Dukes to Fall in Love With: A Historical Regency Romance Collection

by Bridget Barton

  “Yes, she is indeed a very smart young woman,” Felix said and seemed to appreciate the compliment on her behalf.

  All in all, they spent a very comfortable afternoon. The Duke seemed to be at his ease with the Allencourt family, and he had laid on an exceptional afternoon tea for them all.

  Whilst he engaged them all equally, Georgina could not help thinking that she had, perhaps, garnered just a little more attention from him than the rest. She began to wonder if he really did have an interest in her and, if she was honest, the idea of it was quite thrilling.

  She thought that she had never met a man with such a pleasing disposition, not to mention such a handsome face and that wonderful, unruly hair. And there was, of course, that ever-growing sense of familiarity, a sense that she could not entirely put down to their three previous meetings. It was something more than that, and yet she could not quite put her finger on it.

  When the afternoon was over, and the family was being helped back into their cloaks and hats in the entrance hall, Emerson Lockhart had followed them out to bid them farewell. But he had saved his farewell to Georgina for last, keeping her back just a moment as the rest of her party began to descend the stone steps towards their waiting carriage.

  “I have had a very pleasant afternoon, Miss Jeffries, and I thank you kindly for coming.”

  “I have had a very fine afternoon too, Your Grace,” she said and inclined her head graciously in farewell before turning to make her own way down the steps.

  When she heard him following along behind her and saw him stoop to retrieve something from the steps, she realized that she must have dropped one of her thin gloves from the pocket of her cloak. Just as she was about to turn to look at him fully and take the glove back, he quietly spoke to stop her.

  “Georgie,” he said, and she spun around to look at him. “Forgive me.” He faltered for a moment. “Miss Jeffries, you dropped your glove,” he went on hurriedly, clearly realizing what he had said. “You must not leave without it, for I think the evening will draw down a little chilly.”

  “Thank you, Your Grace,” she said and, with a trembling hand, took the glove from him.

  Although she realized that she would soon have to move since the rest of the party would almost be in the carriage by now, Georgina could not help but stand and stare at him for a moment.

  Georgie, he had called her Georgie; she was sure he had. She studied his strong, handsome features and noted the look of consternation on his face.

  Could it really be him? But how could it be?

  She looked at his eyes and his nose and his chin, suddenly desperate to find a feature that she recognized. But she was trying to compare a fully-grown man to a young boy and trying to do so through the haze of many intervening years.

  Surely it was not him, for how could it possibly be? And yet she had only ever known one person in all the world to call her Georgie. That person had not been Emerson Lockhart, surely.

  The person who had called her Georgie so many years ago was Samuel White, and dear little Sammy had certainly not been heir to the Duchy of Calder.

  Chapter 8

  Georgina had kept to her own chamber for much of the next day, claiming a trifle of a headache that would soon be over, she was sure.

  Fleur had been wonderfully attentive, and not so easy to persuade that the malady was a simple one which would undoubtedly be short-lived. But, after much promising that she would pull the bell in her chamber for assistance if she needed it, Georgina was finally left alone for a while, taking advantage of much-needed time in which to order her thoughts.

  It was true that she had a very sleepless night thinking about it all, but she had come to no conclusion whatsoever. All she could do was think about her old friend, a boy she still thought of with sadness so many years later.

  Georgina had grown up knowing that Sammy was there and had seemed always to have been there. He was the only other child in Ashdown Manor, although he did not live above stairs as she did. Sammy was a servant, a child who had been orphaned as a baby and had somehow made his way into the home of her father, Lord Jeffries, the Baron.

  As a child, Georgina had never asked for any further details, and as an adult, it had never occurred to her to seek such information. At the time, she had simply enjoyed her friendship for what it was, as children are wanted to do.

  She did not allow the divisions of class to keep them apart, for in Samuel White lay her only hope of assuaging the loneliness she had not yet been old enough to even name, let alone recognize. All Georgina knew then was that she was very much happier in Sammy’s company than she was without it.

  Sammy was a stable boy, and her first recollections of him were greatly centred around her father’s stables. He was very good with the horses, even though he was so tiny. Or at least he had been tiny then when Georgina was but five or six, and he just a year or two older. But he had that curious confidence in practical matters that seemed to be the way of servants, and Georgina had always been very impressed by it.

  She often wished that she would be allowed to stay below stairs with Sammy, the two of them stifling their giggles as they crept into the kitchen to steal a biscuit or a piece of warm bread or anything else that the cook might have freshly baked.

  And they knew with that extra sense that small children have that the dear woman was perfectly well aware of their little acts of thievery, and any attempt to chastise them for it was always done in such a warm way that they knew she did not mind at all.

  The cook had always been very fond of Sammy, making sure that there was plenty of clearing up for him to do in the kitchen when the weather turned cold. Georgina had always known that Mrs Townley was kindly and had easily seen that she had a great fondness for the little boy.

  As they grew a little older, Georgina’s grandmother was less and less tolerant when it came to the friendship that was developing between the children. She often gave the strictest of instructions to Georgina’s governess that the young woman should not take her eye off the child for a moment, or she would be bound to hasten below stairs to seek out the urchin who she ought really to stay away from.

  But Georgina’s need for a friend was so great and her care for Samuel White so deep that she often found spirited ways to get around her grandmother.

  She had even once feigned a little illness so that her governess would allow her to go to bed for a while and then, as soon as she thought herself alone, she had crept through the house and made her way out to the stables where Sammy was.

  He was brushing a horse, a large horse who was one of her father’s favourites, and she watched with interest as he continued in his duties.

  “Do you want a go?” Sammy had said as he proffered the grooming brush. “I can tell that you want to. You needn’t worry; it’s easy.”

  “Really? But do you think the horse will mind?”

  “A horse doesn’t mind as long as he’s being brushed by somebody who isn’t scared of him,” Sammy had said with a chuckle and took her hand, placing her palm flat on the wooden back of the brush and fastening the strap over the top. “Go on then,” he said and watched with interest as she advanced upon the horse and tentatively reached out with the brush.

  Immediately the brush made contact with the horse, he began to pad at the stable floor with his front hooves.

  “He does not like me, Sammy,” Georgina said, her little heart pounding.

  “He does like you, silly.” Samuel laughed. “He can just tell that you’re scared. If you’re scared, he will be scared. Do it like this,” Sammy said and took hold of her wrist, laying the brush with greater pressure against the horse’s flank and drawing her hand down firmly. “You see?”

  Georgina had felt the horse relax almost immediately, and she quickly got the hang of things. She was enjoying a pastime that was not learning something of little interest to her delivered by a governess whose enthusiasm was less than infectious.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere,
Georgie?” Sammy said as she became more and more engrossed in her occupation.

  “Not really, I told the governess that I did not feel well.”

  “And she let you come outside?”

  “No, she put me to bed.”

  “Did you sneak out here, Georgie?” he said excitedly.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Well, you had better sneak back in again.” His tone changed a little.

  “Why? I do not want to.”

  “You might have to in a minute, look,” he said and raised his head to peer out of the stable door.

  Striding towards them with a face like thunder was none other than Lady Elizabeth Jeffries herself. It was clear that she had seen Georgina brushing the horse and so she realized there was little point in casting aside the brush and pretending otherwise now.

  “Georgina, what on earth are you doing?”

  “I am brushing the horse, Grandmama,” Georgina had said simply.

  “You will not answer me back,” Lady Elizabeth was clearly furious.

  “I did not answer back, Grandmama. I just answered. You did ask me a question, after all,” Georgina said simply and heard Sammy stifling a laugh.

  “Get away,” Lady Elizabeth said as she advanced into the stable and shooed Sammy away from her granddaughter. “Go on, move!” she said, her face pinched in an expression that suggested that there was something incredibly unpleasant about the young stable boy.

  At that moment, Georgina had felt like crying. Her grandmother was shooing her friend away as if he was covered in lice and dirt, and it hurt her heart.

  What was worse, she knew that Sammy had perceived exactly the same thing, and he looked crestfallen and ashamed in front of his only friend.

  “Please do not do that, Grandmama. Sammy is my friend.”

  “He is not your friend, you stupid girl,” Lady Elizabeth said with a snarl. “He is a servant and an orphan, he is nothing.”

  “He is not nothing, Grandmama; he is a person. He is just like you and me.”

  “He is nothing like us, Georgina Jeffries. And I have told you before that I do not wish you to consort with him. He is just a servant, and he will never be anything better than that. But you are the daughter of a baron, a very fine young lady, and you should remember that.”

  “But I am not a fine young lady, Grandmama. I am a girl. I am not yet ten years old, and Sammy is my friend.”

  “He is not your friend; I have told you already.”

  “He is my friend, and it does not matter how many times you tell me he is not because he is. I like Sammy better than anybody in this house, and I always shall.”

  “Do not raise your voice at me, young lady,” Lady Elizabeth had said in a low and dangerous voice. “Do not disobey me. You are not to speak to this servant again.”

  “I will!” Georgina said defiantly. “I do not care what you say, Grandmama, I will always be Sammy’s friend.”

  Within a breath of her finishing her sentence, Georgina had been startled by an incredibly hard slap across her face. Her own grandmother had struck her in frustration and struck her harder than she ought to have done. In truth, the blow almost sent Georgina backward.

  “No, leave her alone!” Sammy said and was suddenly back with them.

  Georgina realized that he had heard every word of their exchange, and the tears began to roll down her face. Sammy was her best friend in the world, and she would not want him to think that she thought of him as nothing more than a servant, a nobody. He was everything to her, and she decided that she would never show her grandmother another moment’s love as long as they both lived.

  “Havers,” Lady Elizabeth called to the stable master. “Take this child away before I return him to the orphanage where he ought to have been left years ago.” And then she turned to look at Sammy. “And you need not look at me like that, young man. After all, had it not been for my kindness, you would have grown up in very different circumstances. Children like you do not fare well in this world, and you should remember that. What is more, you should be grateful to me, not defiant as you seem to be.”

  “Come on, lad,” Havers said and gently led Sammy away.

  Georgina had known that her punishment would not only be severe but would likely be very lonely indeed. She was sure that she would be banished to her own chamber for a good long while but knew that she would survive it. And not only that, but as soon as she was free, she would seek Sammy out and tell him that he would always be her friend. She would tell him that she loved him much better than she loved her grandmother, that was certain.

  When Georgina came to the end of her recollection, tears were streaming down her face. When Sammy had disappeared without trace just a few months later, the young Georgina had been truly heartbroken. Try as she might, she had never found any evidence that Sammy still lived and breathed on the earth, and it had always played on her mind, even as a fully-grown woman.

  But had he really gone so far away? Could the Samuel White she had known all those years ago really have made it all the way to Devonshire and a life so different from the one he had that it truly seemed impossible?

  But why on earth, if it was not so, would the Duke of Calder have referred to her as Georgie? Any man in polite society would not even have referred to her as Georgina, especially when they were so barely acquainted.

  But for a Duke to have done it, for a Duke to have addressed her so informally, seemed almost as impossible as the idea that Sammy White could have come so far.

  And there was, of course, the question of the ease between them, that immediate feeling she had of recognition when she had first seen him up close at the garden party at Calder Hall. The feeling had been not only memorable but had been repeated at every meeting. But could that really account for it? Was she so at ease with Emerson Lockhart because he was, either then or in the past, really Samuel White?

  One way or another, Georgina Jeffries intended to find out.

  Chapter 9

  “Fleur, may I speak with you?” Georgina said the following morning when she popped her head around Fleur’s chamber door.

  After another sleepless night, Georgina knew that she must do something. She had fully decided to go to the Duke of Calder and speak to him face-to-face on the matter, for there was nothing else for it. But she quickly realized that she would not be able to absent herself from the family at Winton house without causing a great deal of concern, and even suspicion.

  In the end, there was nothing else for her to do but take Fleur into her confidence and hope that she would help her to get to the Duke without any of the family being aware of it.

  “Yes, of course. Do come in, Georgina.” Fleur smiled brightly as she ushered her cousin in.

  Fleur’s chamber was small but pretty. It was the first time that Georgina realized why her cousin had picked such a small room for herself; it caught the very best of the early morning sunshine.

  The room was so full of sunshine that it looked almost yellow, although Georgina knew it to be predominantly pale cream.

  It was not only well lit by the sun but seemed somehow able to capture that peculiar quality of light that is unmistakably morning. For all the wonderful view that Georgina had of the lake and the daffodils, there was something about the morning sunshine in Fleur’s chamber that seemed to do something to the inner being.

  “Are you feeling better, Georgina? How is your head?”

  “Oh, my head is greatly improved, thank you.”

  “I am bound to say that you look very concerned about something. Tell me, what is troubling you?”

  “How very perceptive you are, cousin, for something troubles me greatly.”

  “Come and sit down by the window, my dear, and tell me,” Fleur said, taking her cousin’s hand and leading her over to the broad window seat where the two women sat side-by-side but facing one another.

  “Before I begin, Fleur, I must swear you to absolute secrecy.”

  “Of course, my dear. Believ
e me, anything you wish to tell me will be closely guarded.”

  “I am sure that I need not have said it, and I apologize if I have caused any offence, Fleur. But believe me when I tell you that this is a matter of such seriousness that I cannot begin to comprehend the ramifications if it is all found out.”

  “Goodness me, you have me on a piece of string.” Fleur’s blue eyes were wide. “Really, I think that I am perhaps a little frightened.”

  “There is no need to be frightened, Fleur.” Georgina laughed a little. “Although I cannot blame you, for it seems that I have built the thing up to such a degree. Perhaps I ought to get straight to the telling of it all instead of teasing you any further.”