On her husband’s death, the Duke had called to offer his condolences and found that she was nearly as knowledgeable on the subjects he was interested in as her husband had been.
They had entered into a correspondence and then, as she lived only seven miles from the Duke’s ancestral home, he had found it increasingly convenient to call on her.
It had been a quiet, almost passionless affair and the urgency of a physical contact had been more on her side than on his. He liked her and he found it a relief to be able to talk to someone about the literature he enjoyed.
Lying in bed the Duke could not help thinking how very different in every way Marguerite was from Jabina.
His mistress, if that was not an exaggerated term for someone with whom he found an easy companionship, seldom spoke wit
