Read The Incredible Honeymoon (Bantam Series No. 46) for Free Online Page A

and was quite certain that I would be one. I was to have been christened Anthony.”
    “I see,” the Duke said. “So to make up for it you have become what is known as a ‘tom-boy’.”
    He looked as he spoke at the unbecoming bonnet on her hair which he saw was not dressed in a fashionable manner.
    He also glanced at her ill-fitting gown which had been made for Felicity and now had been altered, although not at all skilfully.
    He had not expected a young girl to have the elegance, the chic or the sophistication of women like the Marchioness whom he had found so desirable and indeed so irresistible.
    But vaguely at the back of his mind he had thought of a debutante in spotless white with wide innocent blue eyes, golden hair, and looking something like the angels in the picture-books his mother had read to him as a child.
    Antonia did not look in the least like an angel and in fact her appearance was not at all what he had envisaged in his wife.
    As if she realised what he was thinking Antonia said a little nervously:
    “I am sure I could look ... better than I do now if I could wear a new gown which had been chosen especially for me.”
    “You mean ... ” the Duke began.
    “I am the younger sister, Your Grace!”
    Antonia could not help smiling at his perplexity.
    What did the Duke know about being poor, she thought, of striving to make ends meet, wondering where the money would come from to pay the bills that poured in day after day?
    He had always lived in the lap of luxury. He had always been a rich man with great possessions, the owner of a proud title.
    “How can he possibly understand,” she asked herself scathingly, “what ordinary people have to put up with in their lives?”
    Because she suddenly felt annoyed and at the same time slightly deflated by his scrutiny, Antonia rose to her feet.
    “I think, Your Grace, I should go now,” she said. “My father will be waiting to greet you at three o’clock this afternoon. If you feel you could not contemplate having me as your wife, I shall quite understand. Felicity is very lovely and perhaps in time she will grow fond of you.”
    “You appear to have set me a problem, Lady Antonia,” the Duke said. “My choice appears to be between a young woman who, if she is truthful, will hate the sight of me, and another who is enamoured of my horses and not in the least of me as a man!”
    He spoke sarcastically and Antonia answered him without thinking:
    “It might be very inconvenient for Your Grace to have a wife who was much interested in you for yourself.”
    “What are you suggesting by that?” the Duke enquired and now there was an icy note in his voice that had not been there previously.
    “Only that in the sort of marriage you envisage, Your Grace ... an arranged marriage ... which is to bring an ... advantage to both parties, it would be best, if you had ... other interests, that your wife should have ... some too!” There was a pregnant silence.
    Then the Duke said: “And where you are concerned it would be my horses?”
    “Exactly!” Antonia said.
    She had the feeling that he was annoyed, if not positively angry, at what she had suggested and thought despairingly that she had messed up the interview: now there would be no chance of his doing what she wished.
    She was certain that when he came to see the Earl in the afternoon he would ask for Felicity’s hand and not hers.
    “I have tried and failed!” Antonia told herself. “I can do no more.”
    She curtsied very politely and as she rose said:
    “I must thank Your Grace for listening to me, I deeply regret that I have delayed you from going riding.”
    “I shall think with great care about all you have said to me, Lady Antonia,” the Duke said, “and whatever my decision I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you this afternoon.”
    “That, I can assure you, is very unlikely,” Antonia replied, “unless of course you ask for me.”
    She gave him a quick glance and he thought her