No Duke Will Do - Eva Devon Page 0,31

not soften.

In fact, it grew warier, as if he was someone who might hold out a treat to her and then snatch it away and dash it to the ground.

Heath took a step back, holding up his hands. “You don’t have to come with me,” he said. “I won’t force you to, but I promise I can improve your life. You can do whatever you want,” Heath said. “I’m not some sort of preacher man who’s going to make you pray on your knees all night and beg for forgiveness, but I can help you.”

She bit her lower lip, which was already red from likely having been smashed by her pimp. She was calculating whether it was worth the risk. And then, at long last, she gave a tight nod. “Oi’ve got nothing to lose,” she said. “Oi’ll come with you. If what you say is true.”

“It is true,” he promised. “What are you called?”

“Alice,” she whispered and then her shoulders seemed to relax. “Right, then. Oi’ll come with you.”

“I’m glad, Alice,” he said gently.

And so, together, they walked through the dark night, back to his club.

The violence he had so longed for, disappearing from him.

It seemed he was doing another good deed, and he hoped it would turn out well, unlike the loss of Mary. Except if he was to admit it, Mary had turned out well. She was stronger than before, choosing her own course, and that was exactly what he had wanted for her.

It was only that he had not anticipated the grief of her loss.

Now, he knew what he had to do. He simply had to focus on the task at hand, taking care of the people in his area of town, making sure business went well, and ensuring that Robert, Mary’s brother, survived this transition from impoverished duke back to a man who could look himself in the mirror.

Chapter 14

If Mary had to dance with one more dithering fop, she was going to scream.

The ballroom fairly hummed with the packed crowd of nobles and wealthy city people. Trays of punch and wine passed about in an elaborate dance supported by footmen who knew how to weave about the crowd without bathing everyone in said beverages.

It was a sight to behold if one chose to watch it, and she did because, quite frankly, she was tired of the goings-on of the ton. She’d been raised in the ton. She was expected to live in the ton, and likely, she would die in the ton.

Still, after Richard Heath, it was impossible to continue on as before.

Oh, she danced almost every dance, she had to.

It was what she was supposed to do, and she had embraced it, hadn’t she? But after speaking about hounds, horses, and the newest estates the city men were building out in the country from the money rolling in from India and beyond, she didn’t know if she could bear it.

Of course, she did it for her mother. Her mother’s face was so much lighter than it had been in years, and she did it for Rob too because Rob had been running about from ballroom to ballroom, looking as if the world was on fire, but not tonight.

Tonight, Rob was dancing with a beautiful young woman. Harriet was a remarkable person. Mary couldn’t deny that, and quite frankly, she was hoping Harriet was going to become her sister-in-law, not just because Harriet came with a fortune, but because Harriet was the kind of young woman she would have hoped to have been herself if her life had not been gone so touched by darkness.

As she stood at the edge of the ballroom, knowing that in just a few moments, someone would collect her to lead her onto the floor and have another banal discussion about the trivial goings-on of life, she sighed.

How was she going to endure this whole life of it?

Well, it could have been worse.

She could have been married off to an old crony, so she really shouldn’t complain. Still, her mind would wander back every evening to that brief time with Heath, when she’d felt alive and free. Oh, she didn’t feel as trapped as she did before, but she had to admit that freedom still danced about her like a tempting devil, and she wanted to run after it.

“Lady Mary, you do look as if you’ve been sucking on a lemon.”

She jolted and turned towards the Duke of Drake. The infamous man was someone everyone admired. He knew how