Read Online The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn - Free Book Online Page A

dawn. But no, he had to get drunk the night before, and then he had to ride out to that bloody castle. And then he’d seen her .
    If he hadn’t seen her , he would never have remainedat the end of the drive for so long. And then he wouldn’t have ridden off with such speed. And had to rest and water his mount.
    And he certainly wouldn’t have been standing by the trough like a bloody bull’s-eye when someone attacked him from behind.
    â€œBind him,” a gruff voice said.
    It was enough to set every pore in his body into fighting mode. A man did not spend his life so close to the noose without preparing for those two words.
    It didn’t matter that he couldn’t see. It didn’t matter that he had no idea who they were or why they’d come for him. He fought. And he knew how to fight, clean and dirty. But there were three of them at least, possibly more, and he managed only two good punches before he was facedown in the dirt, his hands yanked behind his back and bound with…
    Well, it wasn’t rope. Almost felt like silk, truth be told.
    â€œSorry,” one of his captors mumbled, which was odd. Men in the business of tying up other men rarely thought to offer apologies.
    â€œThink nothing of it,” Jack returned, then cursed himself for his insolence. All his little quip earned him was a mouth full of burlap dust.
    â€œThis way,” someone said, helping him to his feet.
    And Jack could do nothing but obey.
    â€œEr, if you please,” the first voice said—the one who’d ordered him bound.
    â€œCare to tell me where I’m going?” Jack inquired.
    There was quite a bit of hemming and hawing. Minions. These were minions. He sighed. Minions never knew the important things.
    â€œEr, can you step up?”
    And then, before Jack could oblige, or even say, “Beg pardon,” he was roughly hoisted into the air and tumbled into what had to be a carriage.
    â€œPut him on a seat,” a voice barked. He knew that voice. It was the old lady. His grandmother.
    Well, at least he wasn’t off to be hanged.
    â€œDon’t suppose someone will see to my horse,” Jack said.
    â€œSee to his horse,” the old lady snapped.
    Jack allowed himself to be moved onto a seat, not a particularly easy maneuver, bound and blindfolded as he was.
    â€œDon’t suppose you’ll untie my hands,” he said.
    â€œI’m not stupid,” was the old lady’s reply.
    â€œNo,” he said with a false sigh. “I didn’t think you were. Beauty and stupidity never go as hand in hand as one might wish.”
    â€œI am sorry I had to take you this way,” the old lady said. “But you left me no choice.”
    â€œNo choice,” Jack mused. “Yes, of course. Because I’ve done so much to escape your clutches up to now.”
    â€œIf you had intended to call upon me,” the old lady said sharply, “you would not have ridden off earlier this afternoon.”
    Jack felt himself smile mockingly. “She told you, then,” he said, wondering why he’d thought she might not.
    â€œMiss Eversleigh?”
    So that was her name.
    â€œShe had no choice,” the old lady said dismissively, as if the wishes of Miss Eversleigh were something she rarely considered.
    And then Jack felt it. A slight brush of air beside him. A faint rustle of movement.
    She was there. The elusive Miss Eversleigh. The silent Miss Eversleigh.
    The delicious Miss Eversleigh.
    â€œRemove his hood,” he heard his grandmother order. “You’re going to suffocate him.”
    Jack waited patiently, affixing a lazy smile onto his face—it was not, after all, the expression they would expect, and thus the one he most wished to display. He heard her make a noise—Miss Eversleigh, that was. It wasn’t a sigh exactly, and not a groan, either. It was something he couldn’t quite place. Weary resignation, perhaps. Or