Hardly a Husband (Free Fellows League 3)

The fourth novel in Rebecca Hagan Lee's Free Fellows League series.

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Sussex House, London May 1813

"Good evening, Miranda. Fancy meeting you here."

Sussex gave the Marchioness of St. Germaine an awkward little bow.

"This isn't funny, Daniel." She glared at him. "Your mother was very surprised and none too pleased to see me. She made it quite clear that my name was not on the guest list."

"Not on her guest list," Sussex corrected.

"Your mother's guest list is the only one that matters," Miranda snapped at him.

"Not to me," he countered. "And I invited you."

"Then you should have had the decency to inform your mother because hers is the guest list they use at the front door."

He winced.

Miranda frowned. "You do this to me every year, Daniel, and you know she doesn't like me crashing her party."

It was true. His mother had never liked or approved of Miranda. There was, the duchess always said, something unseemly about a girl Miranda's age inheriting her late father's title and becoming a peeress in her own right. Something unseemly about a young woman who considered herself the equal to male peers. Daniel suspected his mother might be more jealous than disapproving, for the duchess had been born an honorable miss and had gained her lofty title by marrying a duke while Miranda had right-fully inherited hers. So, Daniel invited Miranda to the gala every year knowing his mother had deliberately omitted her name from the guest list.

It began on a whim as a way to right his mother's injustice, but Daniel had continued to invite Miranda year after year because he enjoyed her company. He had wanted to see her again, to hear her voice and resume the verbal sparring they'd enjoyed during their brief courtship — a courtship that had come to a rather abrupt end.

He had been a few months shy of his majority and certain his dream of becoming a member of the Free Fellows League was within his grasp when he met her. Miranda had just inherited her title and Daniel's mother had made her disapproval well known. Although he'd liked Miranda immensely and found her physically and mentally stimulating, he hadn't wanted anything more than a light flirtation, and Daniel had been very much afraid that he was in danger of falling in love with Miranda St. Germaine. So he'd stopped calling upon her and he and Miranda had gone from being would-be lovers to complete adversaries almost overnight.

And their adversarial relationship had continued. Every year he invited her to his mother's society gala and every year, Miranda responded to his invitation. And Daniel was convinced it wasn't just to avoid the humiliation of having everyone else in the ton know that hers was the only prominent name that didn't appear on the duchess's guest list. She enjoyed their verbal sparring every bit as much as he did.

"Yet, you came," he mused.

"I must be as daft to accept as you are to invite me," Miranda admitted. "Because I thought, this time, Her Grace was going to have footmen escort me back to my carriage."

"If she had, it would have marked the end of her gala evening and her role as hostess here at Sussex House."

M

iranda glanced up at him. A thin line of perspiration beaded his upper lip and the look in his eyes was hard and implacable. "Daniel, you don't mean that."

Daniel met her gaze. "Oh, but I do. After all, it is my house."

"Your mother has had it longer," Miranda reminded him. "And she is the duchess."

"Dowager duchess," he corrected.

"A duchess all the same." Miranda sighed. "You know I don't like coming here uninvited."

"You didn't."

"How many other guests did you invite?"

"None," he answered truthfully. "Only you."

"Why am I the only recipient of the Duke of Sussex's largesse?"

Daniel smiled at her. "Because I didn't want to suffer alone."