by Ayles, Abby
Duke Colbourn was an outstanding man, a man with conviction and stamina. He was a man of honor. Her father would not have done business with him, even sell him paintings if he was not sure.
Duke Cartwright would also not have invited the duke and his colleague, Mr. Covington, to stay at Norrend if he was not completely sure his wife and daughters would be safe from harm.
He had been corresponding with Duke Colbourn for a long time before he was invited to come and look at the paintings.
After all that time of negotiation and invitation, could Duke Colbourn truly be what Joanna was claiming him to be? She would not – could not believe it.
She bit her lips together to keep the wrong words from coming out. She did not want to bite Joanna’s head off because of this. If it was true, she would never forgive herself for believing in the Duke and not one of her oldest friends, someone who was more like a sister to her.
And she would never forgive Duke Colbourn either. He had already taken a great portion of her heart. He had captured her attention. She believed she had captured his, as well. The dilemma was almost too much to bear.
She simply refused to believe it. “I want to talk to Duke Colbourn,” she said, looking at her mother. The duchess shook her head. Annabelle frowned.
“Why not, mother? I want to ask him if this is true!”
“It is not your place to decide if he is telling the truth or not, Annabelle,” her mother replied, her voice cold.
“It is the Duke who will make the decision. Make no mistake, Joanna, if you are lying, there will be consequences. You do not wish to shame your family, do you?”
Joanna’s back stiffened. She shook her head. “No, I do not.”
“Then tell us now. Are you telling the truth?”
Joanna nodded her head up and down.
“I want you to tell me with your voice,” the duchess insisted.
“Yes, your grace. I am telling the truth.”
Annabelle shook her head, backing away from the women. “I do not believe her.” She turned on her heel and bolted for the door.
“Annabelle, you must wait to speak to him until the Duke has…”
She was through the door before her mother finished. She had never in her life been disrespectful to her mother. But the woman simply did not understand.
She had to find Duke Colbourn and warn him that Joanna was trying to smear his reputation.
To what end? What did Joanna hope to accomplish by tarnishing the duke’s reputation? She would never believe that it had anything to do with her.
Joanna may not have been close to Annabelle, but the two women were still like sisters. They loved each other… or at least, that was the way Annabelle had always thought of it. Joanna could be a handful. But most sisters were, weren’t they?
Annabelle ran down the hall and swung open the door of the parlor. It was empty. Her father’s study was just beyond it. She hesitated. She rarely went to her father’s study. He did business there and she did not want to disturb him.
She had learned at a young age that he needed quiet to concentrate on the deals he was making. She had no idea what those deals entailed but she had always thought they must be very intricate for him to need such peace and quiet.
Was Joanna simply jealous that the duke was paying attention to Annabelle and not her? Again, that made no sense to Annabelle. Lord Gilbert was giving Joanna plenty of attention.
Her mind went back to the night before when Lord Gilbert and Lord Leonard were holding a conversation in front of a very distraught Joanna. Perhaps she told them what the duke was doing?
Annabelle shook her head. It was not true so that was unlikely.
Perhaps they were telling her to say something and she did not want to? But why would they want to do that?
Nothing made sense to Annabelle. All she knew was that she had to find him. If he was already with her father, she would interrupt them. She would say her peace. She would find out the truth.
Annabelle moved quickly down the hall to her father’s study. She knocked on the door lightly and then swung it open. Her father was there. Duke Colbourn was not.
He looked up at her. She could tell the duchess had already informed her husband what had been said. His face was drawn and worried. He beckoned to her with one hand.
“Come in, Annabelle. We must talk.”
She went in and closed the door behind her, leaning against it with her hand still wrapped around the handle. Suddenly, the urge to sob like a brokenhearted child overcame her.
Chapter 18
Her father stood up and came around the desk to console her. He held his arms out and she went into them, covering her face with her hands.
“Father, it is not true. It cannot be true.”
The Duke pushed one large hand through his daughter’s hair and pulled her to his shoulder.
“Hush, my dear. We will sort this out.”
“But…”
“I said to hush. I believe the duke has gone on a ride in town. He is due back soon. We must sort through this as quickly as possible but we cannot find the underlying cause of it without his input. The man cannot be tried and found guilty without even having a say in the situation.”
Annabelle looked up at her father. “You cannot believe Joanna, father. You know that she is not… she is…”
“I know what you mean to say, my dear. You have dealt with much from her over the years. Do not think I have not noticed. She is quite a feisty young lady.”
“That is an understatement, father.” Annabelle’s anger was returning. How dare Joanna say such things about the man she loved?
Her father took her by the hand and lead her to the chair in front of his desk. He waited until she had lowered herself to it before returning to his chair on the other side of the large white wood desk.
Annabelle had sat in that particular high-backed, blue cushioned chair on many occasions, some good, some bad. The bad consisted mostly of her having spilled something and refused to clean it up. That had happened about three times when she was five.
She felt like that five-year-old again, sitting in the chair, crying in front of her father. But so many years had passed and so many things had happened. She was not five. This was a serious matter.
The Duke’s reputation was at stake. If word got out that he’d even been accused, people would start to wonder about his character.
“This is not fair to the Duke,” Annabelle said, her voice as firm as her mother’s.
“You know what a scandal like this could do to him? It is not fair! I do not understand why Joanna would lie!”
“He has rejected her, has he not?”
“On several occasions. But he was not… he was already…”
Duke Cartwright nodded.
“You do not have to continue. I know what you are trying to say. He had already shown interest in you when Joanna saw him.”
“Yes, father. At first, I thought you wanted him to meet Julia. I pushed him to speak to her and told him all types of wonderful things about her…” She could not help smiling.
“I think it confused him. My attraction was probably on my face from the very beginning.”
“I did not notice it,” her father admitted. “But I believe the flash in your eyes when he was around was there before he ever encountered Joanna. That I know of, of course.”
Annabelle nodded, her tears drying up as she found an ally in her father. “So you do not believe Joanna’s story?”
Duke Cartwright pressed his lips together, steepling his hands in front of them and resting his elbows on the desk. “I am afraid I do not believe her, Annabelle. And this poses a great problem for me.”
Annabelle blinked at him, waiting to hear his explanation. She did not want to push him to tell her but she wanted to know.
“The Duchess will need to save face, both in society and with Joanna’s mother, Lady Rickman. Lord Rickman will be unhappy but he is an easy-going chap and will not be upset for
long. Many men that I’ve known have said something they did not mean to or should not have said to a lady.”
Annabelle shook her head.
“Are you saying he may have said something without realizing it?”
Her father shook his head. “I am telling you that Lord Rickman will be easier to deal with than the Lady. She is very protective of her children.”
Annabelle frowned.
“That is not what I see, father. She has sent Joanna and Julia here since they were young girls. How is that being protective of your children? I would always want mine with me. I cannot protect them from afar.”
“She feels that is exactly what she is doing,” her father said.
“She is incapable of providing the kind of mothering relationship they need and she entrusted that to your mother.” He tilted his head when he saw the look on her face.
“And while your mother is not the most nurturing woman in the world, she is very confident and was able to give them a mother, even if it was not the perfect mother.”
“I understand, father. But what is it you are trying to say? Mother is not going to be on our side?”
“She will likely not want to believe Joanna is lying to us. She will want to believe the girl would not stoop to doing something so vile and vicious to a man who has done her no harm.”
“But that is exactly what she is doing, father!” Annabelle exclaimed.
“We must not let her do this to him!”
“We will get to the truth, Annabelle. This I promise you. But you must stay calm. You must go to town with your mother, as that is what she had planned today.”
Annabelle frowned.
“I cannot go to town, father! I am so…”
“I know you are angry. But you will have to keep up appearances. For your mother’s sake, if not mine. I enjoy my evenings when my wife has had a good day. If she has not, I am forced to keep to myself. That is not much fun.” He smiled at her.
“I do not want to go to town.” She did not return his smile. Instead, she stuck out her bottom lip and slumped down in the chair the way she had done when she was a small child. She knew it would make him smile but it was actually the way she felt.
She wanted to sulk and pound her feet and her fists on the floor. She wanted to squirm and fidget and make small guttural noises to get under her mother’s skin.
But she was not going to do any of those things. Those days were over. She was a grown woman now, about to be married. And she would do anything and everything she could to make sure it was Duke Colbourn she met at the end of the aisle.
She stood up abruptly.
“Thank you for listening, father. I hope you will speak to the duke with mercy and kindness, despite what has been said about him.”
“You know I will, my dear.” Her father nodded at her as she moved backwards toward the door.
She gave him a long look before turning and heading back through the door. She did not want to be in the study when he had his talk with Duke Colbourn.
She would rather be far away. But into town with her sister, Julia, Joanna, and her mother? Could not they change the plans?
She went up the stairs quickly to her room and changed into afternoon luncheon clothes. She was on her way back down when Julia stopped her at the top of the stairs.
She was going to her room to get a special pair of boots she wanted to wear. The makers claimed they were waterproof. She wanted to prove whether they were or not.
“Annabelle. Come with me,” she took Annabelle’s arm. That was the second time Annabelle had been grabbed and dragged off somewhere by someone in just one day.
“I hope I am not going to get more bad news,” Annabelle sighed. “The last time someone said something like that to me, I got some horrible, terrible news.”
Julia practically pushed her friend down the hallway and through her doorway. She closed it behind her and began to pull off the ties that held her tunic around her waist. She slipped the tunic off and followed it with her underskirts.
“We are going into the city,” Julia said, pulling on fresh clothes. She looked relieved. “I want to tell you right now that I do not believe Joanna is telling us the truth. I do not know why she would lie about such a thing, other than his rejection of her. Some women simply cannot deal with a man rejecting her.”
“But many men have rejected Joanna,” Annabelle said, sitting on the edge of Julia’s bed and watching her friend get dressed. She got up and offered to help her with her corset.
As she tightened it, she continued, “It is not like that with you and me. We are different. We have experienced rejection before and we were able to move on. She will be, too. But petty revenge is not going to solve her problems.”
“Her weaknesses are many. I do wish I did not have to speak of her so. She is my twin sister, my only sister. I wish her no harm. Why does she wish it on others who have done nothing but offer kindness to her?”
Annabelle was once again relieved to hear that someone other than her believed in Duke Colbourn’s innocence. And to hear Julia say those words about her own sister, it was heartbreaking.
“I know how you must be feeling, Julia. She is like a sister to me. Why would she say these things? I have been going over it in my mind and I just cannot … I cannot understand!”
Julia nodded a thank you for the help with the corset. She stepped into the new dress she would be wearing and turned so Annabelle could tie up the satin straps in the back.
“This is a nice dress. Are we dressing up for the city today?”
“I want to wear this. My father bought it several years ago and I have never worn it.”
Annabelle raised her eyebrows.
“You have never worn it?”
Julia laughed.
“Not even once. I forgot it was there. Found it in with Joanna’s things. Is that not funny?”
“I have never seen her wear it.”
Julia nodded.
“I doubt she knew it was there. Come. Are you done? Yes? Your mother and the girls are waiting down in the foyer for us.”
“They were not there the last time I was down there.”
Annabelle stood up, feeling the pressure of Julia’s rush. If she was standing in one place, Julia would be tapping one foot in impatience. They went through the door out into the hallway.
Once she was downstairs, Annabelle had a hard time looking at Joanna. It did not matter if she did. The girl was not looking at her. Her anger boiled just below the surface. She was refusing to let it show.
The carriage was waiting for them out front. The driver opened the door and helped the girls into it. Once they were inside, the duchess closed the door from the outside and looked at the girls over it.
“I wish to stay here and talk with the Duke and Duke Colbourn when he arrives. You ladies go on and I will meet you in the restaurant at three p.m.”
Annabelle turned in her seat as the driver pulled out of the driveway, staring back at her mother. Was she going to make Duke Colbourn leave? If she did, would Annabelle ever see him again?
She spent the entire ride into the city in fear that her mother had stayed in order to demand the Duke leave the premises.
If she was angry enough to send him off the premises, he would not dare to see Annabelle again, no matter how deep their love might be or have the chance to be.
She vowed to herself, staring out over the horizon, that she would not speak to Joanna again until this matter was resolved. Joanna needed to confess to the truth.
Most of all – more important than anything else – Annabelle wanted to know why. She just wanted to know why.
Chapter 19
Duke Colbourn missed seeing the ladies by only a few minutes. He had taken a longer route back to the mansion than usual, simply to enjoy the beauty of the English countryside. He came upon the path up to the house moments after they went through the gate to go into the city.
He was riding peacefully and slowly, letting his horse mean
der up the path to the mansion. The air was crisp and clean. The sky was blue with just a few white clouds. He hadn’t seen a more beautiful day in quite some time.
He knew what he wished he was doing. He wished he was on a picnic with the beautiful Annabelle. Her smile, her sweet scent… it all appealed to him.
According to her father, whom Duke Colbourn respected completely – as a Duke and as a man – Annabelle was interested in getting to know him.
Duke Cartwright had not talked to Annabelle about it but he said he could tell by the look on her face when she happened to glance Duke Colbourn’s way.
Duke Colbourn was fairly certain he’d seen that look on her face, as well.
He did not want to be presumptuous. It just seemed to him that the right words from his mouth and she would be his. Her father did not have an objection. If he had, he would have mentioned it long ago.
He reached the barn and dismounted, handing the reins to one of the stable boys. He turned on his heel and looked up at the mansion, holding his hat with one hand to scan the entire building.
Annabelle was in there somewhere, reading, talking to Julia, playing a game. He could not hazard a guess as to what she was doing right then. He wanted to know, though.
The thought that he was about to find out made him feel a bit nervous. His reaction to seeing Annabelle made him chuckle. He should have been long past the age where girls made him nervous.
He took the steps up to the porch two at a time, reaching the top in four stretches. He walked to the front door and opened it, entering almost silently. He turned around and closed the door behind him.
Mary was standing by the dining hall door. He looked at her curiously and raised his eyebrows when she beckoned to him with her small hand.
“Your Grace! Your Grace! May I speak with you?” She kept her voice low. Her worried tone concerned him and he went to her quickly.
