Wagered to the Duke (BookStrand Publishing Romance) by Karen Lingefelt Page A

crouched down to begin feverishly gathering her things. Sheet music fluttered about, tossed by a maddening breeze that suddenly chose this very inconvenient moment to kick up. She longed to scream again.
    Bilby popped up from somewhere, and Nathan directed him to track down all the sheet music, while Kate hastily picked up her clothes and retrieved her wax doll.
    “Could I assist you with that?” he queried. He still held her pelisse and bonnet. “I only ask because I might not be able to avoid handling your unmentionables, and you may find that quite improper.”
    “I believe we are past worrying about things like that.” She struggled to fold each item of clothing she picked up before replacing it in the portmanteau along with her doll. Nathan slung the pelisse over his shoulder and set about scooping up anything that didn’t look like an undergarment. She didn’t think it mattered since she’d already seen him naked.
    And she couldn’t even think about that right now, as much as she longed to.
    Bilby came trotting over with a stack of sheet music, trying in vain to straighten out all the papers. Kate took them and thanked him then set about straightening them herself while Nathan brushed off her books, smoothing any bent pages before placing them in the portmanteau.
    He handed her the bonnet. “Is that everything? I must apologize again. I should’ve sent Bilby upstairs straightaway.”
    “That’s everything,” she said.
    The crowd dispersed as Nathan bent over to close and secure the portmanteau before glancing up at the open window, as if he expected more objects to come flying out. The southbound stage rolled up just then, and he motioned to her to take a seat inside.
    “Bilby and I will ride up top,” he said. “As you might recall from last night, I don’t fit too well in a carriage with other people.”
    That, and sitting topside meant he wouldn’t have to talk to her, sit next to her or across from her with his muscular legs clamped on either side of her scrawny ones, or even look at her after what happened first thing this morning.
    Or worse, offer to marry her. And all because he’d kissed her and she’d seen…him. It.
    In her ten long years of spinsterhood, Kate had heard of many a chit who’d had to marry because she’d been caught in a compromising position with some young buck. To think a kiss was all it took!
    And Kate had never been kissed until today. No man had ever wanted to take her into a dark garden, or a shadowy alcove, or a secluded balcony, and steal a kiss.
    On the remote chance he did offer for her, she’d have to tell him who she really was. He still thought she was Margaret Hathaway, abandoned by her scoundrel of a brother.
    She lifted her gloved hand to her lips that, over an hour later, still burned from his own. She knew it wasn’t from the tea she’d had at breakfast. She wondered how his own lips felt or if he was even thinking of her the way she was thinking of him right now as the stage finally lurched into motion.
    Pondering Nathan Fraser and that kiss and it provided some diversion on the journey. It also seemed to make her more restless than usual, and she squirmed quite a bit, annoying the other passengers who just wanted to nap.
    Whenever they stopped to change horses, she would get out and stretch, breathing deeply of fresh air before seeking the nearest necessary. Afterward she would look for Nathan, who was never hard to find because he was taller than everyone else. Their conversation was identical at each stop.
    “How are you doing, Miss Hathaway?” Apparently he had no intention of continuing their fleeting charade as brother and sister, which made her wonder what would happen when they stopped at an inn for the night.
    “I’m doing just fine, Mr. Fraser.” She always gave him a smile, not wanting him to see how much she dreaded getting back inside that dark stage with all those strangers and even stranger odors. She wondered why he didn’t just