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The Duke of Clapton stood there, a tall shadow in the flickering candlelight, his expression shadowed. He glanced around the library, taking in every detail.

“You disappeared rather abruptly, Miss Belmont,” he remarked, closing the door behind him with a resoundingclick.

“Perhaps I wished to be alone.”

“Perhaps you did. But I would like to speak to you all the same.”

CHAPTER10

“Well,” Emily remarked, after the silence had sat heavily between them for a moment or two, “if you’re attempting to try and compromise my honor and therefore force me to marry you, you’re wasting your time.”

The duke chuckled. “Heavens, no. That would be cheating.”

She pressed her lips together. “Cheating? Do you think this is a game?”

He shrugged. “All of life is a game.”

“No, it is not.”

“As you wish. I shan’t argue with you. It’s bad manners to contradict a lady. I merely came to ensure that you were safe and well, Miss Belmont. You disappeared rather abruptly. And I am not sure that it is entirely proper to delve so very deeply into one’s hosts’ home.”

Emily flinched a little at his not-so-gentle remark. Of course, itwasn’tappropriate to go wandering in a house that wasn’t her own. In some homes, footmen would be posted outside various rooms and passageways that were meant to be left alone.

“Beatrice is a family friend,” Emily responded sharply. “I’ve been here more times than I can recall. I know she won’t be upset.You, however, have no such excuse.”

He grinned, unrepentant.

The duke showed no signs of taking his leave. Instead, he strolled around the room, scanning the spines of the books just as she had, running one long finger along the shelves.

To her annoyance, Emily found her gaze following the infuriating man around the room.

There was a sort of easy elegance in everything he did. Emily, for her part, always considered herself to be rather clumsy. She dropped things, she trod on the hem of her skirt, she tripped coming up or down the stairs, and so on. It was hard not to admire the duke’s easy deportment.

No! No, it is not easy! I don’t admire him. At all. At the end of these five nights, I’ll have decided not to marry him. Yes, that’s the easiest choice, and the most obvious one. He will simply find somebody else, and I will just resign myself to a life of spinsterhood.

“What book are you reading?” the duke asked abruptly.

She flinched, jolted out of her reverie. “Hm? What?”

He smiled faintly. “Your book. Which is it?”

“Oh, it isFrankenstein.I don’t imagine you’ve read it.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And why would I not have read it?”

She flushed, feeling a little foolish. “Well, I never thought you were the type of man to enjoy novels.”

“You are wrong, Miss Belmont. Mrs. Radcliffe is one of my favorite authors. And IhavereadFrankenstein. What is more, I subscribe to the theory that the author is, in fact, a woman.”

Now,thatwasinteresting.

Emily leaned forward. The duke was not looking at her. He was half turned away, still scanning the bookshelves, but she had a curious sensation that he wasawareof her, even so.

“Oh? Well, that is interesting. I haven’t begun the book yet, so I couldn’t say either way. What makes you think a woman wroteFrankenstein?”

The duke grinned absently. “Several things, but there is one line in particular that I have committed to memory.‘I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine, and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.’”

Emily blinked, a little taken aback. “You make the story sound like a tragedy.”