The Daring Duchess

by Paula Marshall

Overview

Sir Neville Fortescue MP comes from a long line ofrakes and hell-raisers—and he's determined to livea decent life. He certainly doesn't associate withwomen like the notoriously unconventional Diana, Duchess of Medbourne.

But when Neville and Diana are forced together tohelp a servant girl, they plunge into a shady worldof brothels, plots and murder. Neville realizesthat he has underestimated the beautiful youngwidow—and his own love of danger and adventure. Could staid Sir Neville be a fit match forthe Daring Duchess?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426803307
Publisher:	Harlequin
Publication date:	11/29/2022
Series:	Harlequin Historical Series , #215
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	261
Sales rank:	290,242
File size:	551 KB

Read an Excerpt

1819

Sir Neville Fortescue later thought that his whole life changed after he accidentally overheard two of his supposed friends talking about him at Lady Leominster's ball.

"Fortescue," Frank Hollis proclaimed to Henry Latimer. "Oh, no, I shouldn't trouble to ask Fortescue to make up the party for the Coal Hole. He's not a bad fellow, reliable and respectable, but dull, damned dull. Never put a foot wrong in his life. Virtue its own reward and all that. It bores me just to think of him, never mind doing the hobnob bit. He can neither hob nor nob."

"Slow and steady often wins the race, you know." "Depends on what race you're running in. He's spent five years in Parliament and he's not left the starting gate yet. No, let's forget him and talk of better things. What do you think of his cousin Alford's latest ladybird? Now there's a fellow who knows how to live. Let's ask him to join us."

The speakers moved away, leaving Sir Neville Fortescue MP to reflect glumly that listeners never heard any good of themselves. Not that what they had said had been particularly bad, rather that it was the wrong kind of good for him to be dismissed as merely a priggish bore. Even though he had no great opinion of Frank Hollis's ability to judge anyone correctly, his careless remarks stung him to the degree that he found himself in a simmering rage at being judged at all.

It would not have been so bad had he not, earlier that day, called on Harriet Beauchamp whom he rather thought would be a useful wife, and proposed to her. His widowed mother, who occasionally acted as his hostess, was constantly nagging at him over his failure to marry.

"A man in your position needs a wife," she frequently told him, and when he had mentioned to her that he had decided to ask Harriet to marry him, she had been overjoyed.

Well, Harriet was a pretty little woman, if a touch frivolous, but he and his mother both agreed that she would undoubtedly make him a very creditable wife, even if his mother would have preferred him to pop the question to Diana Rothwell, the Duke of Medbourne's enormously wealthy young widow who had descended on society last year. It was this that had made him suddenly decide that if he had to marry, Harriet would be a more suitable Lady Fortescue than Diana, the daring Dowager, who was as frank as any man and had the wit of the devil. She was, he was sure, the very last woman he would choose for a wife. He needed someone quiet and comfortable, whose conduct would always be proper.

Alas, he had done and said all those things which a man ought to do when proposing to a pretty young thing after speaking to her papa. To which Harriet had said, outwardly sorrowful, but inwardly pleased that her papa would support her in her refusal of him as he supported her in everything, "Oh, Neville, dear, I like having you as a friend, but I could never be your wife."

Neville, trapped on his knees, and having never thought for a moment that she would refuse him, exclaimed, a trifle indignantly, "Why ever not?"

Harriet looked down at him, and decided to tell him the truth. "When I marry I want to have some excitement in my life. You are so sure to do the correct thing at all times that I fear that our marriage would never have any."

He rose, reflecting that the tight breeches which were the current fashion, made prolonged kneeling painful, and replied a trifle stiffly, "I thought that most young ladies preferred a husband they could depend on."

"True, but you are so dependable that it makes you a trifle dull," she informed him tactlessly, "and I could not bear a dull married life. I am sure that you will find some nice but proper young lady who would make you a far better wife than me. You will still remain my friend, I hope. I am certain that if I ever needed any help you would always offer me the most excellent advice."

Neville's first instinct was to say, rather savagely, "On the contrary, I think that you ought to go to a good lawyer for that," but, as usual, he came out with something safe, but banal. "I'm sorry that you have seen fit to refuse me, Harriet, but rest assured that I shall always wish you well."

"There, I knew that you would not take offence at my refusal. You are much too good for that."

The something wild that lived inside Neville, but which he usually managed to suppress, had him on the verge of seizing hold of Harriet, and giving her a savage and prolonged kiss, before he retreated, snarling at her, "Was that exciting enough for you? Or do you wish me to go further?"

Of course he did no such thing. He had spent his whole life trying to be the opposite of his drunken and rake-hell father who had died in the arms of a lady of easy virtue. Only the fact that Neville's grandfather had, on her marriage, tied up his mother's inheritance so that her husband could not pillage it had prevented them both from being reduced to penury after his death.

It was just as well that his mother was spending the summer with her widowed sister in Surrey, for were she at home he would have had the painful duty of facing her reproaches for failing to convince Harriet that he would make her a good husband. Never mind that he did not particularly want to marry her—that had never entered his mother's consideration.

Harriet, he thought, driving away from his failure on the field of amorous battle, would be well served for her folly in wanting an exciting marriage if she ended up marrying someone like his father, Sir Carlton Fortescue, Baronet, and was then compelled to live in the misery that Sir Carlton had inflicted on both his wife and his son.

What he had not bargained for was that on the very same day, while attending the Leominsters'ball, he should overhear a pair of rakes describing him in language very similar to that which Harriet had used.

Was he so dull? Was it wrong to be virtuous and dull? Was it possible for one to be virtuous and exciting? Why was it that he should feel so offended by the sad fact that a pair of fellows whom he had thought were his friends were able to dismiss him so cavalierly? Was it possible that he might enjoy being a little less dull, still avoid the excesses of his father, but not appear to be the kind of prig whom the two men had laughed at and Harriet had dismissed?

It was useless. He was what he was, the first Fortescue for two hundred years to live a good life and not be a byword in both town and country for his escapades. He had become an MP in his mid-twenties and had always tried to fulfil his Parliamentary duties carefully and honestly—which was more than most of them could claim.

Neville walked back into the ballroom. He would take his leave of Lady Leominster, go home to try to forget what he had just heard and continue his orderly life no matter what others thought of him.

On the way to her, however, someone clapped a hand on his shoulder exclaiming, "The very man! Come and enjoy yourself for once, my dear Neville, by joining the party I'm assembling to move on to the Coal Hole when we've finished doing the pretty here. But before that, allow me to introduce you to Duchess Diana, who for some unknown reason claims that she is positively dying to meet you!"

It was his cousin, George, Lord Alford, with whom he had, earlier, been compared—to his own detriment. He winced a little. George was everything he was not: flashily handsome, dressed to kill, and determined to enjoy every moment of his life, whether he was with fast women, fast horses, betting in dubious gaming hells or racing his fast curricle to Brighton to win a bet. If Neville were a betting man, which he wasn't, he would have bet that George was running through his inheritance at the same speed as one of his better horses.

He had absolutely no wish to accompany him either to the Coal Hole or to be introduced to the Daring Duchess, as Diana had been nicknamed. From all he had heard of her she was as irresponsible as George: the very last woman he wanted either as a mistress or a wife.

"Now I really do doubt that, George—the Duchess Diana bit, I mean, and, no, I don't wish to oblige you on either count. I'm for home and my bed."

George Alford began to laugh. "You could oblige me, old fellow, if you would. I've bet Frank Hollis that I could persuade you to join us and I stand to lose a tidy sum if you refuse me."

Neville stared at him, remembering only too well Frank's unkind remarks about him. "Frank Hollis, eh?" he said at last. "In that case I will join you—but not for long."

"And Duchess Di, too. He also bet that you wouldn't agree to meet her."

"Did he, indeed? Yes, you may take me to her, but I don't promise to enjoy myself at either rendezvous."

"That's no matter. I'd like to see Frank's face when you make your bow to the lady and when you join us on the stroke of midnight to depart for pastures new."

Reluctantly, Neville allowed himself to be led by George to where Diana was holding court in one corner of the room, surrounded by admirers.

She had come upon the town with all the éclat and passion that Lady Caroline Lamb had once displayed. True, she was not so carelessly silly as Lady Caro, since she would have passed for a bluestocking had she cared to reveal that interesting fact. Instead, she frequently demonstrated that she not only had the power to charm all around her by her beauty, but that she was also able to enliven even the dullest function by her wit and originality of mind.

She played whist and chess as well as any man, her performance on the piano was masterly and it was whispered that she spoke three foreign languages. What was more, she had created a sensation in Hyde Park when she drove there in a curricle with two spirited horses that a man would have been proud to control and handled them perfectly.

Not only that, once, when out for a walk with the elderly cousin who was her chaperon, she had come upon a man brutally thrashing a dog. She had immediately demanded that he desist; when he refused, she had set about him with her parasol, calling on a passing gentleman—to whom, of course, she had never been introduced—to assist her in overcoming the man so that she might rescue the dog.

Fortunately, the gentleman proved to be more than that. He was Lord Vaux, a peer of impeccable lineage, fortune and behaviour, who promptly did as she bid him, before handing the fellow over to a passing constable. He then insisted on escorting both the ladies and the dog to Diana's home off Piccadilly. Two days later he proposed to her, but was refused.

He was not the only one who sought her hand—but she refused them all, both high and low, steady and rakish. It seemed that the catch of the season was determined not to be caught. Bets were laid at Watier's as to how many fellows would propose to her before the season was over. It was said that the count had already reached twenty and included Prince Adalbert of Eckstein Halsbach, a cousin of the Princess of Wales, and Neville was determined not to be added to the list, since she was exactly the kind of woman whom he most disliked.

Nevertheless, facing her while George introduced him, he was also, again reluctantly, aware that she was possessed of a rare beauty. He had seldom seen such glossily gorgeous raven hair, such heavenly blue eyes and such a shapely mouth, which seemed to have been especially designed for kissing.

Her toilette surprised him a little because it was so simple; her dress was a plain white, adorned with silk snowdrops, and her fan was small, not some great thing with which to strike at and tease a man. Most surprising of all, she wore no jewellery.

He was a little shocked by his immediate reaction to her when he took her delicate hand and bowed over it, saying, "A pleasure to meet you, Duchess." To his eternal surprise, he really meant what he was saying.

She was equally gallant, responding with, "And a pleasure to meet you, Sir Neville. I had been told that you are an extremely serious gentleman who might find such a flyaway creature as myself beneath your interest or consideration."

Flyaway, indeed! Without any real evidence to the contrary he thought that the lady was misnaming herself. There was a hint of the formidable about her, an attribute that many women in the ton had never possessed, or even aspired to. And why did he think that? This was a question that he put to himself later—and could not answer.

He tried not to appear too overset by saying, "I have heard nothing but praise of you, and I am indebted to my cousin George for persuading me to be introduced to you."

"So you needed persuading! That disappoints me a little." "Is that because," Neville replied, "you expect everyone to wish to be introduced to you as soon as possible?"

He was a little worried that he might have said something overtly critical to her, which might cause offence, but the lady was of sterner stuff than that.

"Indeed not. It is rather that when one is the latest unmarried and wealthy creature to come upon the town, every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks that they have the right to be introduced to her as soon as possible. It is refreshing to find someone who is a little reluctant to meet me—which is the impression that your cousin George left me with when we spoke of you."

By now they had moved through the crowd to the edge of the ballroom floor—or rather, Diana had skilfully urged him in that direction—so that he felt compelled to add when the band struck up the music for a quadrille, "If your programme is not already filled, Duchess, I would be honoured to escort you on to the floor. I have to add that I have not danced much of late so you must excuse me if I am occasionally clumsy."

"Well, I was, much earlier, engaged to dance it with a gentleman who has later asked to be excused as he had received a message of some urgency begging him to return home at once, so I shall be very happy to stand up with you," and she offered him her hand.

"Excellent." Neville bowed and they joined three couples who were busy making up a set, leaving behind them George Alford, his mouth agape, never having seen his strait-laced cousin on the dance floor before—and with the beauty of the season, too! He resolved to roast Neville until he was done to a turn when they were on the way to the Coal Hole since, of all things, that upright old Neville should be so struck by the Daring Duchess was the oddest.

He was nearly as surprised as his cousin was. Neville was too busy trying to keep up with the dance to explain to himself why he had allowed George to introduce him to the lady at all, and why he was so immediately struck by her, while she stepped through the dance with all the grace and elegance of a prima ballerina.

What neither of them knew was that Diana was nearly as favourably surprised by Sir Neville Fortescue as he was by her. She had heard him spoken of as a dull dog who, in Frank Hollis's words, "never deigned to join in the fun, his nose always stuck in some giant tome or other".

She had pictured him as short and ill-dressed: a stoop-shouldered bookworm, blinking at her through thick-glassed spectacles. Instead he was tall, athletic and, although not conventionally handsome after the fashion of Lord Byron, had a strong face, full of character. His chestnut hair, his green eyes and his stern mouth pleased her rather than otherwise. Nothing about him reeked of high fashion—he was, she thought, very much his own man.

The first time that she passed him in the dance she murmured, "Why have I never met you before?"

The second time, he replied, "I don't go out into society very often."

To which her riposte on the third was, "I think that is society's loss."

When they passed again he countered that with, "But my gain, perhaps?"

"Your gain?" she said, eyebrows raised. "I'm not sure." Frank Hollis, watching them, his jaw dropped in surprise, muttered to George Alford, "Is that really old Nev dancing—and with Duchess Di of all people? I thought that he never danced, just sat there, watching everyone, with a superior expression on his phiz."

George laughed at him, rather than laugh at himself for having misjudged his cousin a little. "Oh, it's Nev who's her latest victim. He took one look at her and practically dragged her on to the dance floor. What's more, he can dance as well, if not better than the rest of us: he just didn't care to before."

"Oh, that's Duchess Di all over," Frank grinned. "She has this strong effect on every man she meets. But who'd have thought she'd have caught Nev in her snares. Just goes to show, don't it. Best turn-up of the year, and no mistake."

Still turning and twisting to the music, Diana and Neville continued to address each other in what Diana thought afterwards was the oddest conversation that she had ever engaged in on a dance floor. Well into it, she said, daringly, "I would like to meet you again, Sir Neville, where we might pursue some of your notions more seriously. The dance floor is fit only for idle, if flattering, conversation, I fear."

To which, to his profound astonishment, Neville found himself saying, "Oh, if that is what is seemly, may I say how much I appreciate your toilette. No frills, no furbelows, no flashy jewellery, just your own good self, which needs no unnecessary adornment."

He was no more surprised than Diana herself. The slight mockery with which he had spoken pleased her more than a little. She had grown tired of grovelling flattery, addressed to her fortune more than to herself. One thing was plain to her, Sir Neville Fortescue was quite different from every other man she had met since she had arrived in London. For both of them the dance seemed to be over in a flash—time had somehow turned in on itself—and they had hardly bowed to one another at the beginning than they were bowing to one another at the end.

Neville escorted her off the dance floor, and after he had thanked her and shown her to her seat, moved away a little. He had no wish to monopolise her; more to the point, though, was that she disturbed him, and he was not sure why.

He was immediately accosted by a grinning George who exclaimed, "You old devil, you! I thought that you never danced, claimed that you didn't want to be introduced to Duchess Di, and once you had been, before I could propose myself for the quadrille, you had annexed her and were leading her out on to the floor to the manner born."

Neville found himself glaring at the talkative fool. "If you can't hold your tongue, George, I'll not come with you to the Coal Hole and then you'll lose the other half of your bet. What I do, or care not to do, is my business, not yours."