The Day of the Duchess (Scandal & Scoundrel, #3)

by Sarah MacLean

“Come riding with me.” They’d never ridden together. There had been talk of it, a hundred years ago, promises that they would spend the summer here, at Highley, on horseback, discovering it together. And then they’d married, and they hadn’t been able to stomach each other. Or, rather, he hadn’t been able to stomach her. She could not blame him for that, she supposed. Except, she had blamed him. Even before he’d turned to another whom he could stomach better. She looked at him. “Why?” He lifted a shoulder. Let it fall. “Because you like to ride and it is not raining yet.” She shook her head. “What game you are playing?” “No games,” he said. “I ride in the mornings.” “Enjoy yourself,” she said. “I’m to have breakfast with my sisters and prepare for your suitors.” She paused. “Suitors? Suitesses? Is there a word for young women vying for the attention of a duke?” “Wisteria.” She raised a brow at the word, the kindest of the whispered names she and her sisters had been called. Pretty, smelled nice, and very good at climbing. “Not so quickly, Duke. We haven’t seen or scented them, yet.”