Afraid of losing both the interest of her husband and her marriage, she came up with a plan.
The Duke had arrived late from Glasgow and went straight to his room. Anne was certain Daisy was in the servants’ quarters, as her maid made sure of it. As usually with longer trips, that morning the Duke indulged in sleep.
As she looked herself in the mirror of her vanity dresser, Anne remembered the confrontation as if it happened a few hours before.
Daisy had been scrubbing the fireplace mantle with some other maids when Anne entered the room, a small envelope in hand. All the young girls curtsied and the Duchess dismissed them all, but Daisy, who blushed hard. She knew it was about the Duke.
“Daisy, is it?” Anne asked.
“Yes, Your Grace.” The young girl didn’t dare to look up at the Duchess as Anne slowly circled her, taking in her appearance. She was a pretty little thing, that was sure, but Anne knew for a fact she was more. Their age difference shouldn’t be more than four years, if that.
It wasn’t some sort of carnal relief for Edward, not from what Anne could see. What did Edward talk to Daisy about? They had nothing in common: a maid and a Duke! It was laughable and her mother had been right: she had let it go for way too long.
“Do… Do you need anything, Your Grace?” Daisy asked in a small voice.
“I do, in fact.” Anne’s voice was cold. “I need you to pack your things and leave this house.” The shock and horror in Daisy’s expression when she looked up to Anne almost moved her, but she reminded herself why she was doing it. “Before lunch is served.” Anne added for good measure.
“Wha- What?” Daisy’s eyes widened even more. “Your Grace, I… I need this job. I’m-” She tried but Anne cut her, merciless.
“Pregnant with my husband’s child? Yes, I am aware.” The Duchess said and Daisy looked even more surprised.
“The Duke…” Daisy started.
“Who do you think told me to dismiss you?” She lied and saw Daisy pale. “He is not interested in having a bastard. Not now that I am pregnant as well.” Anne lied once again, putting a hand over her stomach. “We are not to have a scandal.”
“He…” Daisy whispered, in shock. “He said he loved me.”
“Men will say anything to get what they want.” Anne said, dismissing the younger girl’s words. “Someone should have warned you about that.” She shrugged. “You were a distraction, Miss Taunton and my husband has had his fill of you. He didn’t even bother to come here and talk to you; he thought I would handle it better.”
Daisy put her hand over her own stomach and seemed lost. “What should I do…?”
“I know your lot can find someone to… take care of it.” Anne’s implication was clear and Daisy gasped in horror.
“I would never-”
Anne interrupted her. “I don’t care. You would have a better life without the burden, but it is your decision. My husband decided to give you this.” She handed the envelope to Daisy. “It’s a hundred pounds for your troubles. I guess this is all you are worth to him.”
“I don’t… I don’t want money, Your Grace, if I could just speak to-”
Anne took two steps closer to Daisy and slapped her face. “You will never speak to my husband again. Getting into a married man’s bed, being… being his whore and now carrying a bastard! You are lucky I am not using my name and influence to make you disappear.” Daisy looked at the Duchess with a hand on her stinging cheek in fear. “You will leave, get rid of the child and never speak to my husband again. Go!”
Seeing the maid leave the room, crying, Anne almost cried herself, but held back. She did what she had to do to guarantee her position.
Later, that night, after her maid had guaranteed Daisy had indeed left and every servant was aware to not let her near the house, Anne was having dinner with her husband, talking about what had happened during his absence.
“…we had to let one of our maids go,” Anne said, heart beating faster.
“Oh, yes?” Edward asked, barely listening, reading some sort of document, though, probably to avoid talking to his wife.
“Yes, she left a few days ago to Scotland, I was told. Apparently, she met someone and they are to be married. I never really spoke to her. Daisy, I think her name is.”
Anne saw her husband tense and look up from the document. “Excuse me?” He asked. “What was her name again?”
“Daisy Dauton? Traunton? Something of the sort.” Anne took a sip of her drink. “It appeared she had someone in Scotland.” She sighed. “Good for her, getting a husband. Never mind that. Tell me, dear, about our trip to Germany in a few days. We must stay with Lord and Lady Sommerville while we are there. I have heard wonders about Munich.”
Twenty-seven years since then.
Anne Egremont had sold her soul to have her life free of scandal. She kept her husband, they had their beautiful Kathleen and finally bonded, which probably wouldn’t have happened had she not done what she did. They had amazing years before losing their daughter. They were happy.
She did what she had to do and she would not have her name dragged through the mud after all that.
Mr. Edward McAlister would not shame her or her family’s name, she would make sure of it, no matter how.
Chapter 21
Miss Selina Clifford
Breakfast at the Clifford’s was quite an affair that morning.
Selina was tired from the commute from Bristol to London and was none too pleased about being separated from Edward as well as Lord Ainsworth’s insistence on marrying her. The amazing nights in Edward’s arms were gone for now, but hopefully not for too long.
Mr. Clifford was reading a letter Selina had given him earlier, from her uncle. The night before, she had been too tired and didn’t want to enter an argument with her father. She knew what was written in it and she needed to do damage control.
“I cannot believe Mr. McAlister is blackmailing the Duke of Bellford! I must write to Lord Ainsworth at once,” he said as he stopped eating for a moment, staring at the letter in disbelief and then, his daughter. “You didn’t tell me that Lord Ainsworth stopped by your Uncle’s home and told you about it.”
Selina dismissed the comment. “That is because I still have no interest in Lord Ainsworth and I do not believe Mr. McAlister would do such a thing. Not the way Lord Ainsworth is trying to play it out to be.”
Her father scowled her way. “If a suitor goes to see you, I must be informed, no matter what, Selina. I need to write to Lord Ainsworth, arrange a meeting and a way to make you two have more encounters. Before that, though, tell me what happened.”
“Of course, father.” Selina said to him, bitter with the prospect of spending more time than necessary with that awful man. “Lord Ainsworth stopped by unannounced and told us he was visiting Mr. McAlister because of a supposed blackmail. I don’t believe it.”
“I do not believe it either,” said Mrs. Clifford and Selina exchanged a small smile with her grandmother. “That Lord Ainsworth isn’t trustworthy at all. I could see it when he came to visit Selina a few weeks ago. I like Mr. McAlister, though; he is a proper gentleman,” she chuckled. “He even got the time to entertain me.”
“Not you too, Mother.” Mr. Clifford complained. “Why can neither of you accept my decision of marrying Selina to the best suitor there is: A Duke!? Do you know how many other maidens have been waiting for that chance and will never get it?”
“I don’t know and don’t really care, Joseph, because it’s the wrong decision for Selina,” her grandma said with conviction and Selina wisely kept quiet, letting her grandmother deal with her father.
“Don’t be daft, Mother.”
Selina’s eyes widened and she peeked over to her father, whom had frozen in place when he realized what he had said, and then at her grandmother, who was giving her son a withering look.
Trying to fix his mistake, her father tried, softly. “Mother…”
“You will find, Joseph, that I am only old; not daft
nor senile. My mind is very sound even though my body gets weaker each day and I have been on this earth a lot longer than you, my boy. I have seen and done things in my life you would never imagine.” Her tone was firm.
“I love you but you are being as stubborn as an arse” her son looked affronted at that, “about this idiotic title instead of thinking of your daughter’s happiness,” she continued.
Selina wanted to giggle, but contained herself. It was amusing to see her father being scolded like a five-year-old. “One look at Selina and Lord Ainsworth and you would see it’s a wrong match; while another look with her and Mr. McAlister, you would see they are meant to be.”
“Don’t you ever call me daft again because we disagree, Joseph Alexander Clifford! I put you in this world and you will respect me and my opinion. You might not agree with me and that is alright. The Lord made us all different, but you will respect it. I raised you better than that.”
Properly ashamed, Mr. Clifford was looking down and there wasn’t a sound in the room aside from Mrs. Clifford putting away her cutlery. “I have lost my appetite.” She put her napkin away as well and looked at her granddaughter. “Selina, dear. Would you help me to the drawing room?”
“Of course, Granny.”
Selina used her napkin to clean her mouth and put away her own cutlery before getting up and helping her grandmother. Mr. Clifford tried to help but with one withering look from his mother, yet again, he took a step back and let his daughter lead his mother away.
* * *
“I am sorry, Granny.” Selina told her grandmother once she was settled in the settee in the drawing room, sitting next to the older woman. “Papa talked out of turn. He doesn’t think you are daft.”
Mrs. Clifford raised her chin. “I know that,” she snorted slightly. “That boy needed a proper scolding, though. I just needed an opening to do so.”
“Granny!” Selina put a hand over her mouth to stop her giggling. “You didn’t!”
“What else am I to do?” she sighed. “We are comfortable, Selina. Mr. McAlister will make your life even more comfortable. You will want for nothing, but he still insists on the title because of how people look at us and sneer. He did not see how those people looked at your grandfather and I when we joined society, fifty years ago.”
Selina frowned. “Was it hard?”
Mrs. Clifford seemed to think for a moment. “I had dealt with more difficulties in my life.” She looked at her granddaughter, measuring her, it appeared, before speaking again. “Selina, dear, with your situation as it is, I think we should talk. I have some insight about marriage and why I think Mr. McAlister is right for you.”
“Of course, Granny.”
“I was the daughter of a former maid.” Granny started and Selina nodded, knowing of her grandmother’s humble beginning in life. “She left service when she met my papa, God rest their souls. Even working as a shop owner, my family barely survived. I had three siblings, so mama started to do the laundry for the Count’s state. As I grew up, people started to treat me differently. I wasn’t just the delivery girl of the Count’s sheets; I was the most beautiful girl in my small village.
“As I told you, I had many suitors and by the age of seventeen, I thought it was time to get married so I could help my mother, brother and sisters. Father had just passed away and they would need help. Your grandfather was older than me, almost fifteen years. He had been married before, an arranged marriage, but his wife died young and he never thought he would marry again until he met me, or at least, that’s what he always told me.” She smiled sadly. “I had many suitors, Selina, dear, but I had to choose not by looks, but by money.”
Selina took her grandmother’s hand with hers. “I admit I married for money. There were younger men, though, who had more means than your grandfather, but I knew they only saw me as a beautiful thing to add to their collections and I would be forgotten soon, and traded. Your grandfather was a kind soul and I knew he loved me, so I decided I would marry him. You should have heard the gossip when I accepted your grandfather’s proposal!” Mrs. Clifford giggled like a teenager. “People thought I was wasting my youth, that I was marrying an older man to get his money sooner. That I was an opportunist!”
“I was, in a sense, I won’t lie. I was taking advantage of his love for me and I needed to take care of my family. Peter, though, I knew I could grow fond of him eventually. And I did, after a while. I fell in love with him as he fell for me. I was lucky, Selina. I got to choose and I chose right. That is why I am so against your union with Lord Ainsworth. He doesn’t care for you; you won’t grow to love him. Marrying him will add nothing to your life other than a title which is doubtful since the Duke’s real son appeared,” she said as she shook her head. “And even that won’t make the gossip go away. They will still point and whisper about how you married up and he married down,” she said frowning.
“With your Mr. McAlister, the only gossip will be about how lovely you two look together and both men and women being jealous of what a great couple you will be.”
Granny tightened her grip on Selina’s hand. “I will do whatever it takes to help you two be together, my dear. I want you to have a choice, like I did, and make the right one, like I feel I did. I was happy. Your grandfather and I had twenty-five wonderful years together and just when I started caring for him, he ended up being my only love. Sometimes, you need to let the feeling flourish, but that is not you and Mr. McAlister. Those feelings are already there, aren’t they?”
Selina’s eyes were burning and she dried a stray tear. “They are, Granny. He is the one I want to be with. He is the one who makes my heart race and go wild.”
“Good. Now I want you to be the brave girl I know you are and do what is right for you. Be happy, my dear.”
“Thank you, Granny,” Selina said gratefully as she kissed the back of the older woman’s hand. “For telling me your story and for being supportive.”
“Of your happiness, my dear? Always.”
* * *
After staying with her grandmother for a while and entertaining her for a while, Selina found herself knocking on her father’s office and once she was granted entrance, she saw he was at the table, writing a letter.
He looked up and frowned. “How is your grandmother?”
“I would stay quiet over dinner if the subject isn’t about floral arrangements she wants to buy for the house,” Selina said, looking at her father pointedly.
“I see,” he sighed and put the quill pen, down. “I shouldn’t have said that. Your grandmother is one of the smartest people I know.”
“And yet you still do not take her advice.” Selina had her hands together in front of her. “About me.”
“Selina…”
“You are writing to Lord Ainsworth, aren’t you, Papa?” He didn’t have to answer. The somewhat look on his face said it all. “I will not fight over it with you anymore,” Selina said, calmly.
Mr. Clifford frowned in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“If you want to write to Lord Ainsworth and gossip about Mr. McAlister or arrange things even after all my protests, I have come to a conclusion. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
He looked at his daughter with clear mistrust. “Why is that? You have been so vocal about not wanting to marry him. Did you change your mind?”
“Not at all. I will not marry Lord Ainsworth.”
He started to rise from his chair. “Selina-”
“Papa.” Selina looked her father in the eye. “Listen to what I am saying: I will not marry him.”
“You will do as I say or-”
“Do what you must do, Papa. I know what you are doing; it’s your way of showing love for me. It’s not malice, it’s not to hurt me. You want me to have a good life whether it’s of my choice or not. You do what you must, father. I will not stand in your way at this moment,” she repeated. “I will do what I must as well.”
Selina turned around and started to walk toward
s the door and heard her father: “What does that mean? Selina? Selina! Return this instant! I command you to return.”
She stopped and turned at the door to look at him, calm and focused. “Mama always told me to follow my heart and my passions. I will do so and I hope we can see eye to eye when the time comes.”
When she closed the door behind her, she could hear her father call her name once more, but for the first time in a while, she felt serene and wouldn’t fight her father anymore at the moment.
She’d rather reserve her strength for later. She knew it in her bones she would need it.
Chapter 22
Lord Reginald Ainsworth
Throwing a glass with whisky at the fireplace, Reginald almost threw away the letter he received from Mr. Clifford, just a few moments before.
A Hidden Duke For The Passionate Lady (Regency Historical Romance) Page 15
