Nathan continued to chuckle. “Don’t worry, Mother. It’s not like she knows anything about change. Poor Aurelia, locked up here in the middle of nowhere like a poor country mouse. But don’t worry, something will work out. You can’t be both blind and dumb, can you?”
The knot in her stomach was returning. There was something being said between Lorena and Nathan that she simply didn’t understand. She swallowed hard as she forced a polite smile onto her face.
“If you’ll excuse me, I think I should go lie down. I don’t feel very well.”
“I’m right here, Miss.” Bridget touched her elbow and then took her hand in hers. Jocelyn was there on her other side as they turned around to the stairs. Though Aurelia knew her home like the back of her hand, she could hardly make it up the grand staircase by herself. She felt like a feather on the wind as they reached the top.
If she hadn’t have left, she might have done something she would have regretted. Aurelia was reminded of the first year she had been blinded. Those days had been filled with sorrow, pain, and endless torment.
She had struck out at everything and everyone. There had been such anger in her heart that all she wanted to do was fight and fight and fight. Her knuckles had been bloody for most of that year, even as her father ended up locking her up in her room. Aurelia’s hands balled into fists thinking of how good it might have felt to do something like that again.
But then she stopped, hearing Lorena and Nathan chuckle.
Lorena laughed loud enough to snort. There was a clatter as they bumped or kicked into something. Jocelyn would point it out to her later. Her stepmother always purposely broke things while at Greenfair. “It’s about time we’re done with that child.”
“Old maid, don’t you mean?” Nathan responded tartly. “Black mark? Stain on the family reputation? It’s bad enough I’m wasting away here when I should be in London. I’m missing two card parties now as we speak, Mother. That’s not counting the balls, the operas, or the games.”
A cold tingle ran down Aurelia’s spine.
But she couldn’t bring herself to move, wondering what they appeared to know that she didn’t. Bridget and Jocelyn stood frozen by her side. They wouldn’t move until she was ready.
Her stepmother spoke up with a groan. “Don’t worry, Nathaniel. You are the future Duke of Greenfair. That is already set in stone. She is nearly out of the way for good. Then finally you’re all that Harold will care for. No more black stains on the family or any blind fools weighing us down. We’ll be rid of her once and for all. Enough of this. All this travel has made me famished. Where is that kitchen? Where is everybody?”
“I’ll tear this place down once I’m the Duke,” Nathan growled. “Come along, Mother.”
Footsteps stomped down the wrong direction toward the drawing room and not the kitchens. But Aurelia wasn’t about to tell them what they were doing wrong. She wasn’t about to tell them anything.
Her blood boiled. She wanted to scream, to do something. But she was a lady and could do nothing. Inhaling deeply, she felt Jocelyn gently stroke her hair to try and calm her down.
She managed a shaky breath before nodding. Bridget led them to Aurelia’s quarters where she was helped onto her bed. Her favorite pillow was placed in her lap and a glass of water was found for her.
No one said a word for several minutes.
“Well?” Jocelyn asked at last. She was the least patient of the three of them. “What do you think is happening?”
“I don’t know,” Bridget confessed with what sounded very much like a pout. “But I’ve never wanted to slap the Duchess of Greenfair more in all my life. She’s hideous, Aurelia, just like she sounds. Her nose is too pointy for her face and her eyebrows are too close together. If you squint, perhaps she could be pretty to someone. But then she wears so many pearls that she appears to be drowning in them and then she speaks like she’s a dying bird.”
A small laugh escaped Aurelia’s lips before she could help it. Now that they were away from her family, the anger began to fade. She squeezed her pillow and leaned against her bed as she took a deep breath. “That’s not very nice,” she covered her mouth to hide the smile as she tried to be stern. “I like birds.”
“But she’s an awful bird,” Jocelyn nudged her, and soon all of them were giggling. For a few hours, Aurelia was able to forget the knot in her stomach as they talked.
But in the back of her mind, she counted the minutes till she knew what news her father had brought.
Chapter 2
The Duke of Oakhampton felt like he was choking.
Even as he loosened his cravat, it hardly seemed to help him. The decision put forth before him was clear because his situation was dire. There wasn’t any other option. Yet he hadn’t anticipated such an action would need to be taken like this. Especially one so soon.
His heart thumped. Running a hand through his dark hair, he sighed and shook his head. Though in his mid-thirties, he felt he was too old for all of this. Too old to still be making so many life-altering decisions...
And too young for so much sorrow.
“Donovan?” A voice rose from the silence to break him free from his thoughts. It was his younger brother, Isaac. The tea merchant was comfortably and quite lazily draped in a chair on the other side of the grand desk. For all his casual appearance, he sounded impatient. “Well?”
“Well, what?” Donovan couldn’t help it as his voice came out rather sharp.
It was his steward who stepped up and cleared his throat. “We know it’s a sensitive matter, Sir. But time waits for no man. The contract must be finalized and agreed upon. Your brother does not have all night.”
They all knew this.
Donovan was not a fool. He knew that and they knew it as well. But they didn’t understand what they were talking about. They don’t know how hard it is to sign this contract. They don’t know what it was like to lose a wife. They don’t know what it was like to watch the person they loved most in all the world die slowly and painfully. And they don’t know what it is like to choose a second wife because he needed the money.
His gut twisted at the very notion.
He didn’t want to marry again. Especially so soon... It had hardly been a year since Lacy had passed away. Sometimes at night, he swore he could still feel her touch, still smell her scent.
But every morning was the same. He would wake up to the shining sun and be greeted to a large, empty bed. His manservant Charlie would arrive to draw back the curtains to remind him of his duties and responsibilities that continued to pile onto him day after day.
Especially lately.
Since he had focused all his care and attention on his ailing wife, his state of affairs had fallen by the wayside. They were nearly destitute. If he wanted to keep himself and his son off the streets, then they had to do something.
“Timothy needs a mother.”
Donovan lifted his head slowly to see that his brother had begun to straighten up his lanky form. Isaac should have been the elder, the Duke, Donovan thought at that moment. He would know better about what to do. After all, he had put this plan into action. The younger man offered a lopsided smile beneath his serious gaze as he leaned forward.
“But what if…” Donovan couldn’t bring himself to finish the phrase. There were too many concerns he could voice. “I just… don’t want to bring a stranger home to him,” he said at last.
Ezra glanced at Isaac who stared back. “It’s not going to be a stranger. At least, not for long,” his steward added. “Your brother is right. You need to get your affairs back into order, and you don’t have enough time to attend to your son. He needs attention and he needs a mother. Not only that, but you need money to get back on your feet. I don’t think you’ll find a better match, nor a better deal. It’s forty thousand. Marrying a rich Duke’s daughter is your best option at this point, sir.”
He swallowed hard as he glanced back down at the numbers. That is certainly what they reflected
. It is a fair deal. The Duke of Greenfair had already been generous thus far with an advance, and Donovan couldn’t push the man further.
There isn’t any other choice.
Rubbing his neck, Donovan let out a shaky breath. “All right. Of course. I don’t have a choice. It’s my only option.” He managed a weak smile. “It’s time that I marry again.”
His brother nodded as though it were a simple matter. Isaac was the one who had a head for business, after all.
But it was Ezra whose eyes glittered hopefully. He was a few years younger than Donovan, closer to Isaac’s age, but they were close confidants so the steward had been hinting for the last couple of months that some sort of financial action such as this needed to take place.
As he turned to sign the papers so Isaac could deliver them to Harold Blackmore, Donovan straightened stiffly in his seat. He remembered vaguely something his father had told him once as a young man when he was learning about the family estate.
“It is the legacy that is most important,” the old man had reminded him firmly. “It is not the individual that matters. Not you or I. The stones that built this home are older than we will ever live to be and will live beyond us. We are simply here to help them pass along to the next duke.”
The family legacy. The family name. The family crest. The wealth, the power, the dukedom. It was a heavy weight on his shoulders.
This wasn’t what he wanted. He had never wanted any of this. Becoming the Duke had weighed him down all his life, haunting him like a dark cloud.
“Take it,” he mumbled to his brother as he handed over the documents once they were signed.
Isaac stood up and accepted them. Then he paused to study Donovan with a frown. It made the dimple in his chin stand out more than usual, and his hair fell in his eyes. Donovan glanced up, wondering what his brother saw.
“This is a wise choice,” Isaac said after a minute. “You know this, don’t you?”
“I would like to think so,” Donovan confessed as the words slipped carefully from his mouth. He leaned back in his chair as he fiddled with his undone cravat. Since his father’s passing nearly twenty years ago, he had done all that he could to do right by the old man. But part of him wondered if he would ever rise to meet those expectations. “But how do I tell my son?”
Again there was an exchange of looks between his closest confidants that he was not a part of. Donovan ignored Ezra and Isaac in annoyance, wishing his brother would just leave already as he had been pressing to do all day, waiting around for that final signature.
“You’ll find a way,” Ezra assured him. “You always do.”
“Timothy is shy at first, but he needs someone else in his life,” Isaac agreed quickly, nodding his head. “Remember how he was with Lacy? He used to run all the time and loved to play games. Now, it’s hard to get him to go outside for his daily walks. I’m sure that with a mother again, someone he can see as a friend and a guide, he’ll be out and about as he once was. He needs that influence again in his life.”
Beside him, Ezra was also nodding adamantly.
“And the money,” his brother added pointedly. “You need the money, Donovan. What else are you going to do?” He held the signed papers up in the air before putting them away into his bags. “As I told you from the beginning, I’m certain everything will work out on its own once you put in the effort. It always does.”
Donovan managed a weak smile. That had always been his brother’s philosophy. And somehow, it had always worked to Isaac’s advantage. He nodded slowly. “Of course. Then you had best be off. I know you have a long ride ahead of you.”
Soon Isaac was off.
The papers should have been signed days ago, especially with the Duke of Greenfair in town. But Timothy had fallen ill with a cold and Donovan had refused to leave his side, let alone think of anything else. When he finally turned to review the financials along with the finality of the offer, Isaac informed him that the Duke was just about to leave town. As for himself, Isaac was bound for a merchant ship to France the very next day.
Donovan had never had good timing.
He didn’t have good timing, he didn’t have his wife, and he didn’t know how to talk to his son. All he had was a family legacy to protect. Bitterness for what his father had left him left a sour taste on his tongue.
Surely he had once been happier about all that he had. But now, he wasn’t so sure.
Guilt-ridden, he stared at the ledger before him in shame, wondering how he had sunk so low. He rubbed his forehead as he waited for the numbers to miraculously fix themselves. Nothing happened.
“You can say it,” he said in the silence.
Ezra stood back behind the desk, watching and waiting. It was his job to know everything that Donovan needed to know. He had just been hired the year before Donovan’s father passed and taking on all the responsibility there had changed them both, bringing them closer than anticipated. They expected complete honesty from one another.
“The situation is dire,” his steward offered drily. “You’ll learn to deal with this. In fact, I think this is the best thing that could happen to you right now.”
At that moment, Donovan wondered if honesty might have been too much.
He frowned at Ezra before looking over the numbers again. “Fine. Enough about the marriage. Let’s work on my estate, shall we?”
His steward obediently made his way around the desk to join him at his elbow. He glanced over his shoulder and tugged a few helpful notes out for them to keep in mind for their review. This matter would take some time for them to manage.
“If I may be so bold, Donovan,” Ezra interceded before they had moved on far through their documents and numbers, “This means that you’ll be married in three weeks once the banns have been read. Beyond the financials, this implies you’ll have a woman in your home again. Not only do you need to have your finances in order, but you also need to have your house in order. You need Timothy to be made ready, and yourself prepared.”
Donovan felt his heart skip a beat.
Though the Duke knew his steward to be correct, it added to the fact that Donovan felt as though he were losing himself lately. He didn’t know who he was anymore. Surely, he had been happy once. There had been hope for the future. But now, there was only the sober future ahead of him.
Ezra was simply pointing out something that he had yet to accept for himself right then. Of course, Donovan knew this to be the truth. He couldn’t accept a man’s dowry for his daughter without taking the daughter.
Even if no one knew anything about her.
He had a name with a vague family portrait from when she was a child. But that was the last one that had been created of her. She didn’t like to sit for them, her father had claimed. She was a private person, so she had never had her season.
But every woman had her season. As Donovan worked with Ezra to attempt to put his estate back into order with the money he was coming into, in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder about the woman he had agreed to marry. No one knew anything about her.
Even Isaac, who had helped arrange this since he was a business partner with the other duke, knew little of the man’s daughter. Only that she was in her late twenties, unwed, and came with an extremely large dowry.
“I think we’ve sorted through the worst of it,” Ezra offered when Donovan rubbed his face in frustrated exhaustion for the hundredth time. His steward gave him a sympathetic smile. “And I’m sure that Timothy is being put to bed now. Why don’t we finish this tomorrow? You can go see your son to his room. I’m sure he would like to see you.”
He paused. Donovan hadn’t seen Timothy all day. Cooped up with Isaac and Ezra, they had taken their early meals at the gentleman’s club before retiring to his office.
Rubbing his face, he nodded. “Of course. Tomorrow, then.”
Donovan stood up and stretched, feeling his body creak and groan. I am really getting too old. Thirty-five is much too young to be d
ealing with all of this pain and misery, let alone remarrying some stranger I have never laid eyes on before.
But he didn’t have a choice.
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Thank you very much!
Also by Patricia Haverton
Thank you for reading Desperately Inn Love with the Duchess!
I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, may I ask you to please write a review HERE? It would mean the world to me. Your insightful comments and honest feedback help me get better!
Some other best sellers of mine:
Through the Eyes of a Blind Duchess
His White Marchioness in the Gilded Cage
A Wounded Soldier for the Trapped Duchess
A Most Unsuitable Bride for the Marquess
Three Secrets and a Lie to Tie the Marquess
Accidentally Betrothed to the Scarred Duke
Also, if you liked this book, you can also check out my full Amazon Book Catalogue HERE.
I am honored to have you by my side on this wonderful journey!
Patricia Haverton
About the Author
Born the oldest of three children, Patricia Haverton grew up believing that she’d follow in her father’s footsteps and pursue a career in science. However, her worldview changed when she decided to explore her British mother’s roots. The trip to her ancestral lands solidified her conviction that she had found her true calling in the romanticism of the Era of Kings and Queens.
A hopeless romantic and a firm believer in the idea of soulmates, Patricia changed the course of her life and decided to get her degree in Creative Writing and Psychology. As she jokingly says ever so often, “she lives in the past now, where love shows the way and Dukes save the day!”
Desperately Inn Love with the Duchess: A Historical Regency Romance Novel Page 29
