Read Online The Hazards Of Hunting A Duke by Julia London - Free Book Online Page A

earth was not a fortune, but the freedom
    to be who he was.
    Yet the duke had raised the stakes with his latest threat.
    “I have considered it,” he said simply, and meant to say something more, but a sound brought his head up
    —a laugh, a word, he wasn’t certain what —but his gaze landed squarely on the woman with blond hair and pale green eyes.
    Fair…Fair
    …Fair-something.
    He could not bring her name to mind, but he remembered her quite clearly. She was in the company of two young women who resembled her, and all three of them were dressed in the black bombazine of mourning.
    “Her name,” Jared said, taking in their black gowns. “I don’t recall it.” “Fairchild,”
    Harrison offered.
    Fairchild, of course. Lady Ava Fairchild. “Who p assed?”
    “Her mother, Lady Downey,” Harrison replied, and glanced at Jared from the corner of his eye. “You should pay more attention to the society pages, Middleton. Occasionally, there is an interesting on dit about someone other than you.”
    “Astonishing.”
    Harrison chuckled and looked again at the three young women walking toward them. “I have heard that
    Lady Downey died suddenly and without provision for the fortune she’d brought to the marriage. By law,
    it reverted to Lord Downey. Unfortunately, that h as left the three of them somewhat destitute, save a small dowry for each of them. It’s a pity, really, for they seem to be agreeable young women—yet I daresay the lack of fortune won’t help them in the marriage mart this Season.”
    “Perhaps,” Jared said th oughtfully. “But there are some men among us who don’t care a whit for fortune
    —yourself included,” he remarked, glancing at his friend.
    Harrison laughed. “Ah, but I’ve neither a father pushing me to wed a fortune nor a fortune so entailed that
    I must wed for money, as Stanhope will likely do one day,” he said, referring to the fact that Stanhope’s
    fortune was entailed to the hilt, leaving to him very little real income. “As my circumstances stand, I have
    the luxury of time to wait for the perfec t wife.”
    The perfect wife. Jared snorted. The perfect wife, to his way of thinking, had little to do with fortune. The perfect wife would be a comely woman with an agreeable personality and a lusty appetite in his bed. She would have a sufficiently high b irth to satisfy his father, but for God’s sake, without a fortune so large as Lady Elizabeth as to necessitate what felt like the joining of nations. And she would be an orphan if he had his way, so that she would not have dreadfully dull parents who could fill an entire hour of conversation with talk of repairs made to the east wing —
    A jarring thought suddenly occurred to Jared and he looked at Ava Fairchild again. A moment later, he abruptly swung off his horse.
    “What are you about?” Harrison asked.
    “Bloody hell if I know,” Jared muttered, and stepped into the path as the women came upon them.
    Ava Fairchild, deep in conversation with her companions, glanced briefly at him, then jerked her gaze up again, the surprise of recognition glimmering in her eye s. He was instantly and rather warmly reminded of those lovely green eyes in far more intimate circumstances.
    That sultry, seductive kiss in his carriage —what had it been, almost a year ago? —had been an impetuous
    act just like dozens before it, nothing mo re than a bit of harmless flirtation. But looking at her now—the
    faint blush in her cheeks, the clear green eyes, the blond hair peeking out from beneath her black bonnet,
    he recalled that the kiss had stayed with him well into the next day because she’d b een so…delightfully fervent about it.
    He bowed. She blinked and looked nervously about. He lifted a quizzical brow as he put his hand out to receive hers. She managed to gather her wits and stepped forward to give him her hand.
    “Good afternoon, my lord,” she said, curtsying.
    “It is a pleasure to see you again, Lady