Read Online The Duke's Men [1] What the Duke Desires by Sabrina Jeffries - Free Book Online Page A

it, no, I cannot change my accent.
     Unlike you, I’m unaccustomed to playing a role.”
    Was that supposed to be an insult—implying yet again that she and her family were
     devious? “What do you mean—‘unlike you’? Do you think I play roles routinely?”
    “You must,” he said dryly. “You seem to think it the easiest thing in the world.”
    “Oh,” she said, slightly mollified. “Well, it is. My mother was an actress, you know.”
    “Have you ever done any acting yourself?”
    She colored. “No, but I know all the techniques. I spent years helping Maman prepare
     for her roles.”
    And she’d always wanted to be an agent for Vidocq, to pretend to be someone else while
     traveling to exotic places and infiltrating the highest and lowest levels of society.
     To be a spy. It sounded very exciting.
    He was watching her now, his gaze hooded. “All thesame, no one will ever believe that you and I are brother and sister. We sound too
     different, look too different.” His voice dropped to a rough thrum. “And I can assure
     you, I will never be able to treat you like a sister.”
    That got her dander up again. “Because I’m too far beneath you?”
    “Because you’re too beautiful.” When she stiffened, he added ruefully, “I can’t pretend
     I don’t notice. And the last time I checked, brothers weren’t supposed to notice such
     things about their sisters.”
    The bald statement threw her off guard and made a stealthy warmth creep under her
     defenses. She steeled herself against it. He was probably using flattery to try to
     get his own way, since blustering hadn’t worked. Obviously he thought she would melt
     at the idea of being thought beautiful by a duke. Then she would relent in her plans.
    Arrogant beast. “It doesn’t matter if people believe it. As long as they don’t know
     who we really are, they can speculate all they want. We are two relatively anonymous
     travelers. No one will ever connect the real me to the real you. Hardly anyone knows me anyway. I only returned to England six months ago.”
    He cocked his head to one side. “Yet you backed out of the doorway to keep your neighbors
     from seeing you speaking to me in your night rail and wrapper.”
    A blush heated her cheeks. “That’s different. I can’t have my neighbors gossiping
     about me, because it would reflect badly on Manton’s Investigations.”
    “Exactly,” he drawled.
    “But my neighbors won’t be taking the coach to Brighton or the packet boat to Dieppe.
     As long as I don’t join you in your coach to travel to the Golden Cross Inn, no one
     will be the wiser. We’ll arrive there separately and let Shaw deal with my neighbors.
     He’s good at telling tales. He actually is a professional actor.”
    “Your butler is an actor?” he said incredulously.
    “Well, he’s not exactly a butler, more like a jack of all trades. But he’s an excellent
     actor. So you see, there’s nothing to worry about.”
    “Right.” He lifted his gaze heavenward. “Just the possibility of disaster when either
     you or I let something slip that unmasks us.”
    “Come now, Your Grace, think of it as an adventure,” she said firmly. He was not going to talk her out of this. “It sounds as if you could use one, quite frankly.”
    He shot her an arch glance.
    “The coach from the Golden Cross will land us at the coast well before midnight,”
     she continued, “and we can be up at dawn to take the packet for Dieppe.”
    “Can we indeed?” he said dryly.
    She ignored him, determined to have her way in this. “I know that leaving at two allows
     us only a few hours to pack, but you won’t want to take much with you anyway—just
     Dom’s clothes and a few essentials. Nothing fancy that will call attention to yourself.
     And no big trunk, either—public coaches don’t have room for such.” She walked to the
     window. “You mustn’t show up at the inn in your coach either, or—”
    “You’re forgetting one