Free The Duke and I by Julia Quinn Page A

Forget me. Forget this entire evening. I'm leaving."She turned around, but before she could even takea step, her movement was arrested by the sound of the duke's voice.
     
     "I thought you were going to help me." Drat. He had her there. She turned slowly around.
     
     "Why, yes," she said, her voice patently false, "I'd be delighted."
     
     "You know," he said innocently, "if you didn't want to help you shouldn't have—"
     
     "I said I'd help," she snapped.
     
     Simon smiled to himself. She was such an easy mark. "Here is what we are going to do," he said. "I'm going to haul him to his feet and drape his right arm over my shoulders. You will go around to the other side and shore him up."
     
     Daphne did as she was bid, grumbling to herself about his autocratic attitude. But she didn't voice a single complaint. After all, for all his annoying ways, the Duke of Hastings was helping her out of a possibly embarrassing scandal.
     
     Of course if anyone found her in this position, she'd find herself in even worse straits.
     
     "I have a better idea," she said suddenly. "Let's just leave him here."
     
     The duke's head swung around to face her, and he looked as if he'd dearly like to toss her through a window—preferably one that was still closed. "I thought," he said, clearly working hard to keep his voice even, "that you didn't want to leave him on the floor."
     
     "That was before he knocked me into the wall."
     
     "Could you possibly have notified me of your change of heart before I expended my energy to lift him?"
     
     Daphne blushed. She hated that men thought that women were fickle, changeable creatures, and she hated even more that she was living up to that image right then.
     
     "Very well," he said simply, and dropped Nigel.
     
     The sudden weight of him nearly took Daphne down to the floor as well. She let out a surprised squeal as she ducked out of the way.
     
     "Now may we leave?" the duke asked, sounding insufferably patient.
     
     She nodded hesitantly, glancing down at Nigel. "He looks rather uncomfortable, don't you think?"
     
     Simon stared at her. Just stared at her. "You're concerned for his comfort?" he finally asked.
     
     She gave her head a nervous shake, then a nod, then went back to the shake. "Maybe I should—That is to say—Here,
    just wait a moment." She crouched and untwisted Nigel's legs so he lay flat on his back. "I didn't think he deserved a trip home in your carriage," she explained as she rearranged his coat, "butit seemed rather cruel to leave him here in this position. There, now I'm done." She stood and looked up.
     
     And just managed to catch sight of the duke as he walked away, muttering something about Daphne and something about women in general and something else entirely that Daphne didn't quite catch.But maybe that was for the best. She rather doubted it had been a compliment.
     
     Chapter 4
     
     London is awash these days with Ambitious Mamas. At Lady Worth's ball last week This Author saw no fewer than eleven Determined Bachelors, cowering in comers and eventually fleeing the premises with those Ambitious Mamas hot on their heels .
     
     It is difficult to determine who, precisely, is the worst of the lot, although This Author suspects the contest may come down to a near draw between Lady Bridgerton and Mrs. Featherington, with Mrs. F edging Lady B out by a nose. There are three Featherington misses on the market right now, after all, whereas Lady Bridgerton need only worry about one .
     
     It is recommended, however, that all safety-minded people stay far, far away from the latest crop of unmarried men when Bridgerton daughters E, F, and H come of age. Lady B is not likely to look both ways when she barrels across a ballroom with three daughters in tow, and the Lord help us all should she decide to don metal-toed boots .
     
     Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, 28 April 1813
     
      
     
     The night, Simon decided, couldn't possibly get