Free Spinster's Gambit by Gwendolynn Thomas

He was smart, and in this, at least, so self-conscious.
    Oh...hell, she thought, closing her eyes. She could not fall for the Duke of Aspen. The very notion was absurd. She barely knew the man. She would be quite content as a spinster; she’d have her finances and her life under her own power. She did not need a husband, and most certainly not one she did not know. 
    He may have syphilis, she reminded herself, cutting off her romantic thoughts and remembering the old rumors. She’d get ill, probably die, if she were to have children with him. 
    I cannot have children as a spinster, either. The thought came hard and Jac let her head fall back against the wall, trying not to wallow in it. It was a foolish consideration regardless. The duke’s wounds had faded into scars, clearly not the work of the French pox, and either way the man did not want her. He barely knew her as more than an impolite spinster, when he knew her as a woman at all. 
    Aspen growled suddenly and slammed his head against the wall.
    “The worst part by far are the women. These young girls, barely sixteen, come and attempt to flirt with me, complimenting my waistcoat, my carriage, my horses, and they look distinctly miserable. You cannot tell me they're not under parental orders. Most often, the parents in question are less than twenty strides away. The older ones refrain from glowering at me but it couldn't be more clear that they want to act as the younger set do. It is times like that when I wish I had a lesser rank. Let me fill my brother’s shoes and be a man with good connections fighting in the Navy. I will not marry a woman who is forced into it,” he stated.
    “Is that why you're so ungracious with women? You believe they are all acting dishonestly?” she asked. She tried not to let her eyes follow down his sweat-soaked shirt again but failed completely. She pulled her eyes up to see Aspen regarding her sharply, affronted. 
    Oh...hell. 
    “I am not ungracious with women,” he said, frowning.
    I’ve offended him, Jac thought, rather relieved despite herself. 
    “You're brusque,” she answered. “I’ve watched you. It’s as if you were performing some wretched duty to engage with them and you'd sooner to have it accomplished forthwith so it is best they not engage you in too lively a conversation,” she answered. Aspen pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers and closed his eyes.
    “That does sound accurate,” he said. “I shall work on it.”
    Jac nodded, staring down at her lap only to hear Aspen tap his head back on the plaster again. This was likely to become more awkward than it warranted. But she was unwilling to sit there and let him think so ill of his chances.
    “I suspect that not all of your suitors are being dishonest. You're not an unattractive man,” she said finally, feeling a blush build in her cheeks at the forwardness of it all. Aspen turned to face her, looking surprised and rather uncomfortable. “They're just scars. Women can look past them.”
    Aspen's mouth twitched.
    “Suitors?” he asked. Jac coughed, realizing how she’d referred to the women who’d set their cap for the duke. 
    “It’s not so different. Ladies will set their cap for a man and go after him just as avidly as any man does a lady. It is simply done more subtly. You should avoid the machinations of women. They’re terrifying to behold,” she added, grinning at the memory of a girl dropping her handkerchief four times in front of the same pitiable man. “It is not unreasonable to think that a woman may have set her cap for you.”  
    “It doesn't sound likely,” the duke replied finally, pushing himself up off the floor and away from the wall. “I've not met one that would even meet my eyes. They tend to focus somewhere off my left shoulder,” he said, turning and offering her a hand. Jac took it, something like pleasure shooting through her at the way he simply pulled her up without seeming to notice the effort