The Duke and I (Bridgertons, #1)

by Julia Quinn

“I don’t know why Hastings refuses to marry.

“Meaning that unlike most men, when he says he will never marry, he means it.”

before. “Choose a man from your new crowd of suitors,” he said, “and forget Hastings. He’s a good man, but he’s not for you.”

“But you think he’s a good—” “He’s not for you,” Anthony repeated. But Daphne couldn’t help thinking that maybe, just maybe, Anthony might be wrong.

The Duke of Hastings was espied yet again with Miss Bridgerton. (That is Miss Daphne Bridgerton,

It has been some time since This Author has seen a couple so obviously devoted to one another.

they are seen together only at evening functions. This Author has it on the best authority that while the duke called upon Miss Bridgerton at her home a fortnight ago, this courtesy has not been repeated,

She didn’t want to be found by the dozens of suitors now clamoring to claim her in a dance.

Because Simon was not there.

Daphne misses Simon, she is miserable without him. She wishes he was at the ball with her.

This did not mean that she was destined to spend the evening as a wallflower.

Daphne, who had always been the girl everyone liked but no one adored, was suddenly proclaime...

declared that

they always knew that Daphne was special and were just waiting for everyone else to notice.

she found that no evening was truly memorable unless Simon was at her side.

once every evening that he was adamantly opposed to the institution of marriage.

A laughing conversation in a corner, a waltz around a ballroom. Daphne could look into his pale blue eyes and almost forget that she was surrounded by five hundred onlookers,

And she could almost forget that her courtship was a complete sham.

Daphne could see faint glimmers of the old friendship between them. She could only hope that when all this was over—and she was married off to some boring but affable earl who never quite managed to make her heart sing—that the two men would be friends again.

Daphne might find a husband among all her new suitors.

none of these eager young gentlemen dared to approach her in Simon’s presence.

Simon had told Daphne that he wanted her to find a suitable husband. And so Simon stayed away. And Daphne was miserable.

She should have realized the dangers of being courted—even falsely—by the man society had recently dubbed The Devastating Duke.

Philipa Featherington had pronounced him “devasta...

Daphne found the name woefully ironic. For The Devastating Duke was devastating her heart.

Not that he meant to. Simon treated her with nothing but respect and honor and good humor.

Simon never tried to get Daphne alone, never did anything more than kiss her gloved hand (and much to Daphne’s dismay, that had only happened twice).

At every party, they danced together twice—the maximum permitted without scandalizing society.

And Daphne knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she was falling in love.

Daphne is falling in love with Simon, the Duke of Hastings.

She had, of course, begun spending so much time in Simon’s company specifically so that she might attract other men. For his part, Simon had begun spending time in...

she did on occasion catch him looking at her in ways that made her think he might desire her.

she caught him looking at her in the same hungry, feral way he’d done that first evening.

Since his return to London, he had taken the town by storm, and Daphne could easily name a dozen young ladies who were positive they were in love with him and desperate for his attention.

He told me quite specifically that he wasn’t planning to attend tonight.” “And you still came?”

“My life does not revolve around Hastings.” “Doesn’t it?”

Her life might not revolve around Simon, but her thoughts certainly did.

“You’ve got it bad, don’t you?” “I have no idea what you mean.”

He smiled knowingly. “...

“Colin Bridgerton,” Daphne ground out, “sometimes I swear I think you’re no more than three years old.”

“You wound me, Daff.” He turned to Simon. “Oh, how she wounds me.”

“I wasn’t expecting you this evening.”

Simon decided to come to the ball anyways, he missed Daphne. He wanted to see her again.

“You were bored so you decided to come all the way out to Hampstead Heath to attend Lady Trowbridge’s annual ball?”

Hampstead Heath was a good seven miles from Mayfair, at least an hour’s drive in the best of conditions,

She wants to know why you never call upon me in the afternoon.”

“Your undivided attention,” she said, “would have been enough to fool anyone but my mother. And she probably wouldn’t have said anything except that your lack of calls was reported in Whistledown.”

“You told them all I was desperately in love with you, I assume?”

“Do you know, I’ve never heard you mention your father, actually.” “That is because I don’t choose to discuss him,”

mesmerized by the sight of his white-gloved hand resting against the peach silk of her gown. She stared at it, almost waiting for it to move, to travel down the length of her arm until it reached the bare skin of her elbow. But of course he wouldn’t do that. He only did such things in her dreams.

“I was not on good terms with my father. I—I don’t like to talk about him.”

And there was no way he’d shame himself in such a way in front of Daphne.

“I was with him when he died,” Middlethorpe said.