Entangled with the Duke: A Clean & Sweet Regency Historical Romance Book

by Abby Ayles

  * * *

  He sighed heavily seeing that she would not meet his gaze. Shuffling his feet, he searched for the words.

  * * *

  “I didn’t…It wasn’t what it looked like. You must know…”

  * * *

  “Forgive me, Your Grace. I am not sure what you are referring to. Now if you will please excuse me. I don’t want to keep my father waiting much longer.”

  * * *

  With that, Lady Alexandra had marched away without so much as a look behind her. There was only one tear that defiled her at that moment. She quickly brushed it away as she entered her family’s carriage.

  * * *

  That night had been an entirely different story. As she and Lady Josephine had laid awake in their shared bed, Lady Alexandra had told her all, leaving nothing back. In her sister's warm embrace, she had let her sorrows flow from her like a rushing river.

  * * *

  It was a miracle that she had risen from her bed at all that morning. Though her eyes were still tinged with red from the night's cry, she came downstairs to breakfast with her family.

  * * *

  Naturally, the talk had all been about the picnic the day before. Her father mentioned that he would be spending the day at the museum doing the final preparations for the banquet the following evening. Lady Alexandra had cared little if her father even knew what to do. She would never set foot in that place again.

  * * *

  It seemed even the thought of the museum only brought her mind back to Raven. She couldn’t bear such a thing as it would cause her to cringe with pain all over again.

  * * *

  Why had she allowed herself to fall for him? She had done such an excellent job all these weeks keeping her distance and not allowing the duke in. Why, on the day that she had finally let down the walls he was so determined to break, had she also seen his true nature?

  * * *

  It was an utter shock when, with the morning post, the footman brought in a note for Lady Alexandra with the duke's handwriting addressing it.

  * * *

  “Who is it from?” her father asked, only half interested in the note.

  * * *

  “Lady Eagleton,” Lady Alexandra said quickly. “Please excuse me. The light is better in the drawing room, and I should like to read it there.”

  * * *

  She walked the short distance into the drawing room and promptly dropped the letter in the hearth and lighting it on fire. She had no care for what the duke had to say to her. She would never look upon him or speak to him again. In two days’ time, any and all connection to him would be done. He would marry Lady Charlotte and with any luck leave London for good this time.

  * * *

  “What was the note?” Lord Grebs asked as he intersected his daughter in the hallway after the meal was finished.

  * * *

  “She just wanted me to come to tea this afternoon. I think she is lonely.”

  * * *

  “Ah, yes. I believe Lord Eagleton said he would be leaving this morning for a hunt in the country, was he not? Naturally, I could never participate in such an act against nature, though he was nice enough to invite me,” Lord Grebs continued to ramble on none the wiser to his daughter's constitution.

  * * *

  She did leave that afternoon to seek out her friend. Frankly, she couldn’t stand to be in that house any longer and listen to Sophia talk incessantly about the Derbers and more specifically their eldest son.

  * * *

  Lady Eagleton would not mind her calling without prior notice. Lady Josephine had asked to accompany her, but Lady Alexandra had politely declined. She was hollow within now and the more people around her, the more she was certain to feel. At this particular moment, she wanted to stay hollow for all feelings were nothing but aches and pains.

  * * *

  “She wanted to make sure that I didn’t jump to any conclusions,” Lady Eagleton continued when her friend said no more and instead continued to stir her tea. “Lady Charlotte was standing on the bench just behind them and reaching into a bird’s nest when she fell. Raven saved her from great injury and nothing more.”

  * * *

  Lady Alexandra simply nodded that she heard the tale.

  * * *

  “So you see it was all just a misunderstanding,” Lady Eagleton said, hoping to brighten her friend’s mood.

  * * *

  “Misunderstanding? Did you not see the way she was looking at him, the way that he was holding her? Not to mention the satisfaction on the face of every party member when they returned back to the picnic together?”

  * * *

  “I know it did seem very…well unsettling.”

  * * *

  “It was not unsettling at all,” Lady Alexandra interrupted. “In fact, if anything, it only confirmed what I already knew. Raven has never had any interest in me. I was a silly girl to ever think so, to ever allow myself…Well anyway, I feel more ashamed for my own actions yesterday than any of Raven’s or Lady Charlotte’s. I was more foolish a girl than Sophia.”

  * * *

  “Now, we both know that could never be possible,” Lady Eagleton tried to cheer her up with a weak smile.

  * * *

  Lady Alexandra looked at her friend with a thankful heart that Lady Eagleton was so kind to her.

  * * *

  “You are a good friend,” she said with gratitude.

  * * *

  “And as your good friend, I want to tell you,” Regina said, taking her friend's hand and squeezing it. “Don’t give up on Raven. He is a good man, I am sure of that. Just please give him a chance to explain himself. You will see the truthfulness of the mistake we made.”

  * * *

  “Mistake or not. Can you not see the dies are cast? His choice has been made. He will marry Lady Charlotte as it should be. We both knew matrimony was never in the cards for someone like me. Let’s just return to the way things once were.”

  * * *

  “Can you though? I was lucky enough to marry and find love in that match after the fact. But you have given your heart already. How could we go back now? You must give him a chance still.”

  * * *

  “He wrote to me this morning,” Lady Alexandra explained.

  * * *

  “And? Did he explain it all right to you?”

  * * *

  “I don’t know. I burned it in the hearth. I couldn’t bear to read it.” Lady Alexandra looked to her friend with tears spilling afresh. “I don’t think I could stand to even hear him try. I will surely die of embarrassment and foolishness if I must live through a denial from him.”

  * * *

  “Then we won’t speak of it again,” Lady Eagleton said, patting her friend's hand while handing over a handkerchief. “I want only happiness for you, and if the mere thought brings you pain, then we will put it away from our minds forever.”

  * * *

  Lady Eagleton said it in a very determined fashion that brought a small light of comfort back to Lady Alexandra.

  * * *

  “Instead let us talk of happy things,” Lady Eagleton said with a soft smile, leaning back in her seat.

  * * *

  “Perhaps we can start with what on earth my father and Lady Rebecca were giggling about like school children yesterday,” Lady Alexandra gave in a weak but helpful tone.

  * * *

  “Oh, I know. It was most curious wasn’t it!” Lady Eagleton propped up in her seat excited for the new subject to ponder over.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  When Lady Alexandra walked away from him at the picnic, he was desperate to get her to listen to him. When his letter went without a response the following morning, he called the next day.

  * * *

  Unfortunately, she was not at home. Lady Josephine made excuses saying her sister was preparing for the banquet that night. So, taking her information, Raven when straight to the museum. He knew that bugging
her on a stressful day wasn’t necessarily going to help his cause, but he couldn’t let her go another day thinking him a rake if he could help it.

  * * *

  Sadly, arriving at the museum, he found only Lord Grebs. Lady Alexandra’s father informed him next that she had decided to stay at home. The stress of the whole day had driven her to her bed with a headache.

  * * *

  It was then that Raven resolved that he would not be getting at Lady Alexandra through the traditional methods. He was determined, however, and so spent the rest of the afternoon at Lord and Lady Eagleton’s.

  * * *

  “So you see, it was all just a horrible mistake,” he explained to the two of them in their drawing room.

  * * *

  “I assumed it was when Lady Charlotte told me that she had fallen. We never questioned your honor for a moment,” Lady Eagleton reassured him once the whole story was given.

  * * *

  “And you told Lady Alexandra just as much didn’t you?” Raven asked desperately.

  * * *

  “Lady Alexandra Woodley?” Lord Eagleton asked still trying to keep track of the conversation. “Why on earth would Regina tell her?”

  * * *

  “My dear, because Raven loves her,” Lady Eagleton told her husband patiently.

  * * *

  Lord Eagleton looked at Raven with his grey wire brows standing up in shock.

  * * *

  “Do you?”

  * * *

  “Well of course I do,” Raven said coming to stand and pacing the room. “But the frustrating woman won't give me two minutes of her time to tell her such.”

  * * *

  “Well, there is your event tonight. Why not tell her there,” Lord Eagleton said as if he had just solved the world's problems.

  * * *

  “It is a private event for the Society. I doubt she will come. Her father was the only one there this morning when I went there, besides,” he added.

  * * *

  “Then you will just have to be patient,” Lady Eagleton said, folding her hand’s in her lap.

  * * *

  “I don’t want to be,” Raven said much like an errant child. “She will surely slip away from me.”

  * * *

  “No she won’t,” Regina said with resolve. “She is just as sick in love with you as you are with her.”

  * * *

  Raven turned and looked at the Countess, shock painting his face.

  * * *

  “I am sure she detested me before, and now only hates me the more.”

  * * *

  “She was scared is all, but that didn’t change the fact that the moment she met you she felt just as you did,” Lady Eagleton said with wisdom beyond her years.

  * * *

  “Alexandra has spent her whole life caring for the needs of others and only thinking of her own needs as an afterthought. Every move she has made has only been in the hopes of presenting the best image of her younger sisters no matter the sacrifice it made to her own personal happiness.”

  * * *

  “I don’t want to rob her of all that. I don’t want to stuff her down into the confines of a duchess if she doesn’t want it. I only wish to be at her side,” Raven said, melting back in his seat covering his face with his large hands.

  * * *

  “She knows this,” Lady Eagleton assured him. “She is just upset. Give her some time and space, and I promise you that you won't lose her.”

  * * *

  Raven looked up from his hands still unsure of her words.

  * * *

  “Trust her,” Lord Eagleton said, motioning to his own wife. “This one knows far more than you would think about these matters.”

  * * *

  Raven watched as the two exchanged a loving look. Time, age, and arrangement of situation was no match for the love they shared for each other.

  * * *

  “I do agree. You are one lucky man,” Raven said to Lord Eagleton.

  * * *

  “And you will be too, just wait and see,” Lady Eagleton said with a bright smile.

  * * *

  Raven returned to his own house to ready himself for the night's banquet. He knew he wouldn’t see Lady Alexandra there tonight and perhaps not for many days to come. As much as he wished to bang on her door and force her to listen, he knew that was not a possibility.

  * * *

  “Raven you look so fine,” his aunt said as he entered the drawing room to say his farewells before leaving for the museum.

  * * *

  Raven was dressed in his most exceptional black jacket and pants with high boots, white shirt, and a perfectly tied white cravat. His hair he had chosen to slick back revealing the full profile of his long angular face. He was sure that he was imitating the image of a duke, something he didn’t care to do very often.

  * * *

  “Why do you look so sullen, though?” his aunt asked, studying him closely. “I mean you must be ecstatic after the picnic. Lady Charlotte is sure to accept you,” she added with an encouraging smile.

  * * *

  “Dear Aunt, could we speak for just a moment,” Raven said with a long sigh.

  * * *

  “Of course. Come and sit with me before you leave. I only have the moment though as I am off to the Derbers for a private ball. I am sure you know they were disappointed to hear that you wouldn’t be attending with me tonight, but no matter,” she waved off as he followed behind her to take a seat.

  * * *

  Raven took his seat in the drawing room of a house that was more his aunt’s than his own. He looked around from the exquisite paintings down to the perfectly placed ornaments. He knew that his aunt had built a world around herself based on what was socially acceptable and desirable.

  * * *

  He had no offering of a board seat to give her as recompense for the refusal of her choice in a wife. He was still determined to do so, if it were in his power. Whether the possibility came or not, however, his mind had been made up. He was still unsure how much of an effect this would have on the perfect world that his aunt had made and planned for the both of them.

  * * *

  He only had slight reservations in broaching the subject. Raven was almost sure that she wouldn’t be so upset as to drive him away. Not entirely sure, however. He had come to London with the sole purpose of rushing to her side.

  * * *

  Raven had promised himself in that last trip so far around the world, that no matter where he arrived at, he would be more attentive to his aunt. He was determined to see to her wishes, and to bring her joy through the rest of her years. Now he was about to tell Lady Rebecca Sinclair something that could bring her much upset.

  * * *

  “Aunt Rebecca, I know that you were very determined that I get to know Lady Charlotte better. I do commend you for your fine taste in a match. She is a woman of high character.”

  * * *

  Lady Rebecca who had been waiting at the edge of her seat for whatever her nephew planned to tell her, seemed to scoot just a bit closer now.

  * * *

  “I am afraid I could not bring myself to marry such a fine lady when my heart is not in it. It would not be gentlemanly of me to do so for her sake.”

  * * *

  “Oh, why not?” Lady Rebecca said throwing her hands into the air. “I am certain she is very keen on the match. Not all marriages can be based on the heart. Love is such a flimsy thing in the end, anyway. You are just fearing to settle down, Raven. You are a grown man. It is time to do your duty to the dukedom.”

  * * *

  Raven let his aunt ramble on with huffs of indignation for several minutes.

  * * *

  “I am well aware that I am far past my time for finding my roots, as you would call it. I do agree to such terms, but not when the only benefit to the match is a board seat for you. I love you, dear Aunt, but I could not ask for a life of unhappiness fr
om another or myself, and I promise you that is the case if I were to marry Lady Charlotte.”