Read Online Celeste Bradley - [Heiress Brides 01] by Desperately Seeking a Duke - Free Book Online Page A

marquis. The vicar, who seemed in near ecstasy over the engagement, would never be so offensive—unless there was something very wrong with Marbrook.
    “Rake.” Phoebe heard the word clearly in Tessa’s distinctive hiss, the tone she kept for the very tastiest—and most unseemly—shreds of gossip. “Degenerate.”

    No. And yet …
    He’d not denied it when she’d asked him if he was a rake. He’d only smiled.
    And hadn’t she herself sensed that he was somehow not quite respectable? After all, to whisk her off onto the terrace without introduction—
    He had rescued her. She was still grateful for that.
    “Scandal follows Marbrook like a faithful hound,” was Tessa’s final triumphant hiss on the matter.
    Scandal.

Chapter Nine
    As Phoebe sat next to the man who had made her father so happy, she had the breathless sensation that she’d very nearly been run down by a racing cart—and had only just been snatched from beneath its wheels.
    How fortunate she was. She had almost faltered for the wrong man. Again.
    Old shame engulfed her. Not shame for her ruination, but the crushing feeling that there must be something wrong with her that she could be so gullible.
    “—I assure you that there is nothing to worry about,” Brookhaven was saying with strange lack of emphasis. “The young ladies will be utterly safe in Brook House.”
    Safe from Marbrook. As if he were a mad dog, prone to biting the unwary.
    Brookhaven stood. “I shall send my staff immediately to take the house in hand.” He turned to Phoebe. “I have informed Lementeur that you will need one gown immediately. I wish to set matters in motion at once with a dinner party at Brook House tonight. My brother and I—” His eyes flickered toward the vicar. “We shall gather a select group of friends for you to meet.”
    “Tonight?” Phoebe spoke without thinking. “Who will come on such short notice?”

    Brookhaven looked at her oddly. “They will come if I invite them.”
    Phoebe withdrew. “Oh, yes. Of course.” She must remember to whom it was she spoke. A marquis need not worry if his guests had other plans for their evening.
    Or if she’d had other plans for her life.
    RAFE WAITED FOR Calder in the Brookhaven carriage parked outside the house where Miss Phoebe Millbury lived with her aunt and cousins. He’d come here to speak to Calder, not to catch a glimpse of Phoebe, of course.
    The fact that he couldn’t keep his eyes off the front of the house made him feel like a fool.
    He’d come to a decision. He had decided to leave for … well, somewhere as far from the new Lady Brookhaven as he could manage. The Americas might do, or Africa. He hadn’t coin for the passage, but he had a few things of value that were becoming worth less and less to him by the moment.
    In any event, he would be gone just after the wedding, before Milady moved in. That was important. He didn’t want to think about why.
    By the time Calder came out, Rafe had concocted and thrown out a thousand ways to broach the topic of his departure. All made him look capricious in the extreme. Such was his desperation that he was beginning not to care.
    Calder entered the carriage without more surprise than a raised brow at Rafe’s presence there. “I thought you’d make yourself scarce as usual so I can’t ask you to accompany me somewhere.”
    Rafe gazed at his brother, lifelong fondness and hatred warring in his heart. “You look different.”
    Calder smiled slightly. “I noticed last night that Miss Millbury had a preference for green, so I sought out this waistcoat from my wardrobe. Do you think she noticed?”

    Rafe watched in surprise and a bit of awe as his brother actually tugged self-consciously at his weskit. “You truly care?”
    The mere twist of the lips that passed for a smile on Calder did not fade. “She is a pleasing girl. I thought I’d best do a bit of pleasing in return.”
    The fact that his brother was actually happy about his