Page 25 of Second Duke's the Charm

Whoever he was, Tess felt as if she’d been awakened after years of being asleep. The man had shown her a glimpse of a whole new world of sensuality, and it was impossible to forget that it existed.

If they met again, would she tell him to stop?

She gave herself a mental shake. She should be looking at the men in attendance with the view to choosing a potential lover, not mooning over lost opportunities. Her “adventure” had clearly proved that she was attracted tosomemen. All she had to do was find another one who made her stomach somersault and her body glow, as her stranger had done. How hard could it be?

“Tess, are you with us?”

“Sorry, what?” Tess forced herself to focus on Ellie.

“I said, assuming the blackmailer reallydoeshave some of Princess Charlotte’s letters, how do you think they got them?”

“You don’t think it could be Captain Hesse himself?” Tess suggested.

“Unlikely. His regiment is still over on the Continent. Plus, he was badly injured at Waterloo last year—my cousin Reg says he damaged his wrist and had to learn to write all over again.”

“It could be someone writing the blackmail demands at his request,” Daisy suggested. “A coconspirator based here in London.”

Ellie’s ringlets bounced as she shook her head. “I thinkwe can rule Hesse out. I spoke to Princess Charlotte’s friend, Margaret Mercer Elphinstone. Her father, the admiral, was the one who interviewed Hesse about the letters, and he was apparently satisfied that Hesse had destroyed the ones he had in his possession.”

“What if someone stole some from Hesse before he burned them, then? Someone in the same regiment? A friend, or ex-friend,” Tess said.

“That was my thought, too. Hesse was in the Eighteenth Light Dragoons, a cavalry regiment. I’m going to compile a list of men who served with him, using information from dispatches, muster rolls, and pay records.”

“You do know how to have fun,” Daisy drawled.

Ellie glared at her. “If you have any better ideas, Dorothea Hamilton—”

Daisy held up her hands in mock surrender. “I don’t! But surely there’s no need to go to such trouble when we’re about to meet whoever it is tonight. We’ll find out who they are when we catch them, won’t we?”

“Ifthey make contact,” Tess reminded her. “Which shouldn’t be difficult, since we both stand out like two red shipping beacons.”

Ellie seemed to have become distracted. She was staring at something across the far end of the ballroom and shaking her head.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there’s no justice in this world. None whatsoever.”

“That’s quite the statement, coming from the daughter of one of England’s top barristers,” Tess chuckled.

Daisy frowned. “What are you talking about, El?”

“The new Duke of Wansford.”

Tess whirled around, her heart in her throat. “He’s here? Right now?”

“Where?” Daisy demanded.

“Over there, by the orchestra. I’m sure that’s him.”

Both Tess and Daisy looked in the direction Ellie had indicated. Tess craned her neck and Daisy tried to peer unobtrusively over the ridiculous expanse of her Elizabethan ruff.

“What does he look like? Ill tempered? Irascible? Disapproving?”

“You’re just thinking of yourownfather, Daisy.”

“True. But he’s typical of the breed.”

“Well, this new duke doesn’t fit the mold at all. Which is why I was saying it’s unfair. What kind of universe furnishes a man with sinful good looks, grants him a brain so clever he can amass a fortune to equal a small European principality, andthenmakes him the long-lost heir to a dukedom?” Ellie shook her head. “As Shakespeare would say, it beggars belief.”

Daisy nodded. “You have a point. Any one of those attributes would be quite enough on their own. And because I truly believe life has a way of maintaining balance, you just know that somewhere in the world there’s a nun who’s devoted her whole life to helping orphans and kittens, who’s about to be struck by lightning.”