Page 14 of The Trouble With Dukes
Then Uncle Percy hadn’t bothered to ask the moneylenders who watched the comings and goings at Horse Guards. Too busy flirting with his duchess, perhaps. He’d be better off protecting his niece’s flank, as it were.
“So you’ll waltz with your Knight of the Sound Prospects,” Hamish said, not liking the idea at all. “You’ll make a fetching couple. That matters to some.” Though Miss Meggie didn’t strike him as a lady to be taken in by a handsome face or a lot of flirtatious blather—and those were Sir Fletcher’s best qualities.
“Please sit beside me,” Miss Megan muttered.
“I beg your—?”
She got a grip on Hamish’s sleeve and hauled stoutly. He took the place to her right.
“You’re a determined woman. Edana and Rhona are too, but they’ve had to be.”
“They are Lady Edana and Lady Rhona now,” Miss Megan said. “You have become a duke, so your siblings’ status has changed as well.”
Hamish’s bank balance had certainly changed. “My pismire of a solicitor said something about this, though he claimed it would cost considerably and take some time. I haven’t mentioned anything to my sisters about acquiring the titlelady.”
Miss Megan slipped her glasses down her nose to peer at Hamish. “Your brother also becomes a courtesy lord. All it takes is a warrant of precedence signed by King George. I think you must ask for my supper waltz, Your Grace.”
As if the king was about to extend favors to the Duke of Murder? “Miss Meggie, there’s no point to my asking for your supper waltz.”
If Hamish were to waltz with any woman, though, it would be Megan Windham. She didn’t put on airs, she was quiet, and in an understated, easily overlooked way, she was lovely.
“Ask me anyway.” She sounded much like her auntie, the Duchess of Doom.
“Miss Meggie, though it pains me to admit it, I’m nearly famous for not knowing how to waltz. I’d embarrass us both and likely end up on my kilted arse before all of polite society.”
This time, she patted his hand. “Nonsense. If I can learn to waltz, so can you. Tomorrow afternoon should suffice. Bring your sisters, I’ll round up a few of my cousins, and we’ll have an impromptu tea dance at my cousin Westhaven’s townhouse.”
Moreland was teasing Rhona, who was a shy soul when she wasn’t threatening mayhem for want of a few dresses.LadyRhona, according to Megan Windham. Hamish needed to know more about that warrant of whatever, and for his sisters’ sakes, he needed to learn to waltz.
“Name a time, and promise me this gathering will be private,” he said. “I’ll not be falling on my backside for the entertainment of half of Mayfair.”
Sir Fletcher was sauntering up the path, Edana beside him. Damned if she didn’t look half-smitten, more’s the pity.
“You’ll not be falling on your backside at all,” Miss Megan said, “but you are to remain by my side so long as Sir Fletcher is about, do you understand, Your Grace?”
Hamish did not in the least understand, though he hoped Miss Megan’s order—for it was an order—meant she had a few reservations where Sir Fletcher was concerned. What Hamish knew for certain was that he had somehow been talked into letting this little, bespectacled blueblood teach him to waltz, and worse, he was looking forward to that ordeal.
“A word with you, Your Grace.”
Hamish looked about, wondering when somebody had let a bloody damned duke into the conversation. Across the music room, Megan Windham was sorting through music at the piano, Edana and Rhona by her side.
The three fellows surrounding Hamish were Miss Megan’s cousins, and by some sleight of hand known only to English dukes, all three cousins were titled.
“Beg pardon,” Hamish said. “The ‘Your Grace’ bit will take some getting used to. You might as well know I can’t waltz for shite.”
“Language, Murdoch,” the biggest of the three muttered.
The one with all the lace at his throat and wrists took to studying the parquet floor in the manner of a gunnery sergeant trying not to murder his own recruits on the first day of target practice.
“I honestly cannot waltz,” Hamish said, hoping Miss Meggie could at least play the piano. Rhona and Edana had a few passable tunes memorized, but they were no substitute for an orchestra.
“If Megan has decreed that you’re to learn to waltz,” the auburn-haired fellow said, “then you shall learn to waltz. She is softhearted, and we will not allow you to disappoint her.”
LordShall and Allowmust be the ducal heir.
“That’s good,” Hamish replied, making sure his sporran hung front and center. “You ought to be protective of her, because she’ll have no toes left if she dances with me.” Very pretty toes they likely were too.
“She will have all of her toes,” the nancy brother said. “Can your sisters waltz?”
