Page 5 of The Duke's Only Desire

Wide-eyed, Sophie cowered back a step. “I’m-I’m Sophie Winter. I’m here to—”

“I know who you are,” Colsworth ground out between clenched teeth. “A grubby little social climbing—”

“John,” Seamus warned.

“Christ, Shay!Lookat her!” Colsworth shoved his brother away. “Malvern’s shackling me to a goddamnedchild, and you expect me to welcome her with open arms?”

“I amnota child,” she countered with an indignant toss of her head.

“You’re only twelve if you’re a day.” Colsworth stared at her chest and laughed scornfully. “The women who come to my bed all have breasts.”

Sophie folded her arms in front of her still flat bosom and lowered her eyes to the floor, tears of fury blurring her vision. She hated him, this man she was going to be forced to marry and spend the rest of her life with…

Shehatedhim!

He rudely stalked back to his chair, then cursed again to discover his glass was empty. He snatched it up and hurled it into the fireplace, shattering it in a shower of crystal and flames against the firebox.

Sophie jumped with a terrified cry.

“John,” Seamus suggested evenly, not moving from Sophie’s side, “perhaps you should go for a walk around the gardens.”

“Perhapsyoushould go to—”

“John.”

Colsworth smiled coldly at his brother, a smile that reminded Sophie of the crocodile she’d seen in the Tower Menagerie. “Going to tell me that I need to be a gentleman? Why bother? If the chit’s going to be my marchioness, then she’d better get usedto the family now, don’t you think?” He laughed, but there was no humor anywhere in the sound. “If a man can’t be himself in front of his future wife—all twelve years and flat chest of her—then when can he?”

Seamus didn’t answer, but he didn’t move away either, keeping himself between his brother and Sophie.

Colsworth laughed bitterly. “Oh, I know! When he’s tupping a lightskirt because his father’s forced him into marriage.”

Sophie flinched. She didn’t expect him to be happy about the arrangement. Heaven knewshewasn’t. Not at all. She didn’t know much about men and women and what went on between them, but at least she knew that a girl shouldn’t want to break into sobs the first time she met her intended husband. Or want to run fleeing into the night to get away from him.

“Go grab some coats,” Seamus suggested to his brother. “We’ll go to the tavern and strike up a card game.” When Colsworth didn’t move, he pressed, “Being stuck inside the house with Father is the last place you want to spend a holiday from university, anyway. So let’s go, and I’ll promise not to win all your money.”

Colsworth’s attention tore away from Sophie to flick to his brother. “Fine.”

Not bothering to hide another sharp curse, this time directly at her, he stomped from the room. Only after he’d left did Sophie realize that she’d been holding her breath, waiting for him to strike. Like a snake.

Seamus ran his fingers through his hair. His shoulders sagged, and a rueful expression darkened his face. “My sincerest apologies for my brother’s behavior, Miss Winter.”

She pressed her hand to her chest, where her heart pounded like a drum beneath the soft velvet. When she’d first put on this dress, she’d felt like a princess.

Now she felt like a prisoner.

“He was just stunned to meet you. That’s all.”

She gave a jerking nod. Oh, she certainly understood that! She had been shocked to within an inch of her life herself.

“It’s Father he’s upset with because he hasn’t given John any say in his marriage.”

She certainly understoodthat, too.

“He’s twenty-one, heir to a dukedom and all the opportunities that implies, only to come home from university to discover that Father has decided to arrange a match with you.” He reached out to pluck at her sleeve cap with a cheerless smile. “You could have been Helen of Troy, and he still would have reacted that way.”

“But I’m just me,” she muttered, certain that Helen of Troy had breasts.

As if reading her mind, he grinned, a bright and easygoing smile that sparked amusement in his green eyes. “A face that could launchtwothousand ships.”