Page 25 of The Odyssean Duke

Evelina swallowed hard, thinking of how his warm, soft lips had felt when pressed against her own. “Is that so?”

“Is it true?” Maria asked. “I have already told Anna of your plan.”

Third plan, but there is no need to admit I have already discarded so many approaches.

“And I had to know all the details,” Anna added. “I am passingly familiar with the Duke of Rothbury.”

“Are you?” Evelina asked. “I did not realize that.”

Anna waved a dismissive hand. “He is an acquaintance of my own dear duke,” she said. “He has come for a few visits.”

“Then, you must know a great deal about him,” Evelina said.

She could not quite say how that revelation made her feel.

“A little,” Anna replied. “Perhaps, not as much as you would want if the gossip is true.”

Evelina wondered how many of the ton knew about her being alone with His Grace, but she pushed those thoughts aside for a moment. There was a more important matter at hand, after all. “But whatdoyou know?” Evelina asked.

“He is currently engaged in a war with the Dowager Duchess of Rothbury,” Anna said.

“What sort of war?” asked Maria.

Anna offered a small shrug. “I am afraid that I do not know the finer details, but it seems as though Her Grace has some means by which she hopes to maintain power over the dukedom.”

Evelina frowned. “But she is a woman. The dukedomshouldbelong to His Grace.”

“I do not know,” Anna said. “Her Grace must have some means by which she believes she can maintain power, though. Otherwise, I do not imagine she would even try.”

“Maybe a stipulation in the will?” Maria suggested.

“It is a good guess,” Anna said.

“Whatever it might be, I suppose that an heir would help His Grace maintain control,” Evelina mused.

“I would assume so,” Anna agreed. “From what I have heard of the late duke, it would not be unusual for him to impose some stipulation on your duke’s inheritance.”

A fissure of something warm shot through Evelina when she heard the man referred to asherduke.

“The whole affair sounds quite complicated,” Maria said.

“It is,” Anna said. “That descriptor might well be applied to the entire family as well. His Grace and his father were not especially fond of one another, and I imagine that the Dowager Duchess of Rothbury has some involvement in that.”

“Maybe she was often forced to mediate between them?” Maria offered.

Evelina furrowed her brow, trying to imagine what manner of woman Her Grace must be. Was the same woman who was trying to seize power for herself the same manner of woman who would let herself be mediator between two powerful men? Maybe she had no other choice. A dowager would be left entirely at the mercy of her male relatives.

“I cannot speak to that,” Anna said. “I do know that His Grace’s relationship with his father was so dreadful that he left London entirely and joined the navy. He has been away for—how long was it? I think ten years.”

“That is unusual for a duke,” Evelina murmured.

She thought impulsively of her husband; if she had been born with more options, she might have fled that wretched man for ten years.

Anna nodded. “It seems as though he was quite gifted, though. He became an admiral and was evidently quite a strategist. His Grace had several victories at sea.”

“And presumably returned home to take the title,” Evelina concluded.

“So it seems,” Anna said.