Eloisa James - Duchess by Night (38 page)

Not for a while. She couldnt help smiling.

Where do you suppose this baby came from? he said wonderingly.

The usual places. He loved her laugh.

But we were married for years without children. And then Colin, and now I didnt think I could.

Under his hand was just the smal est flutter of life. I never used to cry, not a single damp eye, before I met you, he said accusingly.

She kissed him until he didnt feel sentimental anymore, just hungry. But he didnt want to wear Harriet out, so he didnt fol ow that kiss to its natural conclusion.

Povy told me that a letter arrived from your sister, Harriet told him. I think she is happy in London, dont you?

He nodded. She loves being a matron at Magdalen Housethe way she talks about the head of the Metropolitan Police. Do you think, Harriet? Perhaps?

Harriet grinned. Shel be lucky if he doesnt arrest her. The letter I had last week described two young women whom she stole out of a brothel, as best I could understand.

Shes not always prudent about her own safety.

She told me she carries a knife in each boot, Harriet said, running her hand along his cheek. I expect Eugenia to start carrying weapons any moment. She adores your sister, you know.

He was silent for a moment. I couldnt have imagined our life when I first met you in those breeches.

Harriet stretched. Her body was ripe with happiness. Pregnancy didnt make her cantankerous or nauseated. Instead she was singing with happiness. I ruined you. There you were, happy as a louse in the queens mattress, surrounded by concubines and courtesans and actresses

And having nothing to do with any of them.

You were waiting for me, she said. You know, someone to wear the breeches in the family. She looked up at him, but he was laughing.

Silently, of course.

A Note About Card Games, Fashionable Vices, and Family Courts

T his novel opens with a scene from Judge Truders court. Judge Truder does not exist, but the criminals prosecuted in his court do. Poor Loveday Bil ing married only two men (though there are cases that reference as many as seven wives or husbands), but she was acquitted, precisely as described here. The arrangement by which nobility presided in court was unusual but not unheard of (though for a woman to be the judge would be highly unlikely). The English countryside was patched with little jurisdictions and shire courts whose procedures did not fol ow the dictates laid out by the English government, but were molded by local tradition cobbled together with necessity.

At one point, Jem says that every kings court has a Game such as the one he runswhether its conducted in court itself, or at a country house, or in a tavern. I thought up the Game after reading Samuel Pepyss wonderful diary. Pepys, who lived from 16331703, kept a diary that detailed everything from his fights with his wife over her penchant for laced gowns, to his affaires with various women (details written in code), to his various positions in and about the English government. I was fascinated by the casual way by which crucial business was conducted, often over a chance meeting or a game of cards. At one point Pepys describes the King summoning a gentleman to play with him, where the said gentleman lost 50 shil ings, but said he was pleased, since the benefit of playing in a high-level card game was worth the loss of 50 shil ings. Thus was born Jems Game.

Pepys lived before the Georgian periodbut the mores of his diary, in which gentlemen routinely have mistresses, and ladies take lovers, are true of the Georgian period as wel . We might turn to another diary for a glimpse of a Georgian gentlemans life.

James Boswel lived from 17401795; by age twenty-nine, he had already detailed the seduction of three wives, four actresses, Rousseaus lover, three middle-class women, and over sixty street girls.

To be a high-born Englishman in the Georgian period was to live at a time when adultery was a fashionable vice, rather than a crime. And yetif indelicacy was a fashion, love was another one. It was Lord Byron, a mad, bad, Georgian Englishman, who wrote that our sweetest memorial [is] the first kiss of love.

About the Author

Author of fourteen award-winning romances, E LOISA J AMES is a professor of English literature who lives with her family in New Jersey. Al her books must have been written in her sleep, because her days are taken up by caring for two children with advanced degrees in whining, a demanding guinea pig, a smel y frog, and a tumbledown house. Letters from readers provide a great escape! Write Eloisa at [email protected] or visit her website at www.eloisajames.com.

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ACCLAIM FOR

NEW YORK TIMES AND

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

ELOISA JAMES

O ne of the brightest lights in our genre. Her writing is truly scrumptious.

Teresa Medeiros

S he writes with a captivating blend of charm, style, and grace that never fails to leave the reader sighing and smiling and fal ing in love.

Julia Quinn

C al her the historical Jennifer CrusieJames gives readers plenty of reasons to laugh.

Publishers Weekly

S hes a gift every romance reader should give herself.

Connie Brockway

[James] forces the reader into a delicious surrender.

USA Today

R omance writing does not get much better than this.

People

By Eloisa James

D UCHESS B Y N IGHT

A N A FFAIR B EFORE C HRISTMAS

D ESPERATE D UCHESSES

P LEASURE FOR P LEASURE

T HE T AMING OF THE D UKE

K ISS M E, A NNABEL

M UCH A DO A BOUT Y OU

Y OUR W ICKED W AYS

A W ILD P URSUIT

F OOL FOR L OVE

D UCHESS IN L OVE

Coming Soon

W HEN THE D UKE R ETURNS

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the authors imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DUCHESS BY NIGHT . Copyright © 2008 by Eloisa James. Al rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCol ins e-books.

Microsoft Reader May 2008 ISBN 978-0-06-169062-4

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