The Duchess Deal: Girl Meets Duke

“A name. Does the cat have one?” “Oh. Yes. Breeches. His name is Breeches.” “Breeches?” “Isn’t that what I said?”

He laughed. “You’re a vicar’s daughter. You can’t know what it is to hate anyone.” “Oh, yes, I can.” Her hands curled into fists. She growled. “I could strangle the woman.”

“Lady Penny is a vegetarian,” Miss Teague said. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.” “She doesn’t eat meat,” Emma said. He paused. “I still don’t understand.”

Ash startled, flung the walking stick aside in a stupid attempt to dispose of the evidence, and then stood motionless as his beaver hat plummeted toward the earth out of nowhere, glancing off his shoulder before crashing to the floor. It must have looked as though he’d been the target of some sort of lightning bolt from Olympus, only a more fashion

A young woman in white strode into the room. His boot slipped from the desk. He reeled backward and collided with the wall, nearly falling off his chair. A folio of papers tumbled from a nearby shelf, drifting to the floor like snowflakes.

“Don’t worry. You’ve survived worse.” “Yes. I suppose I have.” He smiled that slow, one-sided smile she’d come to adore.

“You are the veriest varlet that ever took to the pulpit. Doesn’t your Holy Bible have something to say about forgiveness?” The man cowered in silence. “No, truly. I’m asking. Doesn’t it? I’m a demon, I don’t read the thing.”

No one moved. “Yes, I know,” he said impatiently, turning the scarred side of his face to the room. “Faulty rocket at Waterloo. You have precisely three seconds to move past it. One. Two. Right. Now where is my wife?”

“Your Grace, you wouldn’t know a love match if it punched you in the stomach.” The butler plunked the basket of cricket balls at Ash’s feet. “Dodge.” “What?” Thwack. Khan dealt him a solid blow to the gut. Ash doubled over.