Duchess by Deception

by Marie Force

  “What is that you’re drinking?”

  “The duke has introduced me to American coffee, and I confess I’ve developed quite a taste for it. Have you had it?”

  She shook her head. “The aroma is certainly unique.”

  “Would you like to try it?”

  The scent of coffee was another that she’d now forever associate with him. “I prefer tea, but I’ll try it.”

  “It’s somewhat of an acquired taste. May I suggest adding some milk to sweeten it?”

  “I defer to your judgment.”

  Catherine was aware of Jack watching her out the corner of one eye as he deftly prepared the coffee and placed the cup before her. He continued to observe closely as she took a first tenuous sip of the bitter brew.

  “What do you think?”

  “It has a strong flavor.” And she instantly detested it but vowed to never let him know that. Not after he had taken such pleasure in introducing her to something new.

  “Like I said, it’s an acquired taste.”

  Catherine endured another sip, acutely aware of his eyes riveted to her mouth. “You’re staring, Mr. Bancroft.”

  He startled. “My apologies.”

  Catherine couldn’t help but giggle at his befuddled expression.

  Jack sat back in his chair, propping one foot on the other knee, the pose relaxed even as tension marked his shoulders. “You find me amusing?”

  She nibbled on a second piece of toast. “Enormously.”

  “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” he said drolly.

  Retrieving the napkin from her lap, she blotted her lips. “I very much appreciate your help and hospitality, however I should probably be on my way.”

  His relaxed pose disappeared as he leaned forward on the table. “To where?”

  “I don’t belong here. I need to go home.”

  “What about your grandmother’s property?”

  Dejected, Catherine cast her eyes down. “It’s a key. What is the likelihood that I’ll actually find it?”

  “A key to what?”

  “A chest belonging to the duke,” Catherine said. “She once told me if I ever found myself in need of money, I should come here, to the duke’s property where she’d buried a key twenty paces from the grand oak in the southeastern corner. Only she failed to say twenty paces in what direction.”

  “And what would this key open?”

  Catherine’s face blazed with color. “Apparently, there was a chest in the duke’s bedchamber where she hid money and jewelry that were gifts from him. She was forced to flee the house and buried the key, intending to return someday for her belongings. She never made it back. When she was dying, she told me about the key and said I should come find it if I was ever in need of resources. It’s a fool’s errand, though. The key could be anywhere. I should probably just forget about it.”

  “But you’ve only just begun to look. Why would you want to give up so soon?”

  Catherine rested her chin on her closed fist. “I fear it’s a frivolous search, at best.”

  “So then why begin to look in the first place?”

  Studying him, she wanted to tell him everything but still she hesitated. “I’m afraid that is a very long story.”

  “I’ve nothing but time.”

  “Wouldn’t it be easier to find me some clothes and let me walk away?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “But?”

  “I’d rather you didn’t walk away.”

  “Why?” she asked, astounded by the intensity of his gaze.

  “I’m not sure, really. All I know is that it’s been far more exciting around here since you arrived than it ever was before.”

  Catherine had no idea how to respond to such a startling statement.

  “When you do take your leave, I’d wish for you to take with you what you came to find,” he added without an ounce of guile.

  She looked around at the opulent room that she had barely noticed in her weakened state the day before. “I can’t stay here.”

  “So you’ve said. That’s why I’ve ordered the dowager duchess’s home reopened and prepared for you.”

  Catherine tilted her head, wondering if she had heard him correctly. “I beg your pardon?”

  “The duke’s grandmother passed away a decade or so ago. She had her own home on the property, rather near where you wish to conduct your search. I believe you’ll be quite comfortable there for the remainder of your stay.”

  Catherine stared at him, wondering if he was truly as sincere as he seemed.

  “Will that suit you?”

  “I, um, I don’t know what to say.”

  “You could say, ‘Why yes, Jack, that sounds lovely,’ and I could have you settled there by noon.”

  Almost against her will, her face lifted into a small grin. It was simply impossible not to like this charming, kind man who seemed to want only what was best for her. Later she could take the time to examine his ulterior motives, but for now she wished to bask in his kindness. It had been so very long since anyone had been kind to her.

  “I’m waiting.”

  Catherine met his gaze. “Why yes, Jack, that sounds lovely.”

  He rewarded her with a dazzling smile that stopped her heart. “Now,” he said, “are you going to tell me that really long story?”

  Chapter Five

  The moment Catherine mentioned the key, Derek had known what it would open. His grandfather had left behind a small Hepplewhite chest that Derek still kept in his bedchamber. The key had been missing for years, and family lore had it that his grandfather’s mistress had taken it. Derek was astounded to realize his grandfather and Catherine’s grandmother had probably been lovers.

  Now he wanted to find the key as badly as she did. How many years had he wondered what he’d find inside that chest? How many times had he considered whether it would be worth destroying a priceless piece to get inside? How often had he resisted the urge?

  “I grew up in Hampshire,” Catherine said tentatively. “My father was the local blacksmith, and I all but lived in the stables. Horses were my whole life when I wasn’t reading.”

  Derek watched, transfixed, at the soft glow that lit her face when she spoke of the animals she loved. “Did you have one of your own?”

  She nodded. “A bay named Sunny. I never knew how my father came to own her, but there she was one day, and he said she was mine.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “I left her with an innkeeper on the outskirts of Essex. She’s old, and she’d gone as far as she could.”

  Alarmed, Derek said, “How did you travel the rest of the way?”

  “Mostly on foot, but I got a ride here and there. It helped that I looked like a boy.”

  “You could never pass as a boy.”

  “I fooled you,” she said with a saucy grin that set his blood to racing.

  “For about two seconds.” He’d never admit to another living soul that he had been attracted to her curves even when he’d thought her a boy. “I’ll send someone after Sunny.”

  She inhaled sharply. “You will?”

  “Of course.”

  Catherine’s big eyes filled with tears.

  Derek moved his chair closer to hers. Careful not to startle her, Derek cradled her hand between both of his.

  “You are so kind,” she whispered.

  Humbled, he had no idea what to say. He tried to remember the last time a woman had tongue-tied him. “Sunny is important to you. You’ll want her with you.”

  “She’s my very best friend.” Catherine wiped the tears from her eyes. “They didn’t want me to bring her.”

  “Who didn’t?”

  “My parents.” She sighed. “I’m getting ahead of myself. Nine months ago, my father’s brother, the Earl of Brisbane, died of smallpox. His son died, too.”

  Derek had, of course, heard about the earl’s untimely demise while he was in London. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be. They w
ere awful people. We despised them and everything they stood for.”

  Ahhh, Derek thought. Here is the reason she disdains the aristocracy.

  “My father was a second son. His brother, the earl, could have ensured that his brother shared in the family’s wealth. He chose not to. We went there once, to his estate, Hedgerow, in Norfolk, about ten years ago. My parents were disgusted by the earl’s self-indulgent, hedonistic lifestyle, and my father said as much. We were dispatched back to our cottage in Hampshire, and we never heard from them again until footmen from the estate showed up to tell my father he was the new earl.”

  “And how did you feel about that?”

  “I was horrified. I liked my life just as it was. I didn’t want to move and leave my friends, my house, my books.”

  “You couldn’t take them with you?”

  She shook her head. “They were in the village library. I had read all six-hundred volumes at least once. Many of them twice.”

  Derek stared at her, astounded. “Six hundred?”

  “At last count.”

  “You’ve read six-hundred books?”

  “I taught all the village children how to read, too. That’s what I do—or rather what I did before everything changed.”

  He tightened his hold on her hand. “I’m so impressed.”

  Her shy smile touched his heart. “Do you read, Jack?”

  “Some.” He couldn’t exactly tell her of his studies at Oxford. “The duke has a vast library you’re welcome to use while you’re here.”

  Eyes widening, she gasped. “Really?”

  “Absolutely.” As the delight danced across her face, Derek realized he could sit right here and talk to her for the rest of his life and never get tired of the sound of her voice, of the way her face betrayed her every emotion, of the simple pleasure she took in the most basic kindnesses. Here was what had been missing in every other woman he’d ever met. “What is your surname, Catherine?” He couldn’t let on that he’d known Terrance McCabe, the Earl of Brisbane, and had shared her sentiments on his character.

  “McCabe.”

  “Madeleine McCabe is your sister?”

  She nodded.

  He had a vision of one of the more attractive and seemingly sensible debutantes. “I met her,” Derek said before he caught himself. A jolt of panic reminded him of the lie he’d told her.

  “Where?”

  “In London when the duke went for the beginning of the Season before he left for America. We met her on the street in Mayfair one day.”

  “What did you think of her?”

  Derek knew he had to tread carefully here. “She was quite lovely, but I never gave her another thought after we parted.”

  “And the duke? Was he impressed by her?”

  “Not overly. He’s not easily swayed by a pretty face.”

  “I think I’d like him.”

  Derek experienced another pang of conscience over the lies he’d told her. “He’s a good man.” At least he usually was. “So your parents packed you up to move to Norfolk?”

  “With a stop in London for the social Season so they could debut their middle daughter, Madeleine, into polite society. Much to my surprise and dismay, my parents fully embraced their new role as members of the beau monde. The same people who’d scorned that lifestyle all my life are now strutting around like proud peacocks, spending money like wildfire. Their behavior sickened me.”

  Not wanting to rush her, Derek waited expectantly for her to continue.

  “My sister, Madeleine, was presented into society, but I, at five and twenty, am apparently ‘on the shelf,’ too old to be a formal debutante, which was fine with me. My other sister Hillary is only sixteen.”

  “So you ran away?”

  “Yes,” she said softly. “I packed my grandmother’s journals and stole some of my brother’s clothes. I got Sunny from the stables, and I left.”

  “How long had you been traveling when I came upon you?”

  “About three weeks.”

  “And no one is looking for you?”

  “I’m sure they’re searching.”

  “I was in London with the duke, but didn’t hear anything about a lady going missing.”

  “It wouldn’t be unusual for my father to go to enormous lengths to keep our family’s troubles private.”

  Derek stared at her, confounded. “His daughter is missing, and he keeps that quiet?”

  Her face curled into an ironic smile. “It would be a different matter altogether if one of my brothers went missing. Especially Stuart.”

  “His heir.”

  Catherine nodded. “Back when we were no one special, he loved us all equally. Once he was elevated to the aristocracy by the deaths of his brother and nephew, everything changed.”

  Derek could see that the loss of her father’s affections had hurt her. “That must’ve been so hard for you.”

  “We were always very close, thanks to our mutual love of horses.”

  “You miss him.”

  “I did until he decided he needed to find me a husband post haste.”

  Riveted, Derek hung on her every word. “And did he make a match?”

  She shuddered with revulsion. “An appalling match with a viscount thirty years my senior. He’s fat and smells bad and drinks.”

  Derek couldn’t help but chuckle quietly at the picture she painted.

  “You find my predicament funny? Can you imagine being in bed with such a rutting beast?”

  He made an effort to squelch his laughter. “No, I most definitely can’t imagine such a thing.”

  “You mock me.”

  Derek found her pique adorable. “I do no such thing, my lady. I begin to understand you better.”

  “I couldn’t stay there and be forced into marriage with a man who sickens me.”

  “Who is this man who sickens you?”

  She glanced at him, uncertain. “Viscount Lindsey,” she said softly.

  Derek had to fight to hide his shock from her. Lindsey was indeed despicable, and the thought of this glorious, delicate creature married to him sickened Derek, too. However, Lindsey’s title was one of the oldest and most revered in all of England. He was not a man to be trifled with. “May I ask something that’s perhaps none of my business?”

  “If you must.”

  “Did Lindsey harm you in some way?”

  Catherine’s hand clutched her throat as color crept into her cheeks. If Derek had found her adorable before, now she was positively dazzling. “My father forced me to spend time alone in the viscount’s presence.”

  “And what happened?”

  “He, he tried—”

  Filled with rage, Derek said, “Did he hurt you?”

  “He held me down and forced himself on me.” Her face flamed with shame and embarrassment. “He touched me. Afterward, I had bruises everywhere, but so did he.”

  Derek contained his rage by clasping his hands together tightly as he absorbed the real reason she’d run away. “What did you do?”

  Once again, her exquisite discomfort fired Derek’s protective instincts. He hoped Lindsey was looking for her and that he found her at Westwood Hall. Derek hoped that most fervently. The viscount would find out what happened to men who overpowered defenseless women.

  “I kicked him in a place I’m told is most sensitive to a man.”

  Derek winced. Well, maybe not entirely defenseless.

  “He called me vile names and vowed to make the consummation of our marriage as painful as possible.”

  “Swine,” Derek muttered under his breath, understanding at last the nightmares that plagued her sleep.

  Her cold hand clutched his sleeve. “He can’t find me,” she whispered, her face gone ashen. “I believe he intended to defile me in my father’s parlor. Had I not grown up in the company of rambunctious brothers, he might’ve succeeded. I left London the very next day.”

  Derek warmed her frigid hand between both of his. “I can assure you, my lady
, nothing of the sort will happen while you’re under my protection.”

  “Even though I’ve ventured to spend as little time as possible in his company, I’m told he’s rather besotted. I don’t believe he’ll give up easily. I have no doubt he is searching for me.” A shudder rippled through her. “If he finds me—”

  “He’ll have to get through me and my men.”

  “You’re so confident. I’ve never known anyone quite so confident.”

  Derek told himself to be careful. He spoke with a command far more in keeping with a duke than a duke’s estate manager. If she’d grown up among the ton, she might be suspicious of such a powerful estate manager. “You can trust that you are safe here.”

  “I’d still rather not be the guest of a duke. As soon as I locate the key and retrieve my grandmother’s belongings, I’ll be on my way.”

  She had nothing, not even the clothes on her back, but her pride dictated that she be beholden to no aristocrat.

  Derek stood. “Until then, I’ll arrange transport to the dowager duchess’s cottage. I believe you’ll be quite comfortable there. I’ll also send for the village seamstress to provide you with new clothing.”

  “I can never adequately thank you for your many kindnesses.”

  He left her with a small bow. “I am at your service, my lady.”

  In the hallway, Derek took a moment to gather himself. The idea of someone attacking her, threatening her with rape, sickened him. A surge of nausea caught him off guard. He’d met her only yesterday and already he’d kill to protect her.

  “Sir?” Mrs. Langingham said.

  Derek snapped out of the state he’d slipped into. “Yes?”

  “The dowager duchess’s home has been cleaned and aired, and the icebox filled. It is ready for your guest.”

  “Very good. Thank you. Please ask Rutledge to gather every man on the staff at the stables in an hour.”

  “Is something amiss?”

  “I’ve learned that Lady Catherine may be in some danger. I wish to arrange for regular patrols and to make the household aware of her concerns.”

  Mrs. Langingham brought a hand to her heart. “What kind of danger?”

  “Her father has betrothed her to a man who sickens her and who once attacked her. He is indeed an odious pig of a man whom I’ve had the displeasure of meeting on several occasions.”