Read Online Celeste Bradley - [Heiress Brides 03] by Duke Most Wanted - Free Book Online

her head. “But . . . you helped Phoebe and Deirdre already!”
    He leaned one hip back on his desk and folded his arms. “And I charged them very well for it, too!” He smiled confidently. “It was worth every penny.” Then he tilted his head. “Furthermore, I thought perhaps if you saw what I could do for them that someday you might come to ask what I could do for you.”
    She smiled. “And perhaps you overcharged Lord Brookhaven just a tad, just in case?”
    Lementeur laughed and kissed her hand. “Sofia, you are priceless.”
    “Oh, no.” She shook her head. “I am just Sophie.”
    He caught her chin in his fingers, his gaze suddenly serious and just a bit too intense for comfort. Who was this man, really? “My love, my muse, my darling,” he said softly and sternly. “If you ever call yourself ‘just Sophie’ again, I will wash my hands of you, do you understand? That and only that will send me packing forever.”
    She blinked wide eyes at him. He was mad. Then hope tingled anew. “Mad” might be precisely what was required.
    He released her and straightened. “You are, from this moment forward, to be known far and wide as ‘that stunning Miss Sofia Blake.’ Now, we will need some time, and an invitation of appropriate weight and countenance—which I can easily arrange—and you must be completely available to me for . . .” He eyed her slumping posture. “A while.”
    Sophie straightened self-consciously. “I haven’t alwaysdone so,” she mumbled. “I simply felt so tall around—around London ladies.”
    Lementeur pursed his lips. “You are rather too polite, my dear. Let me be clear. Lady Tessa is a well-known shrew. No one likes her, not even her alleged friends. Besides, I know for a fact that she has always longed for some height. I might venture a guess that she is actually jealous of your stature.”
    Tessa jealous? Of
her?
How very . . .
    Delightful
.
    Sophie allowed her lips to curve in a slow, unfamiliar smile of satisfaction as she straightened to her full inches and gazed serenely down at the top of Lementeur’s head. “Is that better?”
    He matched her cat-who-swallowed-the-cream gaze and doubled it, approval shining from his face. “That is
perfect
.”

Chapter Six
    John Herbert Fortescue was a free man, servant to no master . . . at least temporarily. His employers, the Marquis of Brookhaven and his bride, were attending the elderly Duke of Brookmoor. For the moment, Fortescue, butler to Brookhaven, could pretend to be an ordinary fellow, spending an evening with an extraordinary girl.
    If the atmosphere of his office in great Brook House was rather more that of a classroom, that was because he’d taken on the task of teaching Miss Patricia O’Malley to read. The fact that, as butler and head of staff of Brook House, he had not a moment to spare had been dismissed without a thought.
    He caught a glimpse of himself in the gleaming silver vase on the mantel—and quickly wiped away the besotted smile that kept crossing his face when he forgot to pay attention to his usual dignified demeanor. He was one of the highest of the high, by God, of the vast servant class of England. He had best retain his somber demeanor or he’d soon lose his post!
    With an effort, he returned his reflection to its normalhaughty, chiseled state and quickly smoothed the silver streaks at his temples that gave people such a top-drawer impression. He’d earned every one of them through hard work and years of service—years that he sometimes wished he hadn’t wasted so.
    There. Back to normal. He glanced down to see if Patricia had noticed his distraction with his own reflection, but she was bent studiously over her work on the desk, pencil scratching steadily. Such a lovely girl. Such a pity no one had thought to educate her before now. Still she was young—
too young for you and you know it!
—and she’d shown a remarkable aptitude for her work, so her ladyship had asked Fortescue to see to