Page 4 of The Duke In My Bed (The Heirs’ Club of Scoundrels #1)
Bray had no experience talking with a child, so he just stared at her, wondering why she had opened the door. She was much too young to be a servant.
She stared back at him.
Finally he gathered what little patience he had at this point and leaned down toward the girl and said, “Good afternoon, miss. I’m the Duke of Drakestone here to see Miss Prim.”
A smile stretched across her narrow, sweet-looking face. She opened the door wider and gave him an acceptable curtsy. “Hello, Your… Your Highness?”
“It’s Your Grace.”
“Yes. Right.” She stamped her foot. “I knew that. I am Miss Sybil Prim, Your Grace.”
“Are you, now?” he said, knowing full well she was not the Miss Prim he sought. But if her older sister was half as pretty as this girl would be one day, maybe this ill-conceived liaison wouldn’t be so dreadful as he was expecting. “I’m looking for Miss Louisa Prim.”
She huffed, the smile disappearing. “She’s in the book room.”
“I see,” he said. “Tell me, Miss Prim, do you always open the door?”
A mischievous glow lit her eyes, and her smile returned, wider now. “No,” she said quickly. “Sometimes I close it.” And with that she slammed the door shut. He heard a girlish giggle from the other side of the door and her footsteps running away.
Bray didn’t know whether to be amused by the imp’s brazen behavior or suspect of a family that let such behavior occur. He could understand a boy pulling a devilish prank like that. Lord knew he’d been a hellion at that age, but a girl? That surprised him.
He knocked on the door again, louder, in hopes one of the servants would hear him this time.
The door opened once more, but this time to a different young lady of perhaps fifteen or sixteen years of age. She was also blond with big blue eyes but obviously too young to be the Miss Prim he was seeking. Where was the butler, or the housekeeper? Even a chambermaid would do at this point.
“Good afternoon, sir,” she said politely. “May I help you?”
Hopefully this girl had a few more manners than the last, though that was one wager he wouldn’t waste good money on. “I’m the Duke of Drakestone here to see Miss Prim,” he said.
A flush heightened her cheeks and she smiled prettily at him and then curtsied. “I am Miss Lillian Prim, Your Grace.”
Her innocent mistake made him smile, and straightaway he realized the error was once again his. “Of course you are, but I am looking for Miss Louisa Prim.”
She gave a disappointed sigh. “She’s one of my older sisters.”
A door at the back of the house slammed so hard, it rattled the windowpanes. Bray heard the running of feet and high-pitched, toe-curling squeals.
Bray swore silently. “What was that sound?” he asked the girl.
“Another sister, Your Grace.”
“What in the name of Hades is wrong with her?”
The young lady blinked curiously. “Nothing, sir.”
“There should be something wrong if someone is going to scream like that.”
More shrieks were followed by the appealing laughter of a young lady.
It was genuine amusement and happiness. It wasn’t the fake feminine delight he’d heard through the years at the hundreds of balls, dinners, and card parties he attended.
It was more musical, more irresistible. That sound tightened his stomach.
The noise of merriment came closer. He saw a girl younger than the two he’d already met burst out of a doorway and bound down the corridor. Right behind her he caught a glimpse of a young lady reaching to grab her prey but missing just before the girl darted away.
“Give me that book right now,” the young lady called between bouts of laughter.
“No! It’s mine. You can’t have it!” The younger one screeched again and sprang across the corridor into another room with the lady on her heels.
Bray didn’t think he had ever witnessed anything like it, girls running about like hoydens, banging doors and screaming in carefree delight.
As an only child of two only children, he’d not interacted with females aside from his mother, his paramours, and simpering ladies at Society parties.
He couldn’t imagine any one of them acting with such wild abandon.
Seconds later, the two ran out of another room and barreled into the vestibule where he and the other Miss Prim stood.
“Oh,” the young lady said as she skidded to a halt in front of him.
Before she could catch her breath and speak, the younger child, who had kept running, crashed into her from behind, knocking her straight into Bray’s arms. He caught her by softly rounded shoulders before steadying her with his hands.
“Oh,” she repeated, this time after an intake of breath.
A whiff of her fresh-washed hair swept past him and he inhaled deeply the intoxicating scent. His gaze fell briefly on her breasts, and heat filled him.
Her blue eyes rounded in surprise when they met his. “Excuse me, sir,” she said, splaying her fingers on his chest while pushing away from him, clearly embarrassed.
Reluctantly, he let go of her.
She turned to the mischievous child behind her. “Bonnie, we owe the gentleman an apology.”
“You first.”
The older sister sighed and looked back at Bray. “My apologies.”
The little girl then turned a beautiful set of big blue eyes on him and said, “I’m sorry that you got in my sister’s way and forced me to run into her.”
The older sister glared at her. “Bonnie.”
Miss Bonnie Prim folded her arms across her chest and shrugged her shoulders in a pouting stance. “Sorry, uh, sir. ”
The older one groaned.
Bray couldn’t be upset with anyone who pushed a beautiful lady into his arms. “No harm done.”
He returned his attention to the young lady, who was undeniably fetching in her simple, pale yellow dress. “Do you always race about the house in such a fashion?”
The older Miss Prim’s breasts lifted and fell rapidly as she tried to calm her breathing.
Her hand went immediately to her long, sunset-colored tresses.
She brushed them to the back of her shoulders as if hoping to make herself more presentable.
There was something gentle and alluring in the way she tried to recover her composure.
Unexpectedly, he was drawn to her.
“No, of course not. We were in the book room playing games because of the rain, and, well, I had no idea we had a guest.”
How many young ladies would admit to playing with their younger siblings? And if they were in the midst of such frolic when he knocked, it was no wonder they couldn’t hear him. It would be impossible to hear a musket explode with the commotion they were making.
However, at last he was sure he’d found Miss Louisa Prim, or rather, she’d found him.
Her cheeks were flushed with exertion. Wispy strands of amber blond hair attractively framed her face.
He couldn’t help but think that she looked as if she’d just had an exhilarating and rather satisfying tussle in bed with an exciting lover.
If he had to marry, she might do rather nicely after all. “Apparently the winner of the game was to receive that coveted book?” He gestured to the bound copy in the youngest girl’s hands.
Miss Prim shyly gave him a hint of a smile. Bray’s body tightened with the heady prickling of desire. He hadn’t expected Miss Louisa Prim to be so appealing.
“My uncle has so many books we haven’t seen, I’m afraid we find ourselves sometimes fighting over who will be the first to read them.”
He glanced at the child. “I’m impressed a girl so young can read.”
The younger Miss Prim beamed at him, showing a gap where her front top teeth should be while the older one lifted fan-shaped brows and said, “That’s kind of you to say. How can I help you?”
Bray saw another blue-eyed, blond-haired young lady, perhaps eighteen years old, making her way toward them. And out of the corner of his eye, he saw the young Miss Prim who had shut the door in his face sneak back into the room. He did a quick count. All five Misses Prim were there.
Bray bit back an exasperated sigh and said, “I’m here to see Miss Louisa Prim.”
“I am Miss Louisa Prim,” the eldest young lady said, giving him a quizzical look.
The youngest girl, who had squealed to the high heavens, pushed in front of her sister and looked up at him and said, “I have a name. Do you want to know my name?” And without giving him time to respond, answered, “It’s Bonnie.”
The girl who’d closed the door on him piped up and said, “I have a name, too. I’m Sybil, and this is my sister Lillian.”
“I can say my own name, thank you very much. I’m Lillian.”
“Then I must be Gwen, since I’m the only one left.”
Suddenly all the girls were laughing, except the eldest young lady, who frowned and promptly scolded them by saying, “Girls, stop this at once. This gentleman will think you have no manners.”
Too late for that, he thought.
As each girl had said her name, she smiled and curtsied, even the mischievous Miss Sybil and Miss Bonnie, proving they had manners after all.
Bray couldn’t help but think if someone was going to have that many daughters, they should have made it easy on themselves and named them A, B, C, D, and E or One, Two, Three, Four, and Five.
“And who are you?” the smallest one demanded of him.
“Bonnie!” Miss Louisa Prim admonished, clearly exasperated by her little sister’s boldness.
Feeling a stab of impatience at their sport, Bray said, “Ladies,” and nodded to them before immediately shifting his attention back to Miss Louisa Prim. Bray’s mouth lifted slightly. For the third time, he said, “I am the Duke of Drakestone.”
The second he said his name, Louisa Prim went still. Then Bray watched her shoulders and chin lift precipitously. She took a step away from him. Her sisters, sensing the sudden change in her demeanor, moved in closer to support or to protect her. He wasn’t sure which.