To Pleasure a Duke (The Husband Hunters Club 3)

Annabelle moved restlessly. “I did. He is. It is the life I will lead that depresses me. I am not like Mother or you. I do not find it easy to obey rules.”

If only she knew, he thought wryly.

She smoothed down her skirts, and he knew the discussion was over.

“I think you’d better spend some time making up to Mother before she leaves Somerton. Please.”

“Very well.”

She smiled, hesitated a moment, and then left the room, closing the door softly behind her.

Annabelle had something more on her mind than she’d disclosed to him, but he hoped she’d resigned herself to marriage with Lucius and the grand affair her wedding promised to be.

Now he turned back to his desk and tugged a second note out from under the letter, the one he had hidden as soon as Annabelle opened his door. It was brief and to the point and addressed to Eugenie. With a smile twitching his lips he folded it and slipped it into an envelope. He thought about ringing for one of the servants but changed his mind. He could not trust any of those in the house. He knew Barker would ride to Belmont Hall for him in the morning and never tell. He would walk down to the stables and find the man, then he could seek out his mother.

It would be easier to keep his temper with her knowing he had a pleasant interlude to look forward to. One she had no chance of putting a stop to.

Chapter 15

Jack brought the note to her, slipping it into her hand under the breakfast table. His eyes were bright and he put his finger to his lips when she would have asked what it was. So a reluctant Eugenie hid it away until she was able to read it in private.

But there seemed to be more problems to deal with than usual in the Belmont household. The twins were up to their usual mischief, causing her mother to retreat to her parlor with palpitations and leaving Eugenie to smooth matters over. Terry had gone to market with Mr. Belmont, and returned with a filly his father said had cost his son far too much blunt.

“You’ll see,” Terry retorted. “I’ll double it and more.”

It seemed unlike her brother to exert himself in such a way but Eugenie was pleased that at least he was doing something other than playing cards and drinking at the Five Bells. He and Jack were out with the new filly as soon as they’d finished luncheon, discussing how they were going to train it into a prize-winning champion.

With a sigh of relief, Eugenie retired to her room and closed the door. A moment later she’d broken the seal on the note and was seated on the bed, reading it with a growing sense of anger.

Eugenie, I have a new dare for you.

Let me see how fearless you are.

Come to the old Jobling house tonight and I will be waiting.

Sinclair

The tap on her door startled her, and she quickly slipped the note under her skirts and sat on it. But it was only Jack.

“Barker brought it,” he explained, when she asked how he’d come by the note. “He told me not to tell anyone but you. He’ll come by later for a reply. Is it a secret, Genie? Is it from Somerton?”

“Yes,” she said, cautiously, “but Barker is right. You mustn’t tell anyone, Jack.”

Jack nodded. “I wish I had a secret, like you and Terry,” he said, a little wistfully.

Eugenie was about to ask him what Terry’s secret was, but his next words drove all other thoughts from her mind.

“Are you and Somerton lovebirds?”

“Goodness no!” she burst out. “How could we be? He is a duke, Jack.”

He looked so disappointed she relented.

“I suppose you could call us friends.”

“Oh.”

“But even friends have to be careful. Father wouldn’t approve, and neither would Somerton’s mother, so it’s best if we keep it to ourselves, Jack.”