Page 28 of How to Love a Duke in Ten Days

His absurd bubble of amusement had to be the aftermath of violence still singing through his blood.

“Remarkably swift thinking back there,DoctorLane.” He looked down at her with his most imperious expression. “Or should I say,LadyAlexandra?”

Lady Francesca glanced between them. She crossed her arms over nonexistent bosoms wrapped in a pink so garish, it almost hurt to gaze upon. On any other woman, the color would have been hideous. On her, it was oddly fetching.

“It appears you two have already been introduced.” She narrowed her eyes at Alexandra, though Piers detected no true malice in the look.

“Well—I—no?” Lady Alexandra gasped.

“Is that a question?” Francesca smirked. “You could have mentioned itlast night.” She pronounced thet’s with undue emphasis.

As Lady Alexandra’s alluring mouth opened and closed soundlessly for several seconds, Miss Teague crept toward their attacker, who’d given up writhing for limp twitches and guttural moans.

“I say, he seems to be in a great deal of pain. Shouldn’t we get him some help?”

Francesca turned to her. “Honestly, Cecelia, he attempted to murder one of us not moments ago. Do let him suffer for a bit longer. I should think he brought it upon himself.”

A bold and officious woman in every facet, that was his wife-to-be.

God, they were going to make each other miserable. Not that he disagreed with her on any particular point, it was simply that this was a trait they shared, and with both of them stomping about Castle Redmayne demanding their own way, who would keep the peace?

Assuming she wouldn’t notice his inability to keep his eyes off her closest friend.

“I’ll need to ascertain which of you the bullet was intended for.” Piers dragged his gaze from Lady Alexandra to glare down at the man on the ground between them. “Is he familiar to any of you?”

Both Lady Alexandra and Cecelia stared at the gunman, shook their heads in the negative, then turned to look at Francesca, who blanched.

“I’ve never seen him before in my life,” she announced, almost too innocently. “Though we should probably all take a gander at the man up the hill, just to be certain.”

“Good thinking, dear,” Cecelia agreed amicably. “Should we take the long way toward the tree line, and then follow it until we can ascertain that there is no one else? It’ll make us less of a target, won’t it?”

“Indeed.” Francesca picked up her skirts and stepped over the moaning man as nonchalantly as one would a pile of manure. “Excellent suggestion.”

Piers curled his hands into fists, the masculine equivalent of pinching himself. No, he wasn’t dreaming, so…

Just whowerethese ladies? Where were the tears and histrionics? Couldn’t they have at least afforded him a modicum of feminine display for his—he wasn’t too modest to say—rather heroic behavior?

Cecelia followed in his betrothed’s wake, performing a little dainty hop over the incapacitated man that did something to her enormous breasts he’d have to be completely blind not to notice. “Do you think we should contact the authorities before or after the ambu—”

“I wasn’t aware he was a duke!” Alexandra blurted.

They all paused, turning to look at her.

She stood frozen to the exact spot she had been in since they’d ventured out from behind the stone wall. Rapidblinks and darting eyes revealed a woman still too shocked to have caught up to the moment. “I—I would have mentioned, had I known.He’sthe stablemaster I told you about with the runaway stallion. That one.” She pointed at Merc, docilely grazing nearby. “That one right there.”

Cecelia made an interested noise. “He’s the one we spied on last night? Of course! I should have known from the shoulders.”

Piers’s head snapped up.The one they what?

The thought of Alexandra watching as he’d wrenched off his shirt did little to soothe the battle heat in his blood.

Had she liked what parts of him she’d seen?

“Yes!” she affirmed.

Yes?

“Yes, he’s the one! He said—” Alexandra turned to him, a frenzied accusation in her gaze. “Yousaid you kept the beasts at Castle Redmayne.”