Read Online How to Entice an Enchantress by Karen Hawkins - Free Book Online

finally said, “Yes, but it won’t be easy. There’s much to overcome and not much time in which to do it.”
    He looked down at his hand, clenched about the cane knob. Hope. That’s all I have. But if there is even the smallest chance . . . He sighed. “Fine. I will do what I can to make it so.”
    “Excellent. Charlotte and I shall come up with a plot to allow you some time to speak with Miss Balfour. You, meanwhile, will find a compliment or two you can pay that poor girl.”
    “Oh yes,” Lady Charlotte agreed. “You owe her some compliments.”
    “Flowers, too,” her grace added.
    “And a poem, if you can find the time to write one.”
    “A poem?”
    Lady Charlotte nodded. “Yes, but not about her eyes. Everyone writes about a woman’s eyes, and really, what can be said other than they shine like a lamp or a star or—”
    “Hold. I don’t write poetry.”
    “No? That’s a pity, for if you were to write a poem about her mouth or her hair or— It would be the very thing, I’m certain of it.” Lady Charlotte peeped hopefully at him. “Are you absolutely certain you can’t write a poem, even a short one?”
    “Bloody hell, no!” Catching the duchess’s suddenly stern gaze, he swallowed a growl. “Tomorrow, after I’ve some time to think it through, I’ll ask MacCreedy to procure some flowers. I’m sure I can thinkof a compliment or two, as well. But the poetry—damn it. It’s not in me to write an ode.”
    “That’s a great deal too bad.” Lady Charlotte looked mournful.
    “You might at least try to write one,” her grace said calmly. “Not for tonight, of course. However, there’s plenty of time between now and tomorrow’s dinner.”
    His shoulders ached as if every word they’d said were weighing them down. With a sigh, Kirk rubbed a hand over his face. “Good God, is there to be no end to this?”
    “Oh, there will be an end,” her grace said, a sharp note in her voice. “Hopefully it will consist of a proposal and a happy acceptance. That is what you wanted, isn’t it?”
    For one sweet moment, he imagined Dahlia as she’d once been, smiling at him, talking about the last book she’d read, sharing secrets with such open trust— His heart ached at the thought. It’s been so long since she’s smiled at me. Every day seems a year. “Fine. I’ll see what I can do, but don’t expect a miracle.”
    “We won’t expect anything except your best effort.” The duchess noted the darkness in Lord Kirk’s eyes, and once again she wondered how entangled his heart had become. He was such an enigmatic man that it was difficult to tell. “Have heart, Alasdair. This may be a difficult case, but it is far from hopeless.”
    His gaze locked with hers and for a moment she thought he might admit his true feelings, but then he muttered something about needing to soak his aching leg, bowed, and limped from the room.
    As the door closed behind him, Charlotte blew out her breath in a huge whoosh. “Goodness! That didn’t go the way we’d wished.”
    “No. He was very bad for not telling us all. What a horrid history!”
    “They have much to overcome.”
    “Yes, they do. Both of them, I think.”
    Charlotte dropped into a chair. “Do you really think there’s hope?”
    “Yes. I would never waste our time.”
    “I thought perhaps you were just saying that to be kind.”
    “There were some positive moments.”
    “There were?” Charlotte blinked. “When?”
    “Miss Balfour had quite a positive reaction on seeing Kirk’s transformation. She stared at him as if fascinated.” Margaret picked up Randolph and took the chair next to Charlotte’s. “I think our Beauty is more taken with our Beast than she realizes.”
    Charlotte nodded thoughtfully.
    “Now we need to provide her with more reasons to be so.” Margaret patted Randolph absently. “What would a young lady in love with love wish to see in a suitor? Hmm . . .” After a long moment, she stiffened. “That might