Intriguing the Duke

by Sophia Wilson

  The duke took a step back and exhaled slowly. “Why was I not made aware of this?” he bellowed.

  “My sincerest apologies, Your Grace. I was not aware that it was not discussed with you.”

  The duke ran his fingers through his hair and pursed his lips.

  “Is something the matter, Your Grace?” Anna asked.

  “There is something of great urgency I must discuss with Maria. Do you perhaps know where she and her father and sisters live?”

  “Indeed, Your Grace, but what can be of such importance that Your Grace wishes to speak with her so urgently?” Anna asked.

  “Anna, you have been working here for as long as I can recall. I have known you my entire life, and I trust that what I will say to you now will stay between us?” the duke asked.

  “You have my discretion, Your Grace. I kept many secrets which your mother asked me to, and I promise, Your Grace, that I will do the same for you,” Anna vowed.

  “I have developed feelings for Maria, and they are too strong to deny or ignore. She completes my world and fills the hole in my soul that I had accepted would be there my entire life. I did not know any person would have the ability to make me feel this way, or feel at all. She understands me, and I wish to tell her this in person,” the duke declared.

  Anna smiled slightly and placed the chopping knife down on the table. “Your Grace, for all the years I have been working at this estate, it pleases me so much to hear you finally say those words.”

  A smile formed on the duke’s lips and his heart filled with love, as he had never felt it before.

  “Her father’s cottage is at the end of the road where the post office is. The very last one, and if I recall correctly, there is a petunia patch in the front garden.”

  Out of sheer happiness, the duke approached Anna and embraced her gratefully. “Thank you, Anna. There are no words to express how much it means to me that—”

  “Yes, yes. That is quite enough. Go now. Go to Maria, and tell her that you love her. Tell her how she makes Your Grace feel. Do it,” Anna squirmed as she escaped his embrace and fobbed him off with her vegetable-stained hands.

  The duke nodded gratefully and rushed out of the kitchen. His hart pounded with excitement and relief as he rushed outside. His coach was nowhere to be seen, and the duke opted to take the small wooden carriage that Anna used when she went to the market. It stood outside the stables and the duke led one of the horses towards it, reining the mare tightly to the carriage. There was an empty basket on the back, and the duke quickly rolled it off. He climbed onto the front seat, grabbed the reins, and steered the horse and carriage towards the road.

  The carriage moved at a steady pace, but the duke grew impatient. He whipped the reins twice, urging the mare to go faster.

  The duke attempted to assemble the things he wished to say to Maria, which preoccupied his mind in such a manner that he was not paying much attention to the road. A small animal jumped out into the road, startling the mare. The reins which tied the mare and the carriage together snapped and the carriage tilted forwards, the wooden beams plunging into the ground. The duke was jolted forward violently and landed in the middle of the road, the overturned carriage missing his head by inches. The force with which he hit the ground was tremendous, and the last thing he heard was the neighing of his mare, which sounded far away, and a loud and painful ringing in his ears.

  After that, it all faded into black.

  ***

  Herbert glanced at his eldest daughter, who rode on her mare beside his, and he pursed his lips. Maria adored her mare, and riding it was one of the things she loved most, but glancing at her at that moment, she seemed sad. Even though she had insisted on numerous occasions the past fortnight that she was fine, Herbert was well aware that she was not. He knew his daughter, and she was far from it. Ever since she’d come home, saying that she did not wish to work at Beltham Hall any longer, she had been very distant. She was not her usual self, and Herbert wondered what had happened. In the past, she could not stop telling her sisters tales of what happened at the estate, and now she would not even mention it, and would become upset if someone brought up the subject. Although Herbert was desperate to know what had upset his dear Maria, he did not press her for information, as he believed she would share it with him when she was ready. He was simply not certain when that would be.

  ***

  Feeling her father’s gaze on her, Maria glanced at him. “Father, do you believe people can change their behavior?” she asked.

  “It is possible, but the person must do so out of his own accord, and not when prompted to do so by someone else. Why do you ask?”

  “It was merely something I wondered about,” she answered with a sigh.

  “Is there something you wish to talk about, my dear Maria? You have not been yourself and I am inclined to worry over you,” Herbert said.

  “There is no need to worry, Father. It would seem I am simply mourning the loss of my friends who I worked alongside,” she explained.

  “You never did tell me why you left so suddenly. Did something happen?” Herbert asked.

  “Something did happen, Father, but not in the way you think.,” she admitted. “I was not physically harmed, if that is what you are asking.”

  “That is quite a relief, but my dear Maria, not all harm is physical.”

  “I am aware of that, Father,” she answered and lowered her gaze. “I was merely being foolish and silly, allowing my emotions to get the better of me.”

  “Did you fall in love, my dear?”

  “Indeed, and it was a hard fall with the wrong man.”

  “Was it one of the staff? A footman? A manservant?” her father asked.

  “No, it was …” Her voice trailed off as she noticed an overturned carriage in the middle of the country road, only a short distance from where they were. “Is that a carriage, Father? Over there?” she asked, pointing in the direction of the carriage in the road.

  “It seems so,” her father muttered, adjusting his spectacles. “What on earth happened?”

  “Shall we look, Father? Someone might be hurt.”

  Her father nodded and together they rode towards the road. As Maria’s mare came to a stop close to the carriage, and she climbed down, she noticed the body lying on the other side of the carriage.

  “Father, come quick!” she called out.

  Her father knelt beside the man, and as Maria stepped closer, her father turned the man over onto his back and Maria froze.

  “Oh no,” she gasped.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s him. It’s the duke I worked for,” Maria gasped, struggling to breathe through the tightness of her chest.

  Her father checked his pulse and glanced up at Maria. “His pulse is very weak. We must get him home.”

  “To our home?” Maria stuttered and glanced at her father in alarm.

  “Our home is nearer than his, Maria,” her father said sternly. “Now, help me with the carriage.”

  Maria assisted her father with the overturned carriage and they attached her father’s horse to it. They lifted the duke off the ground and placed him in the back of the carriage, and Maria’s father drove the carriage to their cottage, while Maria rode on her mare alongside the carriage.

  She did not wish to take her eyes off the duke for even a moment, but she did not wish for her father to be made aware that this was the man she had fallen in love with. A man who would never love her in return. A man she should forget about, despite not being able to. Maria had thought being away from the estate would be better, but it had only made matters worse. Her heart and soul craved him, even though she knew it would never be.

  Was it fate which had brought the duke back on her path?

  She had always believed that everything happened for a reason, but this would only complicate matters.

  “Are you all right, Maria?” her father asked and she glanced up at him.

  “I am merely worried about His G
race. He is bleeding.”

  “Let us speed up then, shall we?” her father said as he whipped the reins.

  ***

  Maria glanced at the unconscious duke who lay on her cot in front of the hearth. There was a bandage wrapped around his head, but she noticed that blood was already seeping through it. She stood perfectly still, too afraid to move, too afraid to breathe.

  Her father and Jenny had taken the carriage back to Beltham Hall to inform the staff of the duke’s accident. He was to stay at the cottage until he was able to journey back to his estate.

  Maria approached him and slowly and carefully removed the blood-soaked bandage, and replaced it with a clean strip. She rinsed the bandage in a bucket of water, while occasionally glancing at him.

  “He is handsome,” Sally whispered behind her and she glanced at her sister over her shoulder.

  “Is he?” she asked nonchalantly. “I had not noticed.”

  “Is he the reason why you no longer work at the estate?” Sally asked.

  “No, of course not. I left of my own accord. Nothing happened,” Maria said with annoyance.

  Sally raised an apprehensive brow and retorted, “Stop being so defensive, Maria.”

  Maria narrowed her eyes as Sally walked past her and left the cottage. She wrung the wet bandages over the dirty water, but stopped abruptly when she heard the duke groan. It was the very first groan she had heard since she and her father had found him in the middle of the road, and she quickly approached the cot.

  Maria knelt beside him and her heart fluttered as his eyes slowly opened. “My head,” he muttered and raised his battered hand to his face.

  “Hush, Your Grace,” Maria said in a soft and tender voice.

  His blurred gaze met hers and he whispered, “Maria?”

  “Indeed,” she answered simply.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “You had an accident with your carriage and hit your head. My father and I found you while you while we were on a ride on our horses. We brought you back to our cottage,” she explained.

  “The last cottage.”

  Maria’s brow furrowed, but she nodded. “Indeed. How did Your Grace know that?”

  “Anna told me,” he answered weakly. “There is something …”

  “Your Grace must rest,” she ordered gently.

  “No, wait. There is something I must say to you, Maria,” the duke insisted and held his hand out to her.

  Although it took most of her strength not to place her hand in his, she did, but she shook her head and said, “Your Grace can tell me later. First you must rest.”

  The duke glanced at her most conflictedly, but he nodded with the kind of obedience Maria had not encountered from him before. The remorse in his eyes was deeply rooted and Maria bit her bottom lip. She wished to know, rather desperately, what he wished to say to her, but now was not the time. He had to rest. There would be plenty of time where he could tell her everything he wished to.

  “Very well,” he whispered as he seemed to doze off into a pain-induced slumber.

  Maria sat beside him, still holding onto his hand, her heart torn apart from the conflict inside her. She still loved him very much, and the mere thought that he had traveled all this way to speak with her showed that he felt something for her as well.

  She was terrified that her feelings would not be reciprocated and that he still thought of her as only a disposable woman whom he could use as he saw fit, but she had noticed the sincerity and the apology in his eyes, as well as the urgent manner in which his hand had tightened around hers.

  There was something more there …

  The door suddenly opened and Maria let go of the duke’s hand as her father and Jenny stood in the doorway. Her father’s eyes narrowed as Maria stood, straightening her shoulders.

  “Father.”

  “Kitchen. Now,” he ordered, and Maria obeyed, following him.

  Chapter Five

  May 1817

  Trew Cottage

  Westhampshire

  England

  “Father, I can explain. It is not what you think,” Maria said in a tone which was much too defensive for her father to believe her as they stepped into the kitchen.

  Her father crossed his arms and said, “Please do. I would love to hear your explanation.”

  Maria sighed and her shoulders slumped. “His Grace woke up and he was disoriented, and he started to speak incoherently and—”

  “Maria, do you not think that I know you better than you think I do?” her father asked. “I raised you. I watched you grow. There is nothing about you that I do not already know, except why you are lying to me at this very moment.”

  “Father, I am not lying to you,” Maria sighed. “It is a complicated situation.”

  Her father pulled up two chairs up for himself and for Maria and sat down. “I have time.”

  Maria sighed once more, and knew she now had no choice but to tell her father the truth about everything. “You were right when you said that I fell in love, and if you had to guess who it was that I developed feelings for, Father, you would be right as well.”

  “The duke,” her father said simply.

  Maria nodded and lowered her gaze. “I knew what he was and how he treated women but my attraction towards him was undeniable, despite my head telling me that there was no future for us. I told myself that he would never reciprocate my feelings, due to our different classes. He is a duke, of high nobility, with one of the largest and most lavish estates in the county. He would not even notice someone like me, and for a long while, he did not. Until one morning he watched as I tidied his study. He simply sat there, watching me. I had always found him handsome, but something changed that day. After that he attempted to speak to me with every opportunity he could. I showed him a lack of interest, as I did not wish to become another woman he would cast aside when the next beautiful face appeared.”

  “It did not work, did it?”

  “No, it did not. He was persistent, in a nonthreatening manner, and for some unbeknownst reason, I felt comfortable conversing with him. We spent one evening under the stars, speaking casually about our families. Apparently his uncle was under your care. Lord Kenilworth’s father.”

  “Lord Warrington. A kindhearted man.”

  “It seemed as if our ranks and titles, or lack thereof in my case, did not matter in the least. We were merely two people.”

  “He did not attempt anything illicit with you, did he?” her father asked.

  “Of course not, Father. I would not allow him to,” Maria answered, easing the furrowed lines on her father’s face with her words. “I fell in love with the duke after that night, and I knew that I could no longer work at the estate. I could not bear the thought of seeing him each day and having to keep my distance. I could not bear to watch as women left the estate, and being envious of them. It was not how I wished my life to be. I also did not wish to be one of his many women who meant nothing to him after one night. I deserve better, but I still love him.”

  “My dear child. I am filled with sorrow by how deeply this has affected you, my dear Maria. You are still so young and should not have to live a life filled with sorrow,” her father said. His eyes filled with tears. “Ever since your mother passed, I have tried my best to care for you and your sisters. You are the most important people in my life, and I promised your mother I would not allow any harm to come to you. Any of you. Hearing you say how much pain you’ve endured, fills me with such sorrow. I did not wish for you to feel such heartache. You deserve all the happiness in the world.”

  Maria reached her hand out to her father and wiped the tear which rolled down his cheek. “Do not feel in any way responsible. It was my own choice, although it did not feel as though it was in my hands in the first place.”

  Her father glanced at her silently and smiled. “You remind me so much of her, Maria. You have your mother’s heart and her kindness and beauty. I am truly lucky to have you, my dearest daughter
. I apologize if I have not given you the life you deserved.”

  “Nonsense, Father. I would not wish it any other way. I do not wish for a large and cold manor, or a silly title. I am happy with my life. I would not wish it otherwise.”

  “I love you very much, Maria,” her father said and embraced her lovingly.

  ***

  It was dark when the duke opened his eyes and groaned. It was quiet around him and he slowly pushed himself up from the cot he lay on. He glanced around him and saw Maria sleeping close to the hearth, covered in a wool blanket. He attempted to turn himself, but he leaned too far over and lost his balance, tumbling down onto the floor.

  Maria was awake instantly and quickly rushed to the duke’s side.

  “What are you doing, Your Grace?” she whispered as she assisted him into a sitting position on the floor. “You must rest. You hit your head—”

  “Maria, please. May I speak with you?”

  “Right at this very moment?” she whispered.

  “Maria,” the duke said and took her hand in his. “I fear I will not get the chance to say what I wish to, and that would most certainly be a tragedy.”

  “Very well,” she answered.

  “I was not aware that you had left the estate. I waited for you on the low stone wall, under the stars, every night, hoping you would come to me, but you did not. Now I know why.”

  “Who informed Your Grace I had left?” she asked.

  “Anna did. I asked her, and when she asked me why I was in such a state after hearing that you had gone, I told her something which I had not told anyone before. Ever,” he answered.

  “What did you tell her?” Maria asked.

  “I told her that I had developed feelings for you, and those feelings were too strong to deny or ignore. I was afraid, as I had never felt feelings of such intensities, or any feelings at all for that matter, for anyone. It was both exhilarating and terrifying, and I was not certain what to do.”

  “Please pardon my skepticism, Your Grace, but why me? What is it about me which caused this uprising of emotions inside you? Your Grace is not the kind of man, in my opinion and in my experience, who feels anything for anyone. What made me so special? I am merely a maid, or I was a maid. I am no one special, nor will I ever be,” Maria explained, staring down at her hand in his.