Kiss Me Duke - Tamara Gill Page 0,7

this is.” Miss Clare stood looking out over the Colosseum, her mouth agape at the sight that beheld her. It was a common reaction and one that Hugh himself had had when he first visited the place.

They climbed stairs heading up to the tiered seat section that overlooked the central orchestra and stage. “This was all once marble-veneered, but over the years, people have stripped it of its precious decorations, and the weather has not helped. What a sight it must have made. Can you just imagine?” he asked, watching her. Warmth seeped into his bones at the unguarded pleasure that blossomed on her face. She took every ounce, every nuance of the building, no doubt imagining it in its prime.

“To think gladiators fought and died in the arena below us. And you said we might be able to go beneath?”

“Of course. It is no problem.” They walked along what was left of the seating areas that surveyed the central stage—the overwhelming magnitude of the place something he’d never forget. “I haven’t been here for some years. I’m glad that I’m here with you today, Miss Clare. To reacquaint myself with the city that I now call home.” And he was. She was a breath of fresh air into his life that had stagnated of late. He had his investments, his villa at Naples, and the vineyard, but no social life. Not when it came to attending balls and parties thrown by visitors from London to Rome. People who knew him and what he’d been accused of.

“To imagine the roars of the people barracking for their favorite gladiator echoes still through this old stone. I adore history if you have not noticed already. It was one of the reasons why I wanted to come here.”

“What was the other reason?” he asked, enjoying himself more than he ought, especially for a man who had been notified of his brother’s death only the day before. Not that Henry ever cared about anyone other than himself. Even so, as a brother, one ought to feel something. Regret, sadness. He felt numb. He’d lost all respect and affection for his sibling when he’d turned his back on him in London and let him face alone the savage wolves that were the ton.

“My friends.” She smiled at him over her shoulder before leaning on the stone railing and studied what was left of the combat ring. “I love them, do not mistake me, but they’re determined to see me wed. Married off and happily situated just as they all are.”

“You do not wish to be married?” Today it would seem he was full of inappropriateness. He was talking to an unmarried maid of her love affairs. That was not to be borne. Even so, he was curious why someone would run thousands of miles away to evade marriage.

“If I fall in love and marry, that is all very well, but if I do not, that is all very well. I’m not a young woman, Mr. Armstrong. If you have not guessed already.”

“You are not old either, Miss Clare. There would be many a gentleman who would offer for you, I would think.”

She chuckled, shaking her head. The action caused a curl to fall loose from her motif and bounce upon her shoulder. His gaze dipped to the unblemished skin where the coil sat, a fine collarbone pulling the eye toward her sweet neck and ample bosom that her walking gown failed to conceal. Miss Clare was extremely appealing. The word lush floated through his mind, and he severed his inspection of her before she noticed.

“You would be wrong, Mr. Armstrong. I have not had one offer in all the years I have graced the London ballrooms. But I am happy for my friends, each of their husbands I adore and love like a brother. I shall never be lonely, do not fear, but I have come to accept that perhaps my time has passed, and so before my life does too, I must seize the day and see this wonderful world for myself.”

“I admire your will, Miss Clare. I wish more women had such a strong constitution. My sister certainly does. You would like her, I think.”

“You have a sister? Who is she? Maybe I have met her before?”

Hugh pointed to the stairs that led down into the bowels of the Colosseum, taking Miss Clare’s hand and pulling her toward the entrance. “Sarah is her name, but she is some years younger than me and

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