Free Charming a Spy by Elizabeth Chance Page A

as he stroked.
    “I appreciate your attention,” she said. She appreciated it too much. If he continued, she thought she might rip off her gloves and beg for his attention all over her body. But this really wasn’t the time or place and she wasn’t completely ready yet. This already felt dangerous. Incredibly good, but perilous, and she hadn’t even made her proposition yet. “But my request truly requires privacy,” she said.
    As she said the words, she realized she had been outmaneuvered. Geoff had led her right around a potted plant hiding them from view from the others. They would only have a moment, but it would be enough and no one could possibly overhear.
    “Tell me, now,” he commanded in a gravelly voice. She recognized that tone from the first night they met when he discovered her in his office. He was turning into the intimidating giant again, anger and something else, maybe primal, brewing up inside him. The last time she’d heard it, he’d grabbed her waist and kissed her for the first time. She wanted that again. But not yet.
    “Later,” she insisted again and sashayed back into the room alone.

Chapter Thirteen
    ‡
    A fter dinner, the women retired to the drawing room while the men stayed in the dining room. Kat always hated this part of the evening. She had no idea what the gentlemen did while sequestered together, but she knew all too well this was when ladies went to battle with each other. Outwardly, it all appeared very civilized, but their genteel conversation was laden with cannonballs meant to cut one another’s confidence down. Tonight would be the initial skirmish when each lady was prepared to fight for the duke’s favor.
    “Ms. Dubois, Ms. Chaplin… won’t you play a quick game of whist with me and Rosemary?” Jessica asked. Not surprising, Jessica would be the first to go for blood.
    “Our pleasure, Ms. Grier,” Maribel responded to both of them. Kat was sure it wouldn’t be her pleasure at all, not Maribel’s either, but they had no way out.
    The foursome sat at the table. Before the first hand had been played, Jessica started firing bullets, “Ms. Dubois, it was such a surprise to see you here. I don’t know how the duke even knew of your existence, with you being absent from society for so long. Of course, he is quite charitable.”
    Kat was determined to deflect her barbs. She wasn’t here to fight with Jessica. “I was also surprised. I didn’t expect to see your brother either. How lucky that he was able to make it.” He was lucky. If only her own brother could be there.
    “Yes, Rafe wouldn’t have missed this party for the world. He took a boat back from Germany when he received the special invitation from the duke. And I’m not one to spread gossip,” Jessica said, “but he may have hinted to my brother about when he’d solidify his choice of a bride. Naturally, Rafe wanted to be here in person.”
    Clearly Jessica thought she was first in the running for the duke’s hand and, unfortunately, she most likely was. She could think of no other reason for Geoff to summon Jessica’s brother back from Germany. It was a long trip for a mere house party.
    Kat couldn’t blame Geoff for wanting to marry Jessica. She was the most beautiful woman in attendance and had a generous dowry. Those were the qualities every man of breeding sought in a wife. In time, he would come to see through her thinly veiled niceties to the greedy, mean-spirited witch who lay beneath. Jessica who would spend his fortune and complain it wasn’t enough. But it wasn’t Kat’s concern. If a pretty rich plaything is what Geoff wanted in a wife, he could have it.
    Rosemary leaned forward and whispered to the foursome over her cards, “Goodness, Jessica, do you think he may actually propose while we are here?”
    “I’m not one to speculate, Rosemary,” Jessica said, although of course she was about to do just that, “but it could be. When the duke took me for an ice last week…”