Free The Duke Diaries by Sophia Nash Page A

Grace,” she said with a deep curtsy. “You are just in time. The music is about to begin and, let’s see . . .” She glanced at the card attached at her wrist with a gold ribbon that matched her shimmering gown, which matched her gleaming hair held high with gold combs. “Yes, I remember. You are my first partner.”
    And this was merely the beginning of the evening designed in hell. The notes of a waltz wafted from the musicians perched in the balcony.
    Lord, it was like holding Catharine. Phoebe Talmadge was the exact height as her dead sister. His arm fell on the same waist, and his gaze fell on the same intensely cornflower blue eyes filled with farouche mystery. “How old are you?”
    She smiled and his gut clenched. There was the same sense of unruliness in her expression.
    “How perfectly rude, Your Grace. I should like to tell you, but I shall have to do it in private for there are far too many people staring at us.”
    He looked away to negotiate the edge of the ballroom only to see his future bride—he winced at even thinking the word—yes, his bride entering the dance just ahead of him with a prematurely balding and bespectacled young gentleman. Why wasn’t she dancing with young Talmadge? Rory increased the length of his stride to draw closer.
    “Did your brother ask Lady Verity Fitzroy for the first set as we discussed?”
    “Of course he did. My brother and I always honor our commitments, Your Grace.”
    “Good.” His gaze tracked Verity and her partner.
    She continued for his ears only, “I’m very unlike my sister in that way.”
    His attention swiveled to the beautiful Miss Talmadge. “Sorry?”
    “I’ve been described as virtually identical to Catharine in figure, form, and every manner. I loved her, and still pine for her just like everyone who knew her,” she whispered the last. “But where she was reckless and fickle, I’m quite the opposite, you see.”
    “I do see,” he replied and pulled her closer. Indecently closer . “But the very thing most appealing about Catharine was her recklessness and her divine fickle nature. We were two of a kind, I fear.”
    Phoebe laughed. “I suppose this is the best moment to confess that while my brother did indeed request the first set with Lady Fitzroy, she replied that she was old enough to be his mother and that she did not want to start tongues wagging. She was very right in her thinking, I believe. But what do you think?”
    He would not waste his time telling her what he thought. It required enough concentration just to follow the couple in front of them. He didn’t even notice the babble coming from her pretty face until she disengaged her hand from his shoulder and grasped his chin to draw his attention toward her.
    “You are quite provoking me, Your Grace.”
    “How so?”
    “I will tell you if you take your eyes off the other guests and look at me.”
    It was what he least wanted to do. He reluctantly diverted his gaze from Verity and her very ordinary-looking partner in the dance and looked down at Phoebe’s eyes, lips, upturned nose, and blond hair done up in the exact same fashion Catharine had employed and he had memorized all those years ago.
    “Thank you,” she said coyly. “Now what I was saying . . .”
    He had trained his eyes and ears to pick up conversations at great distances during his stint with Wellington. It had served him well. What in hell was Verity saying now?
    “Lord Villiers, I’m so sorry to beleaguer you with so many questions, but I do believe it will expedite our acquaintance, you see. You are very free to ask me anything you like in return.” She did not stop to see if he had anything to ask. Instead she plowed forward. “So, no mistresses or love children and no relations living with you. And did you love your mother while she lived?”
    “Owwww!” Phoebe Talmadge cried out as Rory mistakenly put his full weight on her tiny foot.
    She sounded like a cat in heat, was his first unkind