Read Online An Ideal Duchess by Evangeline Holland - Free Book Online Page B

her fingers and whispering pleasepleaseplease as the ball rolled lazily across the lawn. She let out a small whoop! when the ball knocked against the side of the arch and then spun beneath it, rolling to a halt just beyond His Grace’s ball. She turned to find herself under the duke’s intense scrutiny, and felt her insides wobble a bit, from a disconcerting wave of attraction. She turned away when Mr. Challoner approached, idly swinging his mallet at his side.
                  “I say, this isn’t fair at all,” He stuck his mallet into the ground and leaned against it. “The two best players shouldn’t be paired together.”
                  “I’m handicapped already,” The duke said lightly, gesturing towards his sling.
                  “It doesn’t seem to hamper you from hitting the balls into the bridge, isn’t that right, Vi?”
                  Amanda noticed the girl standing quietly behind Mr. Challoner, her eyes lowered to her mallet. Something seemed to shift in His Grace’s attitude, and she glanced at him to see that his attention had turned to the girl. Amanda’s second perusal of her was much more careful, quickly cataloging her nondescript brown hair, plain shirtwaist and navy skirt. Her face was thin and long, her nose and mouth sharp horizontal and vertical slashes—respectively—in a complexion devoid of color, but Amanda revised her initial assessment when the girl blinked and looked at her, revealing eyes of a deep, startling violet hue.
                  “We could always switch our partners again,” Her voice was sweet and light, possessing the clipped vowels and drawl instinctively identified as “aristocratic”.
                  “Or,” Amanda smiled warily at the girl. “We could always switch everyone’s partners around.”
                  “Now that’s a rum idea!” Mr. Challoner said. “Vi, you go with Miss Vandewater, and Bron and I shall pair up with Ego and Miss Vandewater’s brother Lulu.”
                  “It’s rather late in the game to switch around, Bim,” The duke said.
                  “Nonsense! Vi came in late, and no one said a word,” Mr. Challoner clapped him on the shoulder and began leading him away. “Now, who do you want? Lulu—that demon spawn from New York? Or Ego Charteris?”
                  Amanda glanced at the girl as Mr. Challoner and the duke walked off in search of their new partners, shrugged lightly and extended her hand to her. “I don’t believe we have been properly introduced—I am Amanda Vandewater.”
                  The girl’s handshake was limp and as disinterested as her gaze was. “I am merely the Duchess of Malvern’s companion.”
                  “You do have a name, don’t you?” Amanda tilted her head. “They don’t call you ‘companion’.”
                  “Viola Townsend,” The girl said tersely. “And yes, I am a relation to the family.”
                  Amanda stared after Viola Townsend as the girl stalked off after the players, taken aback by her swift change in attitude. She hastened after her, and soon, found herself engaged in another game, this one much more subtle and bewildering, when the croquet match started all over again with everyone’s new partners. Viola was a competent, if unimaginative player, with an annoying tendency to hem and haw before taking the safest shots. Amanda noticed many of the idle spectators around the croquet game had dispersed towards the refreshment table or towards the regimental band playing merry, if unfamiliar, tunes on the bandstand. She turned back to Viola to find her finally lining up the mallet with the ball and swinging.
                  The ball rolled wildly across the lawn, far, far away from the target bridge and into the hedge bordering the west end of the