2
" Do you like flowers, Lady Eleanor?"
It was him speaking. Lord Blunt. Asking her opinion on something, of all things.
It was unexpected.
And everyone was waiting for her answer. Or so it seemed.
"I do, thank you." Why did his simple question make her want to shout, or scream, or say something in Italian?
A language that she'd learned that seemed to hold all the emotion she wasn't allowed to have. So she loved it all the more.
"They are... bellissimi fiori," she said, feeling daring as she spoke.
"Speak so that everyone can understand, Eleanor," her mother said reprovingly.
"Of course, Mother," Eleanor replied, lowering her eyes so nobody would see the spark of defiance she knew was there. "
― Megan Frampton , Lady Be Bad (Duke's Daughters, #1)
3
" What would you do if you were a goddess, Cotswold?"
Her maid, who had been pulling Eleanor's covers up the bed, stilled her motion. Her expression drew together, as though she were considering it.
"I suppose I would find the most handsome man in the world and make him my... my..." She waved her hand to indicate the word she shouldn't be saying.
"Cotswold!" Eleanor exclaimed, delightedly. "That sounds scandalous!"
"Wouldn't it be what you did?"
Eleanor shrugged. "I was thinking more along the lines of being able to have and read all the books I wanted to."
Cotswold returned to her task. "Choosing a book over a handsome man." She shook her head, mock ruefully. "And here you were wanting to do something scandalous."
The honest part was, it would be scandalous.
If it were possible to not be a duke's daughter and be someone else, she would choose to work in a bookshop. Not one that sold the material it seemed Lord Alexander wanted to purchase; one with fairy tales and mythological books and any kind of literature where it was just as likely a dragon would drag you off somewhere as a viscount.
"I just might," Eleanor said in a defiant tone, making her maid snort. "
― Megan Frampton , Lady Be Bad (Duke's Daughters, #1)
7
" I am not certain that Lord Carson and I will suit one another."
Mostly because she knew she was falling in love with his brother. But that she wouldn't share.
She couldn't believe she was speaking so boldly to her mother. To anyone, honestly.
Neither, at least according to their expressions, could her mother and Olivia.
"What do you mean?"
For once, her mother was actually asking her a question that didn't presuppose the answer.
"I mean," Eleanor said slowly, feeling how her chest was tightening at even the thought of saying something so undebutante-like, "that I do not wish to go driving with Lord Carson this afternoon. I mean that I would like to be unhampered by an engagement for just a bit more. That how you all are bearing down on me makes it feel as though I am a thing to be manipulated, not a person who could live her own life."
Her mother's mouth dropped open, while Olivia looked as though she didn't know whether to cheer or to slap her sister.
"Live your own life?" her mother said, her voice rising into a screech. Eleanor winced at the sound. "Your sister made it impossible for any of the rest of you to live your own lives, unless you plan on living your lives in penury and disgrace."
"It isn't that horrible," Olivia pointed out in a reasonable tone. "The worst that could happen is that we settle for gentlemen we actually like rather than gentlemen you and Father decide on for us."
Now Eleanor wished she could cheer for her sister. "
― Megan Frampton , Lady Be Bad (Duke's Daughters, #1)
10
" This is- cricket?" she said, sounding skeptical.
"What did you imagine it was? Unless you thought the actual insects were wandering about playing some sort of organized entertainment," he said, raising an eyebrow at her as he spoke.
She looked at him, her blue eyes wide, and then they narrowed and her words emerged before, he would guess, she had time to consider what she was saying. And the lady from the bookstore reappeared.
"You seem to think I am so idiotic that I would possibly imagine that insects would be engaged in a sporting activity." Her tone dripped with icy disdain, and he felt himself heat at the sight of her enraged. "I assure you, my lord, that simply because I have not yet had experience with things that I am not entirely stupid." She glared at him, her eyes narrowing even more. "That is what you believe, isn't it? That I am unintelligent?" She focused her attention on a small purse she'd brought along with her, opening it with shaking fingers. "I am many things, or not many things, depending on what your perspective is, but I am not stupid." She withdrew a pair of spectacles from her purse and placed them on her face, settling the wires behind her ears. "As it happens, I am poorly sighted. That much is true." And she resumed glaring at him from across the seat. "Likely you have misjudged my expression because I have a lack of vision. But since you don't seem to think very highly of me in the first place, I might as well wear my spectacles so I can see your disdain."
He wanted to both applaud and kiss her all at the same time. "
― Megan Frampton , Lady Be Bad (Duke's Daughters, #1)
11
" Lempriere's Bibliotecha Classica?" she said, reading the title. She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "How did you know?"
He shrugged, and that lock of hair fell down over his brow at the movement. "I wasn't certain, but you said you liked mythology, and so I asked Mr. Woodson what the most likely book would be for a person who had those interests."
He had gotten her a book. Not only that, but it was a book that meant something to her, a fact he couldn't possibly have known.
And yet he knew her.
"This is the same book I had when I was young."
His smile was one of relief, and she felt oddly honored that he cared so much that his gift be a good one. He cared for her. And what she wanted, not what he thought she should want. "
― Megan Frampton , Lady Be Bad (Duke's Daughters, #1)
12
" I want you to be able to see clearly." He paused, and she saw his jaw tighten. "Everything."
What did that mean? Perhaps more importantly, why did that make her body prickle in awareness?
"Well, then," she said, pushing her spectacles farther up her nose, "we should go inside so you can overwhelm me."
And she couldn't resist giving him a smile that she hoped was as alluring as one of the ancient seductresses she'd read about in her books- strong, fearless females like Helen of Troy or Venus (who had the added benefit of being a goddess). Not Lady Eleanor Howlett, nondescript eldest daughter of the Duke of Marymount.
She heard his sharp intake of breath when he looked at her, and a new sensation, one of feminine satisfaction, coursed through her. "
― Megan Frampton , Lady Be Bad (Duke's Daughters, #1)
13
" What adventure do you wish to go on next?" he asked, his voice low and intimate.
And now she just wanted to launch herself onto his lap again and kiss him for a few more minutes. Days. A lifetime.
She was in more trouble than even she suspected.
"A gambling den, I think," she replied instead, sitting upright in her seat as well, placing her hands in her lap as though she were paying a social call, not alone with a rakish gentleman in his custom-fitted carriage.
"You don't do things by half, do you?" he mused, and she could hear the admiration in his tone. Had she ever heard that before? She'd heard gentlemen admire her dowry when they didn't know she could hear. She'd also heard them admire the fact that she wasn't as hideous as her dowry could allow her to be. But she had never heard that kind of frank, unadulterated admiration.
"A gambling den, then. What about more cricket matches? Or are those too tame for her ladyship?" he teased.
The image of him shirtless, his muscles shifting in the sun, made her all squirmy again. "More cricket matches too, please," she said in a breathy voice.
He laughed again, only this time it wasn't as though in humor, but in some shared secret. "
― Megan Frampton , Lady Be Bad (Duke's Daughters, #1)
