time—voice of the duke locked her breath in her lungs.
“Humble, ha!”Lord Barkley’s deep chuckle echoed in the hall.“Thank you for inviting us to stay.The governess is just taking my girls upstairs.”
Isabelle forced herself to move.If she hurried, she could hopefully avoid meeting the duke.Rather, re-meeting the duke.Oh, this was going to be adisaster.
“You can make the girls’ acquaintance later,” Lord Barkley said, and Isabelle finally breathed.
There was a pause, and during that pause, Isabelle felt certain the duke’s eyes were boring into her back with all-seeing intensity.At any moment, he would call her by name and the secrets she’d long buried would be exposed.She’d lose her dignity, her post, and the goal that she was working so hard to achieve: her school.
“I’ll look forward to meeting them.”The duke’s response made Isabelle’s insides curl with envy.Envy?She didn’t want to see him.Sheshouldn’twant to see him.
She followed the housekeeper and her charges up, and when the staircase turned, she kept her face averted from the hall—right up until the last moment.Then she stole a glance at the man whose image was seared in her mind for all time.
He looked precisely the same, as far as she could tell at this distance.Tall, broad-shouldered, with those bow-shaped lips that had no business on a man’s face.
They ascended past the first floor up to the second, and Mrs.Watkins led them to the right and then into a well-appointed bedchamber that overlooked the square below.“Here we are,” Mrs.Watkins said.“Your things will be up shortly.”
Caroline dashed to the window and looked down.“What a lovely square.”
