Lorraine Heath - Waking Up With the Duke (Londons Greatest Lovers)

Waking Up With the Duke

Lorraine Heath

For Franny

When shared with you...

Laughter is deeper

Secrets more hushed

Good news more joyous

Sorrows less painful

Moments always, always richer

And New York is way more fun. Totally.

Thank you for including me in your life and offering me the gift of your friendship...

And for always knowing the best wines.

Contents

Herndon Hall, Leicestershire

November, 1860

I ll consider your debt paid in full if you get my wife with child.

Ransom Seymour, the ninth Duke of Ainsley, struggled to concentrate as he sat sprawled in a comfortable armchair in the well-appointed library. Hed been downing excellent whiskey ever since his arrival at the Marquess of Walforts country estate for his once legendary hunt. After three hours, they were both well into their cups, so surely hed misunderstood.

Does your silence indicate your acceptance of the terms? Walfort asked.

Ainsley scrutinized his cousin and longtime friend, sitting in that damned wheelchair, where he himself had placed the marquess three years earlier. Walfort had aged considerably during that time, his brown hair having gone white at the temples, his brown eyes somber enough to chase off any gaiety in the room. Ainsley released a dark chuckle. Ive had far too much to drink. You would not countenance what I thought you uttered.

Jayne wants a child. I cant give it to her. You owe me this.

Ainsley pushed himself out of the chair. Hed meant to do so with force. Instead, he staggered and almost lost his balance as he crossed over to the fireplace. He pressed his forearm against the stone mantel to steady himself while he studied the madly dancing flames. Within them he could almost see the night he and Walfort had been barreling wildly through the London streets, the curricle traveling at a dangerous breakneck speed

Hed wondered but never dared ask the full extent of Walforts injuries. Theyd seen each other seldom in the intervening years, that tragic night a guilty barrier between them. I owe you your legs. Not my seed.

You owe me a bloody cock!

Inwardly, Ainsley flinched, but he allowed none of his rioting emotions to escape his calm faade. Instead, he concentrated more intently on the fire. The flamesred, blue, yellow, orangeswirled in a macabre waltz, no doubt a preview of what his eternity would most assuredly entail. Writhing within them for his sins, his poor judgment. Hed been all of five and twenty. A cursed age for him and his brothers. Westcliffe married at twenty-five and was betrayed. Stephen marched off to war, only to return a lost man. And Ainsley, who was always so damned responsible, managed to destroy a good mans life. And a lovely womans. And his own, if he was honest about it.

Are you telling me that you cant... that you He peered over at Walfort. He owed it to his childhood friend to at least hold his gaze when he asked. That you cant bed her?

Ive got no feeling. Walfort pounded his thighs, slammed a fist between his legs with enough force to make Ainsley cringe and the chair creak. No feeling. Shes tried, bless her, shes tried to make it work... but all it does is cause her to weep.

Ainsley felt as though his heart had been scored with a thousand daggers. Theyd been in London celebrating that Jayne was at long last with child, was possibly carrying Walforts heir.

I feel remarkably old at twenty-eight, Walfort, three years Ainsleys senior, remarked. I want to feel young again.

So they drank and drank and drank. And although Walfort was married, they even visited the beds of a couple of lovelies. Ainsley had never understood Walfort partaking in the latter entertainment. If Jayne were his wife

Jayne would never agree to this mad notion of yours. She despises me.

He hardly blamed her for her attitude toward him. In grief over her husbands near death and debilitating injuries, shed lost the child. Now it seemed she had no hope of ever having another. She was the sort of woman who should never be denied anything her heart desired. It was his second thought upon being introduced to her at the betrothal dinner that had been held in her and Walforts honor: If you were mine, youd never do without . His first thought had been that he wished hed met her before Walfort, so certain was he that hed have been able to charm her into his arms. She was the loveliest woman upon whom hed ever set eyes. Grace and poise mirrored her every step. When she smiled, she made a man feel as though he were all that mattered.

In no hurry to marry, Ainsley had avoided the soirees of Seasons past whenever possible. Thus hed missed the opportunity to meet and court Lady Jayne Spencer. Although to hear Walfort tell it, he snagged her heart during their initial dance.

You have a reputation for charming the ladies. Apply your talents to my wife, Walfort said now, each word biting, clipped, as though forced between clenched teeth.

You want me to seduce her?

I want you to give her what I cannot.

This is ludicrous. Ainsley shoved himself away from the fireplace, dropped back into the chair, which had suddenly become unbearably uncomfortable, rose and stalked to the window. Unsettled, he refused to acknowledge how often hed dreamed of Jayne, but hed never acted upon his interest. He lived his life by a code of chivalry passed down from his ancestors who had fought alongside Richard the Lionheart during the crusades. He did not take women who belonged to others. Does she consent to this preposterous scheme of yours?

Ive not yet discussed it with her. I wanted to ensure you were in agreement with it before I did.

He faced a man he no longer knew. Had Walforts affliction driven him mad? I can predict her answer with unerring accuracy. Shell laugh, shell slap my face, and then shell weep. Not to mention the legal ramifications. If she gives birth to a boy, he will inherit. Even if all of England knows you are not his sire, you will be legally bound

You and I are not only friends, but cousins. We both carry the Seymour blood. It would not be such an offense.

The cousin who is next in line for your title might disagree.

Syphilis is causing him to lose his mind. Besides, do you honestly believe that every prince who sat upon the throne and became king was truly his fathers son? I doubt it. And I do not care about blood as much as I care about Jayne and seeing that she is happy.

But what of himself? Ainsley wondered. To have a son or daughter whom he could never acknowledge? Did he owe his cousin such a sacrifice? Although his recollections were a blur, he knew hed been driving the curricle. When it toppled, he was thrown clear, his only souvenir from the incident a thin scar that bisected the left side of his chin. Walfort had somehow managed to get caught up in the rigging. When everything finally came to a thundering halt, hed been broken. Ghastly. Irrevocably. Broken.

With so much liquor coursing through their veins, neither of them remembered the infinite details. They knew only that Ainsley walked away with one small scratch and Walfort never walked again.

If I decline your invitation to bed your lovely wife? Ainsley asked quietly, the abhorrence of being placed in this position tautening his gut. Hed never taken a married woman to his bed. Even the thought was repugnant. He believed in having a jolly good time with any willing womanas long as she possessed no husband to whom she owed her loyalty. He was a man who honored duty and vows. He held others to his high standard.

Ill simply ask someone else. And my wife could very well have a miserable night of it. But you, youve always had a reputation for being a remarkable lover. You could provide her with a night to remember.