The Scandalous Secret 0f The Tempting Duchess (Steamy Historical Regency Romance)

by Scarlett Osborne

  “Is this about the Duke of Brentminster?”

  Well, there’s a start.

  “Yes. It is.”

  “Well, then, spit it out, Matilda. Unless you’d rather sit here and wait for the sun to rise?”

  Matilda chuckled lightly. “I don’t know how to begin. Well… I suppose I should start by saying that he knows everything.”

  “Everything?”

  “He knows about the Duke of Dunstead. He knows what happened.”

  “Oh.” Elizabeth sagged. When her eyes turned away, Matilda realized the error in her words.

  “Oh, no, but he doesn’t know that it all happened to you,” she said quickly. “He still believes Jackson is my son. He found out, through a conversation with the Duke, that he is Jackson’s father and so when he asked me, I told him everything.”

  “When he asked you? Did he ask you this at the last ball?” Elizabeth’s eyes went wide. “Oh, my! Don’t tell me you two have been sneaking off together? Have you? I can hardly imagine you two talking about such things in the middle of a dance floor. You have snuck off together, haven’t you?”

  Matilda expected her face to grow red with embarrassment at the suggestion, but instead, a smile spread across her face. At the sight, Elizabeth sported her own excited smile. “I shouldn’t say this but…”

  “…but I am your sister and you know you can trust me with your deepest, darkest secrets, so simply say it!”

  “We meet in the gardens. Do you remember the shortened bit of fence at the back of the gardens? I told him that if he did it just right, he’d be able to jump over it without anyone being any wiser about it. We meet at the gazebo late at night.”

  “Oh, goodness!” Elizabeth gasped, putting a hand over her mouth as her eyes went wide. It made Matilda blush and laugh at the same time. “Matilda, you’ve always been so daring to me but I never thought you would do something like that. How … romantic!”

  “Romantic?”

  “Of course!” Now, it was as if the tears never happened. The Elizabeth she knew and loved was back. “Two forbidden lovers meeting each other in secret is the most romantic tale ever told, don’t you think?”

  “I’m no expert on the matter so I’ll leave that to you. The problem is, Elizabeth, he knows what happened, but he doesn’t know that it didn’t happen to me. I can’t help but feel …”

  “Guilty?”

  She didn’t answer. Suddenly, she was beginning to realize it was a mistake coming here. Unloading her problems unto Elizabeth—especially after what she just said—was the last thing she should have done.

  But Elizabeth only put her hand over hers. “You want to know if you should tell him the truth?”

  “I shouldn’t have said anything. We can’t tell anyone the truth. I know that. I just … I couldn’t help but feel terrible about not being able to tell him what truly happened.”

  “Matilda.” This time, Elizabeth took both of Matilda’s hands into hers. “In all my years, I’ve never seen you like this. You’ve always been so sure of yourself, even when you knew that you probably shouldn’t be doing something. I always envied that about you. You didn’t ask others for help or advice. You always knew what to do—for you, for me, even when Father asks you for help. And, to be honest with you, I’m happy I’m seeing you so confused. It only shows me that you do truly love him.”

  Elizabeth’s eyes slipped away. “I don’t know what love is. Not true love. I was enamored with the Duke of Dunstead. I know that now. At the time, I thought it to be love but it was only my desperation to be in love. And to have a gentleman like him be interested in me was something I could never imagine. I never thought of myself to be womanly enough to attract a man, not like you were. So when he seduced me, I fell instantly and I thought we were in love. I thought we were going to be together forever.”

  “But the aftermath of that incident and the way you handled things showed me that I have much to learn. I strive to be like you, Matilda, in everything that I do and I want to be able to give you something the way you’ve always given your all to me. So, in response to your unspoken question, you can tell him. The whole truth.”

  “Elizabeth!” Matilda gasped, but Elizabeth simply raised a hand, smiling softly.

  “I don’t know what’s going to happen when you do. Of course, if you two plan to live your lives together, the truth will undoubtedly reach others’ ears. Or perhaps he will keep it a secret and suffer alongside you, allowing the ton to believe that he is marrying a tainted spinster and raising a child that is not his. Maybe he is such an angel. But I’m prepared to handle what may happen if the truth does come to light.”

  “Elizabeth, you can’t…”

  “I want you to be happy, Matilda. I want you to finally be happy.”

  “I’m happy seeing you happy.”

  “But I’m not if you aren’t. Do you see our problem?” Elizabeth laughed but Matilda couldn’t find it within herself to. She could hardly believe her ears. Did her sister not see the consequences of such an action?

  Yet, Matilda couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to come into the light with Timothy. To be able to hold his hand in public and not have whispers follow in their wake. To be able to raise a family with the man she loved without the burden of her scandal weighing on not only her but everyone else she loved.

  “Stop worrying about it, Matilda,” Elizabeth said with a wave of her hand. “I’ve made up my mind. Of course, Father will have my hide if he hears me saying such things…"

  “As he should.”

  “…but it doesn’t matter. I can’t live like this anymore. And now that the Duke of Dunstead is in London, the very thing I always believed I wanted feels unnecessary.”

  “I can hardly believe the words that are coming out of your mouth.”

  “Neither can I, honestly.” Again, she laughed, but this laugh was wistful. Thoughtful. She sighed and laid back on the bed. After a moment, Matilda laid by her side. “I love you, Matilda. You’re the best sister a lady could ever have.”

  “I love you too, Elizabeth.”

  They fell into silence. Matilda stared at the ceiling, all that had been said between them racing through her mind. Elizabeth’s words, telling her that she could tell the truth, played over and over again … and those sweet, sweet words were what lulled her to sleep.

  Chapter 30

  I shouldn’t do this.

  Timothy knew he shouldn’t. That thought stayed in the back of his mind, whispering in his head every so often as a reminder that this was a very bad idea. Timothy knew that well but he wasn’t keen on listening to that thought. The others, the ones borne of rage and overprotection, were the ones he listened to. Those were the ones who drove him to where he was right now.

  Timothy sat in his carriage, staring out at the gentleman’s club where he last heard the most shocking truth of his life. He knew the Duke of Dunstead was in there, probably already drunk and the thought angered him even more. He had held on to that anger ever since Matilda told him what happened between them. He let the night pass, refused the Duke’s call when he came to his manor for another impromptu business meeting, all because he wanted to listen to her. She told him to forget his anger, that it was in the past and he should do nothing about it, and he tried to. Heavens knew he tried his best.

  But that smoldering fury grew in him every time he thought about the way she must have felt when it all happened. The happiness she must have felt when the Duke expressed interest in her, only to be dashed at his abandonment. And the years that followed, the result of the Duke’s wily seduction. A gentleman that refused to acknowledge his actions, forcing her to suffer for what he did.

  How can she possibly expect me to sit still after learning that?

  Timothy was surprised he managed to last this long, but the holding period was over. The Duke of Dunstead was inside, enjoying his freedom and privilege, not caring one wit about the son he had left behind. About the lady’s heart he had broken. />
  Clenching his fist, Timothy exited the carriage. The nippy air only served to fuel his rage but he kept a tight lid on it. If it overflowed, then that was only bound to cause more problems.

  It took Timothy a few seconds to locate the Duke. He found him sitting in the far back of the club, surrounded by other half-drunken lords. Of course, he was deep into another one of his lovely tales and Timothy stood nearby, watching him as he tried his best to dazzle his audience.

  “Sir.”

  His voice was low, with his barely-contained anger, but somehow it cut through the Duke’s loud voice, drawing all eyes to him. The Duke squinted at him, then his eyes widened with recognition. “Ah, the Duke of Brentminster is here everyone. The late Duke’s prodigious son! You know the Duke and I are very close friends? How may I be of service?”

  Timothy didn’t know what it was he said. Perhaps it wasn’t what he said but the simple fact that he had the gall to speak to him in such a manner after what he told him. The voice in the back of his mind—the one that told him this was not a good idea—mentioned that the Duke had no way of knowing how close he was to Matilda. He wouldn’t expect his revelation to affect Timothy so. But Timothy was in no mood to care. He only cared about doling out his brand of justice on this rakish gentleman.

  Acting without thought, he grabbed the Duke by his lapels and pummeled his fist into his jaw. The crack he heard was so satisfying that he didn’t care that his hand was throbbing in pain. He only stood over the Duke, watching him clutch his face in shock. “What are you doing?” the Duke demanded.

  “Tell me, Duke. Do you make it a habit of seducing young ladies only to leave them when they fall for you and bear your child?”

  “W-what?”

  Timothy advanced, slowly. The anger that simmered in him was nothing he’d felt before, so consuming that he felt oddly calm. As if the Duke saw the intent in his eyes, he began to back away, shuffling on the ground like an injured rat. “I have an inkling that Miss Matilda Jones isn’t the only lady you’ve left like you did, is it? Do you not have any sense of honor, Sir? Do you not care about the people you hurt on your quest to conquer?”

  “S-sir!” The Duke raised his hands to ward off Timothy’s raising fist. Timothy frowned at that. The Duke was well known to be a prideful man. He hadn’t expected him to react in such a cowardly manner. But was it because he was obviously drunk? He probably would not have been able to stand straight even if Timothy hadn’t punched him. “I believe you have it all wrong!”

  “Do I?” Timothy could feel the eyes on him. The entire club was watching them, but in that moment, he didn’t care. “Enlighten me. What do I have wrong?”

  The Duke’s eyes shifted around him, licking his lips nervously, noting those who were watching. His jaw was beginning to turn red. “’Tis true that I seduced Miss Jones and impregnated her—”

  “That’s all I needed to hear.”

  “Wait!” The Duke said before Timothy had the chance to punch him again. “But you don’t know the whole truth! Miss Matilda Jones is not the lady I seduced!”

  “Don’t lie to me!”

  “I’m not!” With a bout of courage, the Duke pulled himself from Timothy’s grasp and backed away. Timothy let him. He could easily grab ahold of him again if he wanted to. For now, he wanted to know what he was going on about. “Sir, I think there must have been a misunderstanding between us,” the Duke went on, his breath rank with the smell of brandy. “I had the intention of charming the eldest daughter of the Viscount of Roburg but she refused my advances.”

  Timothy narrowed his eyes. “Then how did she become of child?”

  “It wasn’t her who bore the child, Sir. It was her younger sister. Miss Elizabeth Jones.” The Duke licked his lips again, steadily backing away. Timothy slowly advanced as he did, not allowing the fear in the Duke’s eyes to go away. “I had set my eyes on the eldest of the two. About that, you’re right. But she spurned me and, because of that, I turned my attention to the younger one. She… she was the one who bore my child.”

  Timothy stared at him. The entire club was silent and though he could feel the weight of their quiet, their patience ebbing as they waited for Timothy to respond, he could only focus on the Duke’s words.

  Matilda isn’t the one who bore a child? It was her sister instead?

  “That makes little sense,” Timothy said. “Why did you approach her in the first place? And if she rejected you, why would you move on to her sister? She must have been underage at the time.”

  This time, the Duke’s entire face was washed in red and he looked downwards.

  Is that… is that remorse in his eyes?

  “I had been swayed, Sir. Someone encouraged me to do it and it was foolish of me to fall for it but I did. And when she rejected me, I… I felt cheated out of something I should have had. The Viscount’s younger daughter was ripe for the taking.”

  Timothy narrowed his eyes at him. “Swayed by who?”

  “The Viscount’s wife,” the Duke said. “Lady Roburg.”

  Timothy could hardly believe his ears. Lady Roburg pushed the Duke to seduce Matilda? Why? Why would their mother do such a thing?

  “After everything happened, I… I had to leave,” the Duke said, drawing Timothy away from his thoughts. “I couldn’t face the consequences of the things I had done. Surely you can see that I know my wrong?”

  “What I see is a Duke who took advantage of a young lady and left her to deal with the aftermath herself. A coward is what I see.”

  The Duke’s lips tightened. “A coward?”

  “Quite so.” Moving so quickly, those who were closest to them gasped, Timothy grabbed him again by his lapels, bringing him close to his face. “And cowards always get what is coming to them soon enough.”

  The Duke said nothing. Timothy stared him down for a few more seconds before he released him so roughly, he nearly tumbled back to the floor. The Duke had enough time to breathe a sigh before Timothy punched him once more, sending him careening to the floor.

  “You deserve much more than that, Sir,” Timothy said calmly, looking down on him. “But I’ll leave you with that. For now.”

  With that said, he left. The rage didn’t diminish, but it was now hedged with something else. Confusion. The stories weren’t aligned in his mind and so he needed to see Matilda. He needed to confirm what he Duke said. Coming from such a man like him, he wouldn’t be surprised if he only said those words to alleviate his own guilt.

  On his way out, Timothy noticed Jonathan. His friend said nothing to him and he said nothing back. They only raised their brows at each in acknowledgement. No doubt, Jonathan would have questions for him, but Timothy had no time for them. Before he could answer anything, he needed to hear his own answers first.

  Chapter 31

  “Excuse me, Miss.”

  Matilda didn’t hear her butler at first. His words floated a few moments after they were said and dragged her eyes away from the window to look at him. “Yes?”

  “You have a caller.”

  Matilda’s heartbeat sped up. If she had a caller then it could only be one person. She looked at Elizabeth, who was on the other side of the drawing room reading to Jackson. Her sister heard what was said as well and was just as wide-eyed as her. Her mother made no move or sound, as usual.

  “Who is it?” she asked.

  “It is the Duke of Brentminster, Miss.”

  “Send him in,” she said. Again, Matilda looked at her sister. It had only been a couple days since their late-night talk, days in which she had taken to think over what she planned to say to Timothy. Elizabeth was right. Matilda was normally very sure about the things she did and being so indecisive about how to approach this situation with him was beginning to bother her. Still, not for one second did she think he would come to her like this.

  Elizabeth said nothing, but her eyes filled with excitement. Jackson, unaware of what was happening around him, was too busy focusing on the book before him.

/>   Matilda smoothed down her skirt, tucking whatever hairs she hoped weren’t out of her chignon behind her hair. She found herself wringing her hands together nervously. Elizabeth chuckled.

  At long last, the butler came back, announcing the Duke’s entrance.

  Timothy sauntered into the drawing room looking as handsome as he did the last time she saw him. The moment her eyes fell on him, her heart went still, her mouth dry. Oh, heavens she wanted him. As if they had been apart for years, Matilda wanted him more than she’d ever thought possible. Her hand itched to run across his broad chest, to touch the skin underneath. To have his hot breath on her ear as his own hands sought her most intimate places. She longed to run her fingers through his hair and grab ahold of luscious strands as she kissed him with everything in her.