Welcome to A Duchess Monday Everyone! Today's pick is from The Duchess Diaries by Jillian Hunter. This book was a gift to me and I just started reading it Friday night. I'm addicted. I love the heroine. She's made me laugh out loud a couple of times already with her sass and I think the rest of the book will be just as entertaining.
Here's today's snippet so you can take a look for yourself. Happy Reading!
“What if he didn’t take the diary into the house? What if it isn’t there or in the carriage?”
“I need to concentrate,” Harriet said. “Would you please stop worrying?”
“How can I help it? It’s bad enough that you instructed your coachman to drive to Mrs. Watson’s house to make sure the duke was still inside. Imagine being caught, two ladies of our position, sneaking around a brothel.”
“I did work there once,” Harriet murmured, closing her eyes.
“I’ll be mortified if anyone recognized us.”
“Perhaps you should have stayed behind the curtains instead of peeking out at the place.”
“The house certainly does a brisk business,” Charlotte said. “I lost count of the gentlemen who arrived in the short time we circled ’round.”
“One of those gentlemen is you-know-who.”
“Don’t remind me.” She had already tortured herself with the thought. It wasn’t difficult to picture him surrounded by women eager to satisfy his every disgraceful whim.
“We’re in Belgravia,” Harriet said, opening her eyes.
“How can you tell?”
“The sound of the wheels on the cobbles.” Harriet frowned at her. “If you can’t stay calm, then stay in the carriage.”
“No,” Charlotte said resolutely. “That isn’t fair.”
Twenty minutes later Charlotte wished she could change her mind. In all her secret yearnings she hadn’t once imagined that she would be skulking behind the shrubbery to break into Gideon’s house. A lady was never to pay a call on a gentleman unless she wished to be considered fast.
Harriet pulled her skirt free from a thorn-laden branch. “He would have to plant rosebushes right under the window.”
“It seems a reasonable place to plant them,” Charlotte replied, biting her thumb.
“Not when you climb through them in a gauze ball gown.”
“I’m sure the duke’s gardener didn’t grow them there to ruin your wardrobe.”
"No chattering. Someone could be listening.”
Charlotte stared past the dark rows of trees in the garden. “From where?”
“From the servants’ quarters. Or the house next door. There’s a window looking down at us. And don’t answer if someone asks who goes there. Just hoist yourself over the sill and close the window. Pass me the chisel, please.”
Charlotte reached into Harriet’s beaded reticule. “I don’t believe this.”
“What?”
“‘Pass me the chisel, please.’ We were sitting at the breakfast table only this morning and you asked me to pass the sugar tongs. This is housebreaking, Harriet.”
“Well, it isn’t a night at the opera. Did you find it yet?”
“No. Hold my fan for a moment.”
“Why on earth did you bring a fan?”
“I feel naked without it. Here.” She handed Harriet the tool. “How long do you think the duke will be gone?”
“This is his first official night with his mistress. I don’t think he’ll come home before dawn. I saw her at a rout once. She’s very beautiful. Small and dark.” Harriet worked the chisel under the windowsill. “There. You go in first.”
Once they had climbed into the kitchen, they waited a few more minutes before Harriet repeated the instructions she’d given Charlotte in the carriage. “We’ll start upstairs first. If he came home to change, he would have done so in his bedroom. You go there. I’ll search the upstairs drawing room.”
“What if we’re caught?”
“Make up something. Say you were sleepwalking.”
“All the way from Park Lane?”
“Say that we…we’re on the treasure hunt and that we broke up into groups after he left.”
“A treasure hunt.”
The Duchess Diaries
Jillian Hunter
The Bridal Pleasures Series
Available At:
Amazon |
B&N
Back Of The Book
As headmistress of the Scarfield Academy for Young Ladies, Miss Charlotte Boscastle is tasked with keeping her charges free from notoriety. But when Charlotte's diary goes missing, she can't imagine having her most intimate secrets fall into the wrong hands.
Although the confessions in the diary he found spark his interest, the Duke of Wynfield has every intention of returning the journal. But when Gideon's encounter with Charlotte takes on an unexpectedly passionate nature, his indiscretion causes a scandal that only marriage can cure...
About the Author:
Jillian Hunter is the author of twenty-one published novels. Her books have been printed in twelve languages and have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.
Your turn! Have you read any other works by Ms. Hunter? Any particular book you liked best? Let's talk historical romance!
