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own red
    shawl about her shoulders, she looked nearly ready to sprint for
    the door.
    Odd. Should she not be making some more determined effort
    to stay? And to win his attention? It was completely irregular.
    Here he was, caught out, one might say, an heir apparent who
    was known best for not being readily available to callers. Yet here
    he was, available, facing a quite attractive girl with dark hair and
    eyes and fashionably pale skin.
    It was beyond question that she would be very delighted to
    marry him. They all were, weren’t they? He had what every
    woman wanted in a man, and he was not such a dullard that he
    didn’t know it.
    Of course, she was a bit peculiar. That might explain it.
    Wasn’t she just slightly too forceful? Too direct? It wasn’t at all
    what a man looked for in a woman, not if he had any sense. His
    mother was entirely too direct and very nearly forbiddingly
    forceful, so he was very clear about what he wanted in a wife,
    How to Daz zle a Duke
    31
    when he bothered to think about it at all, which he rarely did. He
    wanted a wife he could manage without any effort, he knew that.
    Most women looked pleasant enough from a distance, but get to
    know them in any degree of polite familiarity and they became
    positive dragons. Not that he would ever call his mother, the
    duchess, a dragon; however, the duke did have a bit of a time
    with her, not that he ever complained. On the contrary, his father
    seemed remarkably content with his situation, but Iveston was
    nearly certain that it was possible to be even more content with
    a less energetic wife.
    Miss Prestwick, now that he had got a good look at her, seemed
    to boil with energy.
    Entirely unpleasant. He was completely put off.
    He stood in a relaxed posture of attention and said not a word,
    shutting her out and showing her that he was not in the least in
    terested in her. Of course, he watched for her response.
    Proving that she was peculiar and not at all aware of how to
    behave, she barely glanced at him. And when she did, she was
    quite obviously dismissive.
    In all his twenty-nine years, nearly ten of them being feted
    and pursued by every mama to every girl above the age of four
    teen, he had never been dismissed so thoroughly. In fact, not at
    all. Not a bit of it. He’d been hotly pursued, as was entirely ap
    propriate, if annoying. This chit, this little nothing of more
    money than breeding, was discounting him ?
    Gad, she was peculiar. Very nearly mad, by all appearances.
    “We must be off, Cranleigh,” he murmured, ducking his head
    slightly before looking at Ponsonby, communicating without words
    that the Prestwicks could be shown to Amelia or out the door, so
    long as they were shown away from his presence. Ponsonby, quite
    well trained in that sort of thing, understood completely. “Your
    pardon, Miss Prestwick. Mr. Prestwick. My brother and I have an
    appointment we must keep.”
    32 CLAUDIA DAIN
    “I shall inform Lady Amelia that you are calling,” Ponsonby
    said. “If you will just wait here?”
    “Oh, not at all necessary,” Miss Prestwick said, eyeing the tall
    clock against the wall. “The shawl is safely in your care, Lord
    Cranleigh, and that is all that can matter.”
    “You do not wish to stay?” Ponsonby asked.
    Cranleigh and Iveston, against all sense, stood somewhat
    mesmerized at being so ruthlessly managed by this slip of a girl.
    Her brother looked entirely accustomed to it, proving Iveston’s
    point neatly.
    “I’m afraid we can’t. We have an appointment of our own to
    keep,” Miss Prestwick said.
    “We do?” Mr. Prestwick said somewhat comically.
    Miss Prestwick did not look at all amused, which was some
    what delightful. Such a stiff sort of girl. One could not but wonder
    what it would take to unbend her.
    “Of course we do, George,” she said tightly, rearranging her
    perfectly arranged shawl. Did Miss Prestwick fidget when her
    plans were questioned? “And we must hurry.”
    “Excuse us,”