Page 27 of Five Nights with a Rakish Duke
“I don’t know!” Asher said with a kind of wildness that made his friends look to him with widened eyes.
“I think it a sensitive subject,” Vincent said to Dorian, pretending to whisper though he really made no effort to.
“What was your first clue?” Dorian smirked.
“Good Lord, be quiet you two,” Asher said, turning away to look out to the garden again. “Let us talk of where we’re going tonight instead, and it will not be a brothel.”
“Now he is changing the subject!” Vincent said with triumph.
“There’s another clue,” Dorian said, laughing.
“Shut up,” Asher said though his friends didn’t appear to hear him.
“You will not marry, Asher. I highly doubt you ever will. No more than Vincent and I will,” Dorian’s words did something to Asher. He snapped his head back around, thinking of his stepmother’s letter and the promise he had made to his father.
“Promise me, Asher.”That’s what his father had pleaded with him as he laid in bed, breathing his last few breaths with sweat on his forehead and a gauntness in his cheeks.“Marry someone. You must.”
“I promise, father.”
“I will marry,” Asher said, brushing the memory away.
“Who? You have barely looked at an eligible lady,” Dorian pointed out.
“Then you can line up the eligible ladies for me to look at,” Asher said with finality, “at the next assembly.”
“This Friday? The assembly at Almack’s assembly rooms?” Dorian asked.
“Yes. Find the ladies and after my five nights with the certain lady have passed, I will marry. That is final.”
He had made his decision, despite the doubting looks that Dorian and Vincent were exchanging. He would marry, just as soon as he had worked this desire for Lady Penelope out of his system.
“Why will you not marry the lassy that currently fascinates you?” Dorian’s question made Asher stiffen.
“Because I do not intend to marry a woman that fascinates me. That is the end of the matter.” It had to be the way, so that he didn’t end up like his father.
* * *
Penelope was exhausted as she wandered off the dance floor, eager for a break.
“Quick, you look like you need this,” Veronica said as she pushed a glass of punch into Penelope’s hands. Penelope was only too happy to drink, thirsty from the sheer amount of dancing she had done.
“Veronica, would you stop signing men up to my dance card please?”
“They are all eligible,” Veronica said tartly in her husky voice. “You asked me to help, remember? It is imperative you get to know them all.”
“Yes, but they are all so…” Penelope paused as she glanced across the room to some of the men she had danced with. The assembly rooms were busy tonight with many gentlemen, some who could barely stop looking her way.
The two Lords she had danced with were both portly and did not elicit a single iota of excitement from her. Sir Michael, who had been her third dance of the night, had been so dull that she had to stifle yawns when talking to him, and her fourth dance with a Mr. Jenkins had resulted in a near argument, for he had opened the conversation with an insult.
“This is not working,” Penelope said, looking away from the men. “None of them feel right.”
“You mean none of them excite you.”
“Is that so bad?”
“Not in the slightest, but hardly necessary when looking to marry in a hurry.”
“Oh,” Penelope complained and tried to grab her dance card from her godmother’s hand. “Who is next?” She looked down at the card and her eyes widened at the name listed next. “Veronica, why did you put him down?”
