Page 5 of A Duke to Undo her (The Husband Hunt #1)

Chapter Three

“Let’s go to the park today,” Josephine urged without preamble as soon as she sat down at the Elmridge House breakfast table, dressed but with her autumnal hair still unbrushed and unstyled, only tied back loosely over one shoulder.

“What do you think, Vera dear? Shall we walk in the park after breakfast?” asked Norman, Lord Eldridge, looking over the top of his newspaper towards his wife who was perusing invitation cards on the other side of the table.

“It seems a good idea of Josephine’s, doesn’t it? There isn’t a cloud in the sky.”

Josephine’s family were quite accustomed to her impulsive words and actions and neither Vera nor Norman seemed surprised at her manner of speaking.

“Hmmm. A walk in the park?” Vera repeated with a thoughtful smile. “Yes, why don’t we go Hyde Park and then we can drop in on Lady Broadley who lives only a street away from there…”

“No, St. James’s Park,” Josephine interrupted impatiently. “I meant to say that we must go for a walk in St. James’s Park this morning. I insist. We can go to Hyde Park and call on Lady Broadley tomorrow.”

Vera and Norman now looked at one another across the breakfast table, mystified but entertained by Josephine’s particular keenness to visit one park over another.

“Must we? Very well, if you wish it, dear,” Vera told her younger sister. “I like St. James’s Park well enough too. Is something special happening there?”

“It is only that Benedict Emerton said he would be walking there this morning and I do want to see him again,” admitted Josephine brightly.

Lord Elmridge laughed at this candid and very understandable explanation. Josephine had chattered about Benedict Emerton, his elegant outfitting and his dancing skills all the way home from the Silverton ball earlier that week.

Her older relatives found Josephine’s innocent enthusiasm for the young man amusing but had not taken it very seriously, even when she declared that she believed herself in love.

Nor had they paid much attention to her scathing remarks about Benedict’s brother, the Duke of Ashbourne, who seemed to play equally on her mind, if in a very different manner.

“Mr. Emerton is a very personable young man, and well-connected too,” Norman commented. “I see no harm in manufacturing another encounter. What do you think, Vera?”

“Yes, I talked to him at the Silverton ball,” returned his wife with an indulgent smile towards Josephine.

“I too found Mr. Emerton most polite and amiable, and I do believe he had almost as much energy as Josephine on the dance floor. It’s hard to believe he’s the Duke of Ashbourne’s younger brother, isn’t it? ”

“Those two brothers are like night and day,” Lord Elmridge remarked, nodding. “One dark and the other fair, one playful and the other serious.”

“Mr. Emerton and I danced four times at the Silverton ball,” Josephine reminisced happily. “He never trod on my toes once and he didn’t seem to have a hair out of place, even after the hornpipe.”

“Unlike you, darling,” laughed Vera, reaching out to stroke her little sister’s untamed locks. “Your hair seems to have a life of its own.”

“Never trod once on your toes? Well, there’s a recommendation any young man should be proud of,” Norman added with a smile, folding up his newspaper. “I’ll arrange the carriage.”

Josephine gave thanks and hurried off to prepare for their outing.

How wonderful it would be to be married.

If she were Mrs. Benedict Emerton her family and the world would finally have to treat her with respect at last. No one would try to dress her up like a doll, fuss over her, or whisper hurtful remarks in corners.

The romance of her meeting with Benedict Emerton was her inspiration for such fantasies, having spent so many happy hours immersed in the world of fictional love stories.

Nor could she deny that she would be proud of a husband as well turned-out as Mr. Emerton, rather as she might be of walking down the road with a glossy and good-tempered pedigree dog.

Underlying and driving both of these was also an unspoken but fundamental yearning to be free and independent, something she knew she could never be as an unmarried young woman under the roof of her relatives.

From any of these perspectives, Josephine wished to be married as soon as possible, more certain than ever now that this was when her real life would begin.

“Lady Josephine, I was hoping we might run into you again.”

Good-natured and golden-haired, Benedict Emerton grinned at Josephine with friendly enthusiasm and she could not help smiling back. Mr. Emerton had a natural manner and easy tone that made people warm quickly to his company.

“I was hoping we would run into you too, Mr. Emerton,” Josephine responded, noting with particular satisfaction how beautifully his stock was tied again. “In fact, I made my sister, Lady Elmridge, come to St. James’s Park especially this morning because I remembered you would be here.”

“Of course you did,” muttered the Duke of Ashbourne gruffly from beside his brother, looking distinctly unhappy that their morning promenade together had been interrupted. “It does not surprise me that you think it proper for young ladies to run after gentlemen all over town.”

“Cassius,” his younger brother objected, with a pleading glance to the duke. “It’s only a walk. You and I can talk later, can’t we?”

The dark-haired man seemed reluctant to release Benedict from whatever conversation they had been having but saw that he had little choice without creating a public scene.

“Very well, Benedict. Have it your way. As you say, it’s only a walk,” the duke conceded with little grace, his deep blue eyes still far from pleased.

“We will continue our conversation later. Where is your chaperone, Lady Josephine? I cannot have my brother escorting young ladies about the park without observing the usual proprieties.”

“Lord and Lady Elmridge are just behind us, Cassius” Mr. Emerton told his brother shortly, on the edge of losing patience, something that aroused Josephine’s sympathies greatly given her own experience of overbearing older siblings. “Look, they are smiling and nodding to us.”

He raised his hat to Vera and Norman with a smile while the Duke of Ashbourne offered only a curt nod of acknowledgement. Was he always so ill-tempered, or did he only dislike Josephine, she wondered?

Deciding that she did not care to be liked by such a man anyway, Josephine tried not to even look at the arrogant nobleman who seemed to hold her in such contempt on the basis of a single unfortunate encounter.

“Vera knows that I hoped to see you, Mr. Emerton,” Josephine assured the blond-haired man whom she had decided was the object of her affection. “If we stroll together, they will follow, but not too closely.”

She hoped that the Duke of Ashbourne would take this hint and also fall behind while she walked with his younger brother. If he disliked Josephine that much, surely he would be grateful for the relief from her company.

The duke, however, seemed entirely of opposite mind and instead attached himself firmly to the young couple, making it almost impossible to conduct any real conversation.

Whatever Josephine said as they walked, the duke seemed to quibble with it, or interrupt with irrelevant questions, or even criticisms. Why could he not simply ignore her for five minutes?

Still, Josephine persisted, wanting to know Mr. Emerton better and make her feelings towards him clear. In any case, if she and Benedict were fated to be together, there was nothing the Duke of Ashbourne or anyone else could do do prevent it.

“Are you going to Lady Gordenford’s garden party, Mr. Emerton?

” Josephine asked after the duke had poured cold water on their discussion of elephants, zebras and other exotic animals in the royal collection, deeming their keeping in the English climate a cruel and unnecessary entertainment for fools. “Last year was quite an occasion.”

“Yes, I do plan to attend, Lady Josephine. Will you be there with Lord and Lady Elmridge?”

“Certainly, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Last year they had seltzer water and Lady Gordenford’s twin sons who were home from school shook the bottles and sprayed all the young ladies. There was so much screaming but I declared it was perfect weather for such a shower and everyone laughed.”

“Do you think that proper behavior, Lady Josephine?” enquired the duke severely. “I must say that I do not. I hope the boys’ father dealt with them appropriately.”

“It only sounds like a schoolboy prank to me, Cassius, not a serious offense,” Benedict tried to soothe him. “I look forward to the pleasure of your company, Lady Josephine, and will bring an umbrella to shield you from any unexpected showers.”

“What a perfect gentleman you are, Mr. Emerton,” Josephine had sighed delightedly. “Your manners are a credit to your upbringing.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” muttered the duke. “Certain young ladies of the ton might take lessons from my brother.”

His previous interruptions had been annoying but this remark had strayed into the territory of open discourtesy. Something snapped inside Josephine and she glared at the speaker.

“My brother brought me up after our father died,” Benedict attempted to explain and bridge the now-visible friction. “My mother’s grief was overwhelming for some years. I owe Cassius a great deal.”

The voice of the golden-haired man beside her faded into the background as Josephine regarded his less favored brother with narrowed green eyes and rising irritation.

Cassius Emerton’s thick and wavy dark-brown hair was not smoothly combed like Benedict’s.

It seemed distinctly unruly, escaping from whatever position it had been forced into before leaving the house.

Nor was his suit as elegant, being less fashionably cut and plainer.

A button had even come unfastened on his waistcoat unnoticed and he wore no flower in his buttonhole.

As for the neatness of his collar and stock, the duke’s younger brother really put him to shame. The dark-haired duke pulled at the crumpled linen as he met Josephine’s gaze, as if suddenly it felt too tight.

“Your stock is awry, Your Grace,” Josephine blurted out, thinking that he deserved to be needled after his previous remark to her.

Anyway, this was was true, and surely it was better to be told so that he could fix it. Vera would be unhappy if she heard this impudent assertion, but Josephine could easily claim that she thought she was trying to be helpful.

“So is your dress, Lady Josephine,” the Duke of Ashbourne fired back and looking down, Josephine realized that there was indeed a half-unfastened ribbon at the neckline of her pale yellow summer gown.

Blushing red, Josephine hastily retied her ribbon, now angrier than ever with this man.

Why was he even looking so closely at her dress?

It was hardly gentlemanly to be eying up a young lady’s neckline.

Beside her, Benedict seemed to be trying to get her attention but she was too occupied in her argument with the duke to listen.

“Your hair needs combing too, Your Grace,” she retorted. “It’s all over the place.”

“As does yours,” the duke returned. “It’s almost as wild as it was at the Silverton ball.”

“You are the rudest, most aggravating man I have ever met!” Josephine burst out now, vaguely registering that Benedict had walked away towards Vera and Norman and was speaking earnestly with them.

“I cannot fathom how you ever managed to teach your brother such good manners when you clearly have none yourself.”

“I’ve heard a great deal of your temper and impulsiveness, Lady Josephine, and now I’ve seen enough of them to last me a lifetime. Others might find your antics amusing but I do not. You can be certain that I will never allow Benedict to marry such a woman. You will stay away from my brother.”

“If you’ve heard so much about me, you will know that I take exception to being ordered about. You have no right to interfere in your brother’s affairs anyway. Mr. Emerton is a grown man now, even if you did raise him.”

“As head of my family, I have every right to interfere in any matter that affects Benedict’s future,” the Duke of Ashbourne insisted, his dark features now also growing flushed with the confrontation. “I want you to stay away from my brother, Lady Josephine.”

Josephine gave a dismissive laugh and made to walk onwards along the path but Cassius Emerton stepped in front of her, so close that she could see his pulse throb and smell his cologne, and perhaps even his actual skin.

Yes, she did believe there was a faint, fresh sweat on his skin and the sight of his damp forehead made her feel distinctly odd.

The heroes of her favorite novels didn’t sweat, at least not unless they were wrestling lions or performing other physical feats. A sweating man was quite horrible to think about, only in reality it wasn’t…

“Don’t challenge me,” he warned her in a low voice that reverberated somewhere in Josephine’s belly like the rumble of an approaching storm.

“Or what?” she responded, tipping up her chin and refusing to be intimidated even though her heart was racing madly. “You believe you can run Benedict’s life and stop him from seeing me. I say you can’t. We will simply have to wait and see who wins, won’t we?”

At this defiance, Cassius Emerton’s startled expression was priceless.

Did no one ever stand up to him? No wonder he was so arrogant.

For long seconds Josephine continued to face the duke down, her pulse becoming deafening in her ears.

Why did he not step back? In fact, had he come even closer? What did he want from her?

Just as Josephine was about to demand an answer to this question, Benedict returned, catching them up along with Vera and Norman.

“Lady Josephine, your sister has kindly invited me to take tea with you this afternoon at Elmridge House. So, that means I can continue my walk with my brother now and we can continue our conversation later.”

“How lovely!” Josephine responded with a triumphant smile to the Duke of Ashbourne. I shall look forward to seeing you at Elmridge House, Mr. Emerton.”