Read Absolute Surrender for Free Online Page B

want of another. One she had known as a child then watched from a distance only as allowed. One who ’ d been turned out every time she ’ d begun to act out. One she ’ d begun to be reacquainted with tonight, truly acquainted, really, for the first time in so very many years. One who made her very skin ache to be touched. One she hoped had no idea she was on the verge of becoming an outcast.
    Amelia ’ s cheeks burned from all the forced smiles and politesse, and she pressed them in to ease the muscles, then caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and chuckled. Her mouth was pursed like that of a fish.
    Truly, she was frightened at the prospect of being near him again. She ’ d thought perhaps her infatuation was merely that, and with seeing him again those feelings would be gone, but they hadn’t been. His very presence called to her.
    Jacks . Charles Henry Tristan Jackson, Duke of Castleberry, Marquess of Braverton, Viscount Melbrey, certainly many other lesser titles she wasn’t aware of—she would have to look in Debrett’s for that information—but his friends still called him Jacks, she was sure.
    If he had friends. Did he have friends? Surely there would be friends.
    Amelia poked at her cheeks, in and out. She had been the first to call him Jacks, when they were young and allowed such frivolities. She hoped he would allow her to call him Jacks again. Perhaps even Charles. Charles: such a simple name for a man who was not nearly so simple.
    Now why would her lips puckered like a fish call his nickname to mind? She dropped her hands and fidgeted with a loose thread on her skirt. Presenting His Grace, Charles Jackson, Duke of Castleberry and his wife, Amelia Jackson, Duchess of Castleberry, she thought with a smile, then shook her head. They would not use our Christian names—
    “Your mother is the very devil’s undergarments!” grumbled her girl as she burst into the room.
    Amelia ’ s attention jerked up, and with it the thread she was fidgeting with pulled loose, making a hole in her dress. She attempted to smooth the fabric, and when that didn ’ t work, she folded the skirt over the hole to hide it.
    “Louisa, dearest, my mother is as she is, as you should be aware by now.”
    “Promise me you’ll not leave me to her when you are well and married. Please, take me with you.”
    Amelia giggled and stood as the irreverent girl pulled and twisted and shed her of her clothes. “I would never do such a thing as leave you here, you know that,” Amelia said as she suffered Louisa ’ s ministrations like a fish caught in the tide.

    Louisa had been with Amelia for what seemed forever, and Louisa knew Amelia nearly as well as Hugh did. Louisa was able to help Amelia, but her presence wasn ’ t as calming as Hugh ’ s always had been—but Louisa could manage her, and that was usually enough.
    “Viper, she is. You ’ d think the world was at an end simply because you left the ball.”
    “Ah, well. Is my mother home or did she send a footman to check on me?”
    “Send a footman?” Louisa squealed. “Send a footman! Why, the very—and leave the ball with only three liveried men to accompany the coach? You cannot be serious, Amelia. The very idea, I mean, really .”
    Amelia collapsed back in her chair with a smile. “Goodness me, the coachman and outriders must be dizzy from circling London this night. Mother must have been waiting for their return.”
    “Hush now,” Louisa said. “She ’ ll hear you, and then where will we be? In the stocks in the grand courtyard, that’s where.” Louisa lifted the skirt to the light, prodding at the hole Amelia had just made, and Amelia winced.
    “Louisa, the stocks were removed to the attics decades ago,” Amelia said, trying to distract her from the damage.
    Louisa tossed the dress aside. “Oh, my lady, don ’ t think for a minute that she’ll not pull them out simply for this transgression. Truly, you sound like a schoolgirl in this fit of