To Pleasure a Duke (The Husband Hunters Club 3)

n tomorrow?” he said quickly. “Bring Jack with you.”

She didn’t answer him and then the door was closed. She stood and listened to his steps retreating, telling herself she would not come.

Eugenie was halfway up the staircase when a little voice on the landing made her stop.

“Was that the duke, Genie?”

With a start, Eugenie looked up. “Jack? Whatever are you doing up?”

“I heard voices.”

She reached the landing and took his hand, steering him toward his bedroom. She lowered her voice, not wishing to wake the twins. Terry’s bed, she noticed, was empty.

“It was the duke, but don’t tell anyone. It was a—a secret visit, to invite us to go to see Erik tomorrow.” Eugenie realized too late she had trapped herself again.

“Oh.” His eyes were round. “The horses, too?”

“Of course the horses.”

She finished tucking him in and bent to kiss his cheek. He rubbed off the kiss with his shoulder automatically, as all boys tended to do when they reached a certain age.

“Goodnight, Jack,” she whispered.

His voice drifted after her. “Don’t worry, Genie, I won’t tell.”

Back in her bed, Eugenie stared into the darkness. Jack had reminded her she was playing a dangerous game. If she was caught alone with Sinclair in such circumstances as tonight then her father would certainly create havoc. There would be a scandal and the person to be hurt the most by it would be Eugenie.

Annabelle giggled as they ran through the garden and into the copse of trees planted by her grandfather when the original wood had been chopped down to make ships for the navy.

“If Mother had caught you she would have exploded,” she added, when they stopped to catch their breath. “Sometimes I am sure she will explode. She sort of puffs herself up.” Her smile faded. “She can be very frightening.”

Terry, watching her face, thought Annabelle truly was afraid of her mother, and yet she was brave, too, and willing to go against her wishes despite the consequences.

“We’ll be safe soon,” he said, trying to sound as if he weren’t a little afraid, too. Although Terry found himself more afraid of Annabelle’s brother than her mother. Something about the look in the Duke of Somerton’s eyes when he settled them on Terry was quite terrifying. Not that he’d ever tell Annabelle so. She thought of him as her brave hero and he fully intended to live up to it.

He realized that until now he’d never imagined someone like Annabelle would have any reason to be miserable with their life. To have money and position and a grand house seemed perfection in itself and that Annabelle should wish for another life would have seemed bizarre to Terry only a short time ago. Now he understood that such a life came with its own form of bars and bolts—its own type of prison—just as his own life did.

He was beginning to feel quite grown up.

“Aren’t you worried you’ll be punished for running away?” he asked suddenly, and then wished he’d bitten his tongue when she gave him a strange look.

“Aren’t you?” she countered.

He shrugged. “I’m nothing. You’re the sister of a duke.”

Annabelle smiled. “Then we must be certain not to let them catch us, mustn’t we?” She clasped his hand in hers and held it tight. “I’m so glad you’re my friend, Terry. I don’t know what I would have done without you to help me.”

A wave of pride swept over him, and with it a kernel of shame. Because the truth was Terry did not think of Annabelle as his friend. Well, not really.

In the beginning he’d thought of her as an opportunity for himself, a pattern of thinking he now realized he’d learned from his father. Then, when he got to know her and understand her, he began to like her for herself and not for who she was. And now, well, he loved her.

Not the sort of lustful love that he’d felt for girls before, a feeling that was more like a physical urge than anything emotional. This was something far more pure. He wanted to help her, save her, make her happy. He wanted to sacrifice himself for her well-being.

He knew he was a bloody idiot. His friends would soon tell him so if he tried to explain to them. But he couldn’t seem to help it.

He wanted to be her hero.

“Lady Annabelle!”