The Ugly Duchess (28 page)
Authors: Eloisa James
One of the moments that Theo—or Daisy, as her husband persisted in calling her—remembered throughout her entire life came later that night.
They were sprawled on the bed. As usual, one of the sheets trailed on the floor. The duchess’s hair was standing up on one side. The duke was complaining that he’d pulled a muscle in his left hip and it was her fault, because “no man was meant to bend in that fashion.”
Theo gave her husband a kiss, and told him a secret that she had kept nestled in her heart, waiting until she was absolutely certain. “And
you,
” she stated, “will be the most wonderful father this baby could possibly have had.”
James couldn’t seem to find any words. He stared at her for a moment, then sat back against the headboard and gently eased her between his legs, spreading his huge hands on her belly.
As she relaxed happily against his shoulder, to her utter astonishment, he began to sing. His voice was nothing like the clear tenor he’d once had. It was the voice of a man who’d been to sea; it sounded like brandy and sin.
“Dance with me,” he sang, “to the end of life.”
He paused after that line and whispered in her ear. “That means that you and I will dance down the days of this life together, and perhaps even beyond.” He dropped a kiss on her nose and sang on, his hands tenderly resting on her still-flat stomach. “Dance me to our children, who are waiting to be born.”
Theo swallowed her tears and raised her voice to sing with him, her clear soprano entwining with his imperfect—but oh, so beautiful—bass.
“Dance with me,” they sang together, “to the end of life.”
It was the first of many songs that James sang for their firstborn, and their second born, and for the third and fourth, who came as a matched set. The children knew that their father didn’t like to sing. But they also knew that if their mother asked him . . . well, Papa never could say no to her.
So together the family danced and sang—a pirate and a duchess, a duke and an artist, a man and a woman—down the many days and byways of a long and happy life.
A
ll my novels have drawn inspiration from a combination of literary fiction, historical facts, and elements of my own life (my husband would be the first to point out that Theo’s wish to catalog her ribbons is duplicated in my own shelves).
The Ugly Duchess
obviously follows that pattern, in that its greatest debt is to the story “The Ugly Duckling,” written by the Danish poet and storyteller Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen’s fairytale was published in 1843, making use of it here anachronistic, for which I beg forgiveness. I wanted to place my story in the Regency, and more precisely, I wanted Theo to be in Paris after the 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau.
At the same time, this novel is my first to have received inspiration from a living person outside my own family (I don’t count Sir Justin Fiebvre, in
The Duke Is Mine
; while Justin Bieber is obviously inspirational to many, Sir Justin was a minor character). Some time ago, my attention was caught by an article describing the “Rules” created by the fascinating, eclectic, and altogether magnificent Iris Apfel. Theo came up with rules suited to her own time and place, but Iris’s (“Visit the animal kingdom”) served as a jumping-off point. Another source of fashion advice was Genevieve Antoine Dariaux’s
A Guide to Elegance: For Every Woman Who Wants to be Well and Properly Dressed on all Occasions.
Elegance, Dariaux announces, is harmony, a lesson that Theo took to heart.
I want to add that the chapter set in the House of Lords owes much to a similar scene depicted in Dorothy Sayers’s
Clouds of Witness
(1926). And finally, Sir Griffin Barry is modeled on a real life pirate from the Renaissance, a young reprobate who was a playwright and a gentleman, as well as a pirate.
Read on for an excerpt from
Eloisa James’s
Once upon a time,
not so very long ago . . .
(or, to be exact,
March 1812)
. . . there was a girl who
was destined to be a princess. Though to be absolutely precise, there was no
prince in the offing. But she was betrothed to a duke’s heir, and from the point
of view of minor gentry, a coronet was as good as a crown.
This story begins with that girl, and continues
through a stormy night, and a series of tests, and if there’s no pea in the
tale, all I can say is that if you read on, you
will
encounter a surprise in that bed: a key, a flea—or perhaps a marquess, for that
matter.
In fairy tales, the ability to perceive an
obtrusion as tiny as a pea under the mattress is enough to prove that a strange
girl who arrives on a stormy night is indeed a princess. In the real world, of
course, it’s a bit more complicated. In order to prepare for the rank of
duchess, Miss Olivia Mayfield Lytton had learned something from virtually every
branch of human knowledge. She was prepared to dine with a king, or a fool, or
Socrates himself, conversing on subjects as far-flung as Italian comic opera and
the new spinning machines.
But, just as a single dried pea was all that
was needed to determine the authenticity of the princess, one crucial fact
determined Olivia’s eligibility for the rank of duchess: she was betrothed to
the heir to the Canterwick dukedom.
Less important were the facts that when this
tale begins Olivia was twenty-three and still unmarried, that her father had no
title, and that she had never been given a compliment such as
a diamond of the first water.
Quite the opposite, in
fact.
None of that mattered.
Watch for Eloisa’s
next enthralling fairy tale,
her own version of Rapunzel,
Coming Summer 2013
from Avon Books
E
LOISA
J
AMES
is the author of twenty-one award-winning
romances. She’s also a professor of English literature, teaching in New York
City, where she lives with her family. With two jobs, two cats, two children,
and only one husband, she spends most of her time making lists of things to
do—letters from readers are a great escape! Connect with Eloisa on her Facebook
page (
www.facebook.com/EloisaJamesFans
), through her
website (
www.eloisajames.com
), or through e-mail at
[email protected].
Visit
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The Ugly Duchess
The Duke Is Mine
Winning the Wallflower
(a novella)
Storming the Castle
(a novella)
When Beauty Tamed the Beast
A Kiss at Midnight
A Duke of Her Own
This Duchess of Mine
When the Duke Returns
Duchess By Night
An Affair Before Christmas
Desperate Duchesses
Pleasure for Pleasure
The Taming of the Duke
Kiss Me, Annabel
Much Ado About You
Your Wicked Ways
A Wild Pursuit
Fool for Love
Duchess in Love
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual
events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.
Excerpt from
The Duke Is
Mine
copyright © 2012 by Eloisa James.
K.I.S.S. and Teal is a trademark of the
Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.
THE UGLY
DUCHESS
. Copyright © 2012 by Eloisa James. All rights reserved under
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EPub Edition SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN:
9780062197962
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062021731
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