Plucked by the Orc by Jenna Larkin EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Jenna Larkin
- Language: English
- Genre: Victorian Historical Romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
FEBRUARY 1818
Duncan Higgins, the Second Duke of Barrington, tucked his muslin
cravat tighter underneath his Parisian greatcoat. The evening
performance of How You Like It had been crowded with patrons eager to
see the new gas lighting at the Theatre-Royal. It was difficult to tolerate the
stares his massive form and green-tinged skin attracted, but he could ensure
his attire reflected the latest demands of the season.
Better to be respected, or even feared, than to find himself an object of
scorn.
His father had stepped foot in London eighteen years prior, the first orc to
do so. But Duncan’s height, the horns curling back on his head, and his
unusual coloring—unusual on the streets of this city, at least—still drew
stares. As in all things connected to the frivolous ton, no one stated
anything outright. Rather, he was subject to the averted glances of children
seeing one of his kind for the first time. Or the pursed lips of a mother with
a daughter of marriageable age looking to catch a gentleman’s eye. A
gentleman of wealth, manners, and title.
A human gentleman. They were not eager for their daughters to marry
Duncan Higgins, even if he were five and twenty and met their other
requirements. He’d learned that lesson well enough.
So be it. Duncan would remain at a distance, observing and taking notes
on human society as a scientist would a colony of lemurs or some such.
His younger brother, Albion, would have deemed that too harsh. Albion
and their mother came to London from the Hidden Realm two years after
Duncan accompanied Father here. He didn’t understand what it had been
like for Duncan in those early days. When grown women had screamed at
the sight of orcs, no matter how fine their English clothes, and boys hurled
rocks at their backs.
As he stepped out to the street this evening, an assortment of dandies
packed the space outside the venerable theater, waiting on the carriages that
would propel them to the next stop on their nightly rounds about the city.
Despite the chill in the air, they left their greatcoats open, the better to
showcase ruffled shirts, cravats folded crisply on the cross, and fitted
trousers.
Albion often laughed at Duncan’s propensity for tracking human fashion,
whilst Duncan argued that all manner of human customs were of interest.
The apparel chosen for a particular season spoke to the values and
aspirations of the ton. When living as an outsider, one could never know too
much about a culture.
And Duncan was an outsider who literally stood out in a crowd. He
ducked under the arches outside the theater’s foyer, side-stepping a matron
with two daughters prancing before her. The ladies wore stunning multicolored sapphires—pink, orange, amber, in every shade and gradient—
sparkling on pendants hanging from the short pearl necklaces that were all
the rage this season.
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