The Duchess

dancing once again. Sirena, however, managed to evade the dancers, and take her cousin aside.

'Why didn't you tell me?' she demanded, outraged. 'We have never before kept secrets from each other.'

'Because I wanted you and Ocky to enjoy all the attention generated from your betrothal. If I had told you that the duke and I were also betrothed, it would have hardly remained a secret, Sirena.'

'When did he ask you?' Sirena asked, excitedly.

'He and Papa came to an arrangement several weeks ago, and then he asked me,' Allegra answered her cousin.

'Do you love him?' Sirena's pretty face was anxious.

'I barely know him,' Allegra replied.

'Then how can you marry him?' Sirena almost wailed.

'Sirena, my dearest romantic little cousin, he is the Duke of Sedgwick. How can I not marry him?' Allegra replied.

'That is so cold!' Sirena cried, her brown eyes filling with tears.

'No, it is being practical,' Allegra told her quietly. 'I must be married, dearest one. Whoever I wed marries me for my money. How can I ever believe otherwise? You and Ocky marry for love, but few in our class have that luxury, sweeting. I am quite satisfied with this arrangement, I assure you.'

'As am I,' the duke said, joining them. 'Please do not fret yourself, Lady Sirena. I intend taking good care of your cousin.'

'Come, sweetheart, I want to dance,' Viscount Pickford said as he also joined them. 'People will talk if we do not, Sirena. Then all those husband-hunting gels will be after me again, and it will be all your fault, my darling,' he teased her, leading her away.

'She loves you very much,' the duke remarked.

'I love her,' Allegra replied. She slipped her hand through his arm. 'Should we not also dance, my lord?'

'I dislike dancing,' he replied.

'So do I,' she admitted, 'but it is my ball, and tongues will wag if we are not seen together tripping the light fantastic.'

He laughed. 'What a fine sense of propriety you have, Allegra. You really are a very sensible young woman. More like your father than your mother, I think. You will not fall in love with someone else and leave me.'

'But you might fall in love one day and leave me,' she countered.

'I do not believe in love,' he said truthfully. 'Love is the cause of more difficulties on this earth than even money, or the lack of it. Since by marrying you I become a rich man, and since I don't hold with the chimera of love, there is little likelihood that I will ever leave you, Allegra.'

'You may change your mind when I begin restoring Hunter's Lair, Quinton,' she teased him. 'From what I have been told, I shall need to expend a small fortune on it.'

He laughed again. 'I love the old place,' he admitted, 'but I know it could use a bit of sprucing up. It is yours to do with as you will, my dear. Just leave the Great Hall for my hunting parties.'

'I agree,' she told him with a smile. 'Now escort me back to the dance floor, and let us make everyone here tonight envious of us.'

'Why, Miss Morgan,' he teased back, 'what a naughty girl you are. I did not expect it from such a proper young woman, but it is not an unwelcome side of you, I am thinking.'

'We shall have the summer to know each other better,' she replied. 'I hope we shall still like each other when the summer ends. It will make for a much better marriage if we like one another, Quinton.'

He thought about her last remark afterward. She was a practical girl, but he sensed in her a vulnerability that he would wager even she wasn't aware of in herself. For all her intelligence, and a season in London, she was still an innocent at heart. He found that he wanted to protect Allegra from any hurt. Then he smiled to himself. It would seem that no man could be free of a woman's charms. When earlier that evening he had given her an amethyst ring set round with diamonds as a token of their pledge, she had almost squealed, catching herself in midcry. It had both touched and amused him.

'It is beautiful. How could you afford such a ring?' she demanded.

'It is a family piece,' he told her. 'One of the few that did not go to pay gambling debts. I chose it because its deep color reminded me of your eyes, Allegra.'

Her mouth fell open in surprise. Then catching herself she closed it, saying, 'What a lovely thing to say, my lord.' She held out her hand, admiring the ring some more.

He took her hand, and kissed it. 'I may not love you, Allegra, but it is not difficult to say lovely things to you, my dear.'

'I am sorry I didn't have this ring when I made my bow at court. All the other girls, especially the ones who were so high-flown with me, would have been pea green with envy!'

'Your curtsey put the others to shame,' he told her. 'It was every bit worthy of a Duchess of Sedgwick.'

'I am amazed that I did not topple over in that ridiculous gown,' she told him. 'One had to go sideways through the doors with those huge hoop skirts. It was all I could do not to fall on my bottom when I bowed. And the neckline was cut so fashionably low that my bosom was all but exposed to King George. But he didn't seem to mind. As for the wig I had to wear, it weighed practically as much as a coach and four, Quinton. I thought my neck would crack with its weight.'

'I thought the doves flying amid the diamonds a rather nice touch,' he remarked, his silvery eyes twinkling.

Allegra laughed. 'I vow, sir, if it were possible to use live birds some ambitious mama would do it. I prefer simple clothing.'

Like the gown she was wearing tonight, he thought as they danced the final minuet of the evening. Her high-waisted dress was a cream damask silk with an overskirt of shimmering sheer gold silk. Her little gold slippers peeped from beneath the gown, and gold ribbons were entwined amid her dark curls. Her slender neck was encircled with a strand of pearls, and she wore pearl ear-bobs in her ears. The effect was both elegant, rich, and yet simple. Looking really closely at her tonight he realized for the first time how absolutely beautiful Allegra was. Oh, yes, he had seen she was a beauty prior, and God only knows everyone said it. Rich and beautiful was all he heard this evening as he was congratulated. But he had not until now truly looked at Allegra.

Her heart-shaped face was perfectly formed. Her nose was straight, and just tilted ever so tightly up at its tip. Her eyebrows were thick and black, a sign of her Welsh heritage. Her violet- colored eyes, large and luminous, were edged with a heavy fall of black lashes. Her lower lip was fuller than the upper. It was a sensuous and tempting little mouth. He was even now contemplating kissing it. She was tall for a girl, but certainly not too tall for him. She was slender of limb, but her bosom was delightfully round and nicely shaped. He estimated one of her breasts would fit quite perfectly into one of his palms.

It was then he considered the possibility of bedding Allegra. He wasn't certain how he would go about such a thing with a wife. She would, of course, be a virgin. He had never had a virgin. The fact that he didn't love her bothered him not at all. He had never been in love with any of the women he had lain with, but this would, of course, be different. Allegra would be his wife. Could a man love a woman he bedded? Could a wife arouse his desires? Or was passion just a deliciously lustful pastime? And how would an amicably bred girl react to passion? He would have to be tender and gentle with her.

'The dance has ended, Quinton,' he suddenly heard Allegra's voice saying. 'Please pay attention, my lord, or you will have the gossips chattering about how moonstruck you are. What on earth are you thinking about?'

'Bedding you,' he answered her honestly, and was rather pleased to see the blush that came to her cheeks. Innocence was a powerful aphrodisiac he was learning, feeling a distinct