All Chapters of The Disreputable Duke: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Disreputable Adjective: Not respectable in character or appearance. "This is BBC Radio 4 and here is the news read by Chris Aldridge." "The artist son of The Duke of Shettleham, Jasper Neyve, who is the Marquis Prybourn was photographed by the press early this morning rescuing a runaway horse at the gates of Hyde Park. It seemed that the rescue happened on the spur of the moment as Marquis Prybourn was naked except for a pair of women's red silk and lace underwear. He ran across the road and jumped on the back of the horse to stop it, running into traffic. When asked about his attire, the Marquess said that he jumped out of bed and his girlfriend's pants were the first thing he picked up. He said the safety of the horse and keeping it away from the traffic was paramount. The Prime Minister flew to Brussels last night…" It was a slow news day. Edwin Neyve closed his eyes in fury and despair. He forced his breathing to be even and slow, his bone-white knuckles as he clenched his f

Inside, the whitewashed church of St James was cold, and the glare of the sun against the walls was excruciating for Jasper, who had forgotten to bring dark glasses.  As funerals go, it was going well enough. Jasper slumped in the family pew of the village church, breathing slowly and trying to keep nausea at bay.  He spent most of the service with his eyes closed until his mother elbowed him in the ribs to tell him that it was his turn to do the reading. Jasper stood up and sightly staggering because the sun shining through the stained glass window hit right in his eye, or so he told himself. He walked towards the ancient and straightforward pulpit. He was so tired his eyes were half-closed, which is why he half tripped up the steps to the pulpit. The silence was broken by coughs which spread across the church and muffled giggles at the back of the church. In the pulpit, Jasper's eyes narrowed sharply, and he glared towards the sound of the giggl

During that first week, Ellie settled in quickly and true to his word Jasper stayed mainly in the studio painting while Ellie familiarized herself with the house and the other people who worked there. Mrs Blakeney, or Betty, was the head of the cleaning staff at the London house. Betty was a fierce cockney who refused to hear a bad word about Jasper."Don't you take any notice of what it says in the papers." She grumbled one morning after she had seen a report in the Daily Mail of all the women who had been in his life."'Neyve of Hearts' indeed, he's just a boy doing what boys should at his age," she scoffed. "He just hasn't found the right one yet, and I know" she lowered her voice "that he doesn't believe in divorce." Betty marched out of the kitchen, "How dare they say undignified things about Jasper." she muttered as she went back up the stairs.Ellie glanced at the paper. There was nearly a full page of headshots of women. Some were members of the aristocr

Jasper sprawled on the sofa in his study, he'd left the door ajar, and he could hear Ellie moving about opening the filing cabinets and gently humming a tune. She had the afternoon off, and she wasn't even supposed to be in there.He should tell her to get out of that suit put her jeans back on, and that sexy shirt that showed off those gorgeous breasts, and he would make sketches of her. He would paint her wrapped in his ducal blue velvet robe, which would spill open to reveal her delicious creamy skin and just the edge, or maybe one, of her raspberry coloured nipples. He wouldn't want too much showing there had to be something left to the imagination. He wondered if she waxed, did she have a landing strip like Georgie, which he always thought looked ridiculous, trimmed to within a millimetre of its life. What Ellie needed was a small neat triangle of silky curls. Or nothing at all. Jasper closed his eyes as he imagined his hands running up the smooth contours o

Ellie tossed and turned until midnight when she woke up and discovered that she was still dressed. Ellie staggered, still half asleep, to the bathroom, she pulled her suit off and made the usual comforting process of cleaning her face and brushing her teeth. Pulling her nightdress on, giving her hair a final brush Ellie got back into bed. The conversation she had heard, played over and over in her mind. She was painfully aware of the saying that eavesdroppers never hear any good of themselves. Well, that wasn't entirely true, what they had said about her was all very good they thought she was gorgeous, it's what they wanted to do to her that made her feel sick. It was so embarrassing as well that Jasper had seen her, why hadn't he said anything? The thought made her blush, and she was so suddenl