Not only that, he was the duke. THE DUKE.
As such, he was the one man who would be forever off-limits to the likes of her.
Which was fine. Fine. From the moment she’d finally surrendered to her curiosity and smiled at him, she had intended one night only. One night at the Queen’s Head Tavern, specifically. One night of passion in an otherwise chaste and respectable life. One night for herself in a lifetime dedicated to others—the duchess, her mother. Her little indiscretion wasn’t supposed to be here. In London. Living under the same roof. The duke!
Because who would have thought that the handsome stranger with an American accent, plainly dressed and alone in a tavern in Southampton, was the new duke?
No one would have thought that.
Dukes were English, not American. They dressed in fine attire—if plain, at least well made. They traveled with servants and took private parlors rather than mix with the riffraff in the common room. Everyone knew this, except the new duke.
She hadn’t been expecting him.
Meredith had spent the past six months cut off from the great world in Hampshire, tending to her ailing mother. It had not been an opportune time to leave the duchess, given that she’d lost her husband and the future of the estate was uncertain. Meredith only returned upon receiving word from the duchess that she was urgently needed. The details of the new duke—that he was American, and would be accompanied by three sisters—were only related to her over tea once she returned to London.
Still, she never dreamed that the American man she’d spent the night with was the new Duke of Durham.
But now she’d best gather her wits and get a hold of herself. What had happened between her and the duke could not happen again, and no one must know that they had happened, once upon a time.
She would just have to avoid him as much as possible—and she had half a chance, given the vast size of Durham House. All those rooms. All those corridors. There would be plenty of places to hide.
When they were together, she would simply avoid his gaze—even if it took Herculean effort to turn her face from those sparkling blue eyes that looked at her like she was something and someone spectacular.
Her efforts to avoid him were thwarted later that night, on the servants’ stairs, of all places. The dimly lit and secluded servants’ stairs.
She was venturing up, ready to retire for the evening, and he was descending. The stairway was so narrow there was no avoiding each other.
“Hello. Miss Green. I was just on my way out for some fresh air before retiring. I did not wish to disturb anyone.”
He smiled down at her as she slowly climbed the stairs toward him.
“Your Grace.”
She nodded her head and made like she intended to keep going. Like she was going to walk right past him. Which was her plan. It was a good plan. A sensible one.
“Wait. Please.”
She paused. It was a reluctant pause. Because pausing was not part of her plan. It could lead to intimacy, to trouble, to Things She Should Not Do. But he was the duke now, and she was little more than a servant. It wasn’t that she had to obey, it was that it was inadvisable to flout him. She could not encourage any intimacy with him, yet she also needed to maintain his favor, lest he insist she depart. Meredith didn’t think the duchess would ever stand for that, but it wasn’t a risk she wished to take.
So she paused.
“Your Grace.”
She bobbed into a curtsy and then waited, a step or two below him.
He ignored her formality. Instead, he leaned against the wall, and smiled like he was just a man flirting with a pretty girl and said, “You didn’t stay to say goodbye.”
“Pardon me if I am not certain of the etiquette of such a situation that we should never speak of. In fact, we should pretend it never happened.”
“I gathered as much. But I don’t want to pretend it never happened,” he said. “In fact, all I want is for it to happen again and again and again.”
She looked away, and her lips curved into the slightest, saddest smile as she remembered his kiss, his touch, the sweet things he’d whispered. Memories, that’s all.
“You have a lot to learn, Your Grace.”
“What happened to Just James?”
“It never happened. I never knew him. And you certainly do not know me. We never happened.”
“All right, I understand. But why?”
“Dukes do not marry mere companions, and mere companions cannot risk compromising their reputations. One does not court scandal,” Meredith said, explaining the fundamentals of the haute ton. “The duchess does not condone scandalous behavior, and as her faithful companion, I don’t dare disobey her wishes.”
“I don’t care about scandal.”