Free Duel of Hearts by Anita Mills Page A

to pay for my mistakes, Aunt Hester.”
    â€œDo not be getting noble with me, Tony Barsett!” she snapped. “I’d as lief settle your debts myself as see you marry a Cit! I suppose the girl smells of the shop—or have you even see her?”
    â€œLeah Cole will be a credit to you, I promise. There is nothing displeasing in her looks, and as for her manners . . .” He stopped, recalling the way she’d looked earlier. “Well, all I can say is the chit’s as high in the instep as you are. In fact, she views me with about as much enthusiasm as you view her. And she’s got a devil of a temper.”
    â€œShe didn’t want you?” his aunt asked incredulously. “Surely not—not with your looks and address. I’ll not believe it. Why, you are a veritable Corinthian, Tony! And you are a Barsett, after all.”
    â€œThink on it—I’ll not be the last one if I marry,” he cajoled.
    â€œBut this Cole person—everyone knows that he is but a Cit. Tony, even if this girl is a paragon, which I am not ready to concede, there is Mr. Cole.”
    â€œOn his last legs. Wants to see his girl settled before he pops off.”
    â€œThat kind live forever,” she countered. “I ought to know—been threatening it for years, but I don’t mean it.”
    â€œHe had some sort of attack tonight, Aunt Hester. I thought for a moment he’d bought his ticket already.” He leaned closer and put his hands on her chair arms. “She is his only child, Aunt Hester.”
    â€œEven so—”
    â€œShe stands to inherit a fortune as big as yours—bigger maybe.” Backing off, he walked over to lean on the mantelpiece. “Not that I want the old fellow to pass on, you understand. Miss Cole is uncommonly fond of her parent, by the looks of it, and I’d not distress her for the world.”
    The duchess opened her mouth and closed it without uttering a sound. After eyeing him suspiciously for a moment, she found her voice. “Tony,” she asked finally, “have you thrown your hat over the windmill for this girl?”
    It was his turn to be silent as he considered the answer. “I don’t . . . Yes, Aunt Hester, I think I have.” He met her eyes almost sheepishly, nodding. “ ’Tis rich, isn’t it—Lyndon caught by a Cit, of all things.”
    â€œWell, why did you not say so?” she uttered bracingly. “Puts an entirely different complexion on the matter! When you speak to me like a gazetted fortune-hunter, I know the cheese is rotten! Have too much pride to marry for money! Dash it—you are a Barsett!” She hobbled to her feet and made her way to face him. “But if it’s the gel herself you want, and not her father’s fortune, then that’s a different tune.” Her black eyes softened as they scanned his face. “Will I like her, do you think?” she asked him.
    He was taken aback by her sudden about-face and knew not what to make of it. He’d expected to insinuate that he’d had to take Leah Cole out of desperation and to enlist her aid in presenting his betrothed to society. Never in his furthest imagination could he have thought she’d see through the ploy. But she was a downy one, when one considered the matter. In spite of himself, he grinned. “I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. “She’ll put every Incomparable on the Marriage Mart to shame, I can tell you, but she’s not insipid in the least. And she’s certainly not in the conventional style. I have never seen eyes like hers.”
    â€œYou sound besotted.”
    â€œOh, I am not blind to her faults, Aunt Hester—I suspect she’s a bluestocking and a reformer—but I am willing to wager you will think her an Original.”
    â€œAs long as she ain’t peculiar-acting. Well, you have seen enough females to know your mind, I