Second Chance for the Duke Read online

  “I haven’t stopped living,” he said, feigning good humor. “I’m about to embark on a grand tour.”

  Lady de Grey nodded, though Gabriel was certain she wasn’t agreeing with him. “Well you’re certainly going to live while you’re with me,” she promised. She wasn’t lying.

  On the first night they all had a quiet dinner with Lady de Grey’s solicitor who had come down to Greylings that afternoon to have Clarice sign some papers. But for the rest of the week, every night brought some sort of gathering, and to each gathering Clarice had invited eligible young women from good families.

  Normally Gabriel might have enjoyed himself, but the girls Lady de Grey gathered at Greylings were without exception vapid creatures without an original thought. They had no real conversation, just flirty exclamations such as “La, sir, how you talk!” and their answers to direct questions were generally along the lines of “I’m not sure. What do you think?”

  By the end of the evening Gabriel would plead indisposition, and flee to the library to seek out Miss Dwyer, his now daily respite from the bevy of eligible young women being thrown at him. They spent much of each day together, Gabriel helping her with her work, and enjoying the easy and wide-ranging conversations they always had.

  “Save me!” he would say, and she would laugh at him.

  “You seem to have a terrible time with young women.”

  “Have you talked to any of them?” he asked her, exasperated. “Where do they learn those things?”

  “Their conversation you mean?”

  “And to be so utterly self-effacing! It’s maddening. Talking to a mirror is more interesting.”

  “Don’t be too hard on them, Gabriel.” (They had dispensed with formality almost immediately.) “This is how girls are taught to behave to catch husbands. Was your wife not trained thus?”

  “She was not! You can say many things about Marianne but she was lively and interesting- we had endless clever conversation.”

  “She seems remarkable. I wonder that it did not work out.”

  “People are not always what they seem,” he said as he pulled an atlas over to the table where she had been reading when he walked in. “How is it you escaped?”

  “The training? My mother did try, but I am resistant to such teachings, and to artifice in general. She often said that I was the stupidest girl she’d ever known.”

  Gabriel was shocked. “Evy, you know that’s not so, don’t you?”

  She looked up and smiled, and in the candlelight she resembled a portrait by Vermeer, so golden and delicate, with a frankness of expression that made the other girls who had been paraded in front of him that week look almost unsavory. “What are you looking for?” she asked, nodding at the atlas.

  “Oh, nothing in particular. I find it eases my mind to pore over maps.

  “Why don’t we plan your trip?” She closed her book and moved closer to him. “Where will you begin?”

  “Um…” It took considerable force of will to turn his attention to the map. “Since we’re so close to Portsmouth, I thought to cross from there to Le Havre or Honfleur. Then I thought perhaps the Low Countries.” He traced the route with his finger. “And on into the German states, then to Austria, Bohemia… I thought to winter in Greece.”

  “Ah, on the Adriatic. What a wonderful trip.”

  There was a sudden, uncomfortable pause and Evy moved away. “I look forward to hearing about your trip when you return.”

  “I shall enjoy sharing my adventures with you.” In truth he half wished he could steal her away from Clarice and take her with him. She would make an amiable traveling companion.

  He also thought she would make a delightful bed partner, but tried not to follow that line of thought too closely.

  About ten days into his stay at Greylings, Clarice gave a party, and all the young ladies who had been trotted out for his inspection at previous events were there en masse. As he stood with Clarice, greeting the guests as they poured into the house, he whispered to her, “This has to stop.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “This matchmaking. Clarice, I’ve told you I have no interest in marrying again, and even if I did, the young women you’ve been parading in front of me are not my type.” He stopped to greet one of the local women and her daughters. “Hello, how nice to see you again, Mrs. Kincaid, Miss Kincaid, Miss Laura.” Once they’d moved off, he picked up without a lost beat. “They are the dullest young women I’ve ever met.” They suffered by comparison to Evaline was what he meant, though he did not say as much.

  “They’re nice girls, Gabriel.”

  “Nice is not enough to make me rethink my intention.”

  “What is?” she asked rather pointedly. “Vicar, how nice that you could attend. I had the cook make those little cakes you like so much. Well, only a small temptation,” she said playfully, waving the vicar into the main room. “Dear boy, most people are dull. But they’re good-hearted and pleasant. It’s foolish to expect more .”

  He knew he was being drawn into a false argument. “I expect nothing because I want nothing, Clarice. Please respect that.”

  “Your grandmother would never forgive me if I didn’t at least try. Make an effort.”

  Gabriel did make a small effort. He chatted with Laura Kincaid who was passionate about music, though much too young for him, not being out in society yet. And he danced with two other girls whose names he could not recall immediately after escorting them back to their mothers.

  He looked around for Evy, but didn’t see her anywhere. He hadn’t seen her all that night, so he went looking for her in their shared sanctuary. She was in the library reading.

  “Why are you not dancing?”

  “Why are you not?”

  “I have been. I’m worn out from small talk. What are you reading?”

  “John Donne. You know she’s doing this for you.”

  “I know. But again I say, why are you not out there?”

  “I am not one for parties. The dinners have been difficult enough with those girls looking at me as if I’m a servant who doesn’t know her place.”

  “I told you they were fools.” He took her hand and pulled her out of her chair. “But I insist on at least one dance with you, Miss Dwyer.”

  The strains of “Sir Roger de Coverly” drifted through from the ballroom, and Gabriel led Evaline into the dance. They improvised wildly to make up for the lack of other dancers, whirling around the library, helpless with laughter before the dance was halfway over, and collapsing breathless on the floor as the music faded away.

  “Oh… oh my,” Evaline gasped. That was…”

  “Wonderful?”

  “I was going to say overwhelming, but yes, wonderful to feel so madly free.”

  He couldn’t help it, he kissed her. And Evy kissed him back, her body pressed against his with frantic longing. Had good sense not reasserted itself there was no telling how far they might have gone. But Gabriel pulled away. “Evy, you know how it is with me. I can offer you no future.”

  She tried to pull him back into the embrace, but he got to his feet. He ached for her, but knew how wrong it would be to use her so cavalierly.

  “I expect nothing,” she said as she got to her feet. “My life is on a fixed path like yours, but the difference is that mine is not by my choosing.” She smoothed her hair and her gown. “I might find it easier to live that life if I could choose some of the stops along that path.”

  She went to move past him, but he caught hold of her arm and pulled her into an embrace. “You cannot know what life will bring you, Evy. I will not take from you such a treasure knowing that one day you may be forced to explain to your husband.” He faltered, and she looked up at him. Her expression was no longer open and frank, but disappointed.

  “I would not have a man if such a thing mattered to him. He would not respect who I am. Good evening, Gabriel,” she said and disengaged from his grasp.

  He watched her go with a sens
e that he had thrown away a great gift.

  Gabriel went back out to the ballroom and tried to be gracious to the anxious girls and their more anxious mothers, but his heart wasn’t in it until Evaline appeared, looking radiant and apologized to him.

  “The truth is a difficult thing,” she told him as he led her to the dance floor.

  “How so?”

  “To tell it would have made me appear unladylike. And yet it hardly matters for not only have I no prospects at all, but my behavior earlier has certainly marked me as unladylike. I have nothing to lose by explaining myself to you.”

  It was at that point that she was parted from him by the other dancers, and he had to wait until they returned to each other to hear what she had to say.

  “I did not want to attend this party tonight because I knew that Lady de Grey means for you to marry one of the girls here. And I was jealous.”

  Gabriel could hardly take it in. Jealous? “Of?”

  “Whoever your eye might light on. I shall be utterly forthright with you now and admit that I love you.”

  And again they were parted by the dance. Gabriel, shaken and disturbed by her admission, found himself forgetting steps and moving clumsily.

  “Evy,” he said as she returned to him. “How?”

  “If I knew I would have prevented it. It is my burden, Gabriel, not yours. But you had a right to know why my behavior tonight has been so untoward. If you are to think ill of me, you should know the reason why.”

  “I don’t think ill.” He groaned in frustration as the dancers swirled between them, and he glared at the young woman who briefly partnered him. She cringed and moved away as soon as she was able.

  As the dance ended, Evaline moved back to him, and curtsied.

  “I do not think ill of you,” he whispered. “Come with me.” He led her off the dance floor and back into the library where he pulled her close and kissed her.

  “I think you are the most remarkable woman I have ever met, but I am aware, more than most people, of the power of public humiliation. I would not, for the world, subject you to the disapproval of society.”

  By way of response, Evaline kissed him again, and Gabriel felt his resolve slipping away. He desired her. She was lovely and intelligent, and if he was being blunt, his sexual history since Marianne left him had been spotty and dissatisfying. He knew that what they were heading for was almost certainly a terrible mistake, and yet he ached for her.

  There seemed no way to deny what was happening between them. Evaline took his hand and led him to her rooms. “Give me a time to remember when I am old and alone, Gabriel. Give me memories that other women take for granted.”

  With clumsy fingers, they undressed each other, laughing over the endless layers until suddenly they stood before each other just as they had entered the world. It felt like a beginning to him as he lifted her and carried her to the bed. Her hair, freed from the pins that held it, rippled across the pillows in soft waves.

  Gabriel lay down beside her and caressed her lovely breasts. Evy sighed and laid a hand over his, urging it downward to the soft mound of her sex.

  “You’re sure?” he asked her again, and she nodded.

  “Never more sure of anything.”

  His fingers slipped between the lightly furred lips to touch the bump of her clitoris, and rubbed it slowly, making Evy cry out softly with the pleasure of it. Then he slipped two fingers into her cleft, and thrust gently. Marianne had taught him how it moistened and opened a woman, and he wanted this time to be perfect for Evaline.

  After a few minutes of such attentions, he knelt between her spread thighs, lifting her slightly and bending her legs upward. She had such a look of surprise on her face that he said, “It makes the passage easier.”

  “I love you for that care,” she whispered.

  As he penetrated her, he felt her tense, saw her face contort with what he supposed might be discomfort, and he asked if she needed him to stop.

  “No, no, it’s good. It’s just so… odd,” she breathed. “Please, I want this.”

  He continued his inward movement, slowly and carefully so as not to hurt her. She was wet, and the passage was easier than he feared it might be. Soon he was thrusting slowly, and Evy was panting, clearly hungry for this. It was a relief to Gabriel who allowed himself to relax into the act, taking her the way he would have taken Marianne, with vigorous thrusts of his cock, and a firm circular stimulation of her clitoris to bring her greater pleasure.

  He could feel her approaching her crisis and pumped harder, determined to bring her to orgasm so that she would know the ultimate pleasure the act could bring a woman. When he felt her finally losing all control and climaxing almost violently, her muscles milking his cock, he allowed himself to come, filling her with his seed.

  As he recovered himself he felt pangs of guilt. He should have withdrawn before his climax or at least waited until he could have procured a condom from the chemist. He had put her at terrible risk by being so careless, and he feared they might both suffer from it.

  And yet, he was still so enamored of her that he could not leave her bed. He slipped down to put his mouth to her sweet cunt, and licked her clean, his tongue tickling her most tender spots, arousing her again and giving her more orgasms with his mouth and hands. He found he could not get enough of pleasuring Evaline, of watching her slender body convulse with the sensations he drew from her, of hearing her sob with joy as he brought her to crisis over and over again.

  He even entered her again. Unprotected or not, he had to have her, had to feel her sheathing his penis, had to fill her with his semen. He had no power over the desire to become one with her and feel the waves of pleasure their union produced.

  They slept a little, and woke in each other’s arms. It had been years since Gabriel had known such contentment and he found himself wanting to prolong it. If they were careful, if he exercised common sense about how they made love, they could continue to enjoy each other with no one the wiser.

  He noted that Evy woke looking more beautiful than she had the night before. It was a kind of woman’s witchery and he loved her for it.

  “Are you well, my dear?”

  “Happier than I have ever been,” she replied, brushing the hair back from his forehead. “Thank you. I feel as if I have taken control of my life. You have given me some autonomy and I am grateful.”

  He did not know what to say. Her gratitude for something so simple embarrassed him.

  That very day Gabriel rode into town to procure some of the sheep’s membrane condoms. He was determined not to put Evaline at risk if he could help it. If something came of their first night together, they would deal with it, but exercising caution was something that would prevent any future accidents of nature.

  While he traveled, he asked himself why he was taking such chances. He was a man of honor and Evy was no common trull to be paid off and sent on her way should she quicken. If they made a child… The very thought sent odd frisson through him, something that felt like a combination of dread and excitement. If they made a child, he would do the right thing. He would marry the girl in spite of his determination never to wed again.

  Evy would make a good wife. She was an excellent companion with good conversation, and they were compatible in all ways, even in bed. While he feared giving his heart to another woman, he also felt that he could choose to marry for reasons other than love. He could wed someone like Evy who would be a help-meet, who would be a trusted companion and a mother to his children. He did not have to give his heart to her, just his name, and his friendship. More was a dream, even a nightmare when it turned out badly.

  He began to think seriously about marriage again, understanding that it would be different this time.

  He suffered through Clarice’s introductions and social events to keep up the pretense, but each night he joined Evy in her bed, and they explored the limits of their passion for each other. They were as cautious as two people could be who often found thems
elves in a frenzy of desire. Gabriel was satisfied that their affair was a secret, and that he still had time to think seriously about the future.

  About the time he had originally intended to leave Greylings, Benjamin wrote and said that he was on his way to Portsmouth, intending to travel to the continent on business, and would be stopping at Greylings to see if Gabriel wished to travel with him at least as far as Le Havre. Before Gabriel could answer, Benjamin had arrived.

  Lady de Grey was gracious to him even though she shared Grandmother Howard’s dislike of Benjamin. But she said that she and Evaline would be traveling up to London together on their own business, and that she was sorry she couldn’t play hostess. The message was clear to Gabriel, Clarice wanted Benjamin out of her house, and expected Gabriel to find a way to extract him.

  With both women gone, Greylings seemed to lose much of its brightness, but it was a relief not to be paraded in front of the eligible women of the area. He said as much to his cousin, more in jest than anything else.

  “Has she no sense?” Benjamin asked. “You’ve told her how it stands with you, have you not?”

  “She’s a woman of strong convictions.”

  “Stubborn, you mean.”

  “I suppose so.”

  “So no comely young woman took your fancy?” Benjamin asked as he poured himself another glass of brandy.

  Gabriel toyed with the idea of telling Benjamin about Evy, not about the affair, but about his feelings for her. He decided against it.

  And then Benjamin said, “What do you think of that wench that Lady de Grey is so taken with? The Dwyer girl? There’s a piece of work. Has she pulled the wool over the old woman’s eyes, or is Lady de Grey indifferent to the girl’s character?”

  Gabriel was taken aback. What was Benjamin saying about Evy? “What?”

  “Well… one hears stories.”

  “About?”

  “About her time in Weimar as a prince’s whore. I suppose it’s not entirely her fault,” Benjamin said in a conciliatory tone. “Liam Dwyer would have sold her for pub money, I reckon. She probably saw a chance to take care of her ailing father by spreading her legs for a prince. There are worse bargains, I’ll warrant. They lived well by all accounts.”