Heart of a Marquess: Regency Romance (Gentlemen and Brides)

by Joyce Alec

Mother gasped in surprise, and Lord Henry and Sarah both jumped to their feet. Sarah meant to avoid the wine dripping from the table, while Lord Henry asked after my safety.

  “I am quite embarrassed,” I insisted, attempting to mop up the wine with the napkin in my hands. The red stained the green fabric of my gown, and it was evident to all that I would certainly need to excuse myself to change. “Oh, how clumsy of me,” I woefully sighed.

  “No, no, dear, it is quite all right,” Mother said, coming to stand beside me, assessing the damage to my dress.

  Servants appeared almost immediately to whisk away the plate and the goblet, and a fresh table cloth was hanging over the arm of a man near the door.

  “My dear, go upstairs and change,” Mother offered, giving me the very words that I needed.

  I looked over at Lord Henry apologetically. “I must apologize,” I said as regretfully as I could manage.

  “Sarah,” Father said, “can you please help your sister?”

  “No thank you, Sarah, I shall not require any help. Really. Someone will have to keep Lord Henry entertained for me while I am gone.”

  Henry smiled.

  “Well, if you are sure…” Mother said.

  I stood, and I was glad that I was not also dripping wine all over the floor.

  Sarah’s eyes were wide as she watched me step away from the table.

  “I will not be long,” I called, and smiled again at Henry.

  I tried to walk as calmly as I could out of the dining room.

  I found Lord Townshend pacing out in the foyer, his fingers rubbing his chin in frustration.

  His face lit up as I made my way over to him, and we quickly crossed the distance to each over.

  Without even thinking, without even considering it, we reached out for one another, knitting our hands together. Warmth as I had never known flooded my heart.

  “It is you,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. His face split into a wide grin, and his eyes welled with tears. “It really is you.”

  I laughed as tears filled my eyes, and nodded.

  “I thought I would never see you again,” he went on, tightening his grip on my hands as he pulled me closer to him. “I looked for you, but you had gone.”

  “I looked for you, too,” I said, my voice shaking. “Oh, Lord Townshend. That was the happiest night of my life.”

  “It was the happiest night of mine,” he affirmed.

  We stood there in the dark and quiet, beaming at one another, unable to control our joy. He wiped the tears from my cheeks with his thumb.

  “But whatever happened to you?” he asked, looking down at my dress.

  I giggled. “I spilled my wine glass as an excuse to leave the table.”

  “Clever girl,” he said, deep affection in his words. He sighed heavily. “Oh, Lady Grace… what a predicament we are in.”

  My jubilation burst as if it had been punctured.

  “What are we to do?” I asked. “I surely do not know.”

  Lord Townshend’s jaw clenched as he considered my words. “I do not know, either.”

  “Your brother has already agreed to marry me.”

  “It was I who was supposed to marry you,” Lord Townshend said. “But when my father approached me with the proposed union, I refused. In my heart, I knew I had to find you, so I could not marry another. If only I had known…”

  “And now I cannot end this engagement,” I said, feeling my cheeks growing hot. “But…how could I marry him, when I have found you?”

  Lord Townshend laughed, but it was hollow. “I do not know. If it was anyone aside from my brother, I would go straight to your father.”

  “You mean you will not do that now?”

  “I fear what my mother and father might do.” He looked at me very intently. “I do not believe it would end well for either of us. Lady Grace, my brother would be able to provide a wonderful life for you. Even though I am only minutes older than Henry, it is I who will inherit my father’s title and the majority of his wealth. However, you must know that Henry is to inherit a great sum of money and properties.” He let out a deep breath.

  I replied urgently. “It was never about your inheritance. The spark of love has ignited because you allowed me a glimpse of your soul. I do not wish to bring your brother any pain, but I cannot imagine being with anyone but you.” I laughed, more tears splashing onto the front of my dress. “I must sound like a foolish girl…”

  He leaned his forehead against mine, steadying me. “Nonsense. I understand what you mean completely. What happened between us…no words can explain it. I have never felt anything like it. Nor do I think I ever will again.”

  He pulled away from me, his eyes shining like the sky at midday. “I had never believed in love at first sight until I met you, Lady Grace.”

  I was glad that he was holding onto me so tightly; I was sure that my knees would have given way beneath me had he not been.

  “Oh, Lord Townshend…” I said.

  He pulled me into an embrace. This close to him, I realized he smelled of warm spices and lavender.

  “I so wish that this could be easier than what it is…”

  “As do I.”

  We stood there in silence, neither of us wishing to disrupt the moment we shared. I would have given anything to have been able to stay there, locked in his arms, for the rest of my days.

  I had found my masked dancer, the man who had captured my heart so fully, in both my dreams and in reality.

  How could we ensure it remained this way?

  We jumped apart as the door to the foyer swung inward. Sarah stepped into the room, and stared at the two of us, dumbfounded.

  “There you are,” she said. “Mother was beginning to wonder what had happened to you. She insisted that I come find you.” She took a few hesitant steps toward us. “So…is this your mysterious masked dancer?” she asked me.

  Lord Townshend laughed. “Is that what you had taken to calling me?”

  I blushed scarlet.

  He chortled again. “No matter. I thought of you as my disguised damsel.”

  I grinned at him, and then turned back to Sarah. “He only realized it as we were sitting at the table tonight.”

  “I noticed,” she said. She came to stand beside me, looking between the two of us. “Well, it is obvious that now you will have to tell everyone.”

  “What?” I asked, glancing at Lord Townshend. “No, we could not—”

  “Why ever not?” Sarah retorted.

  “I am betrothed to Lord Henry,” I answered rather dumbly, my cheeks still as red as my dress from the ball.

  “Betrothed. Not married,” Sarah went on. She looked up at Lord Townshend. “What do you have to say about all of this?”

  “I do not quite know,” he said slowly. “He is my brother. My responsibility is to understand that the proper thing to do would be—”

  “To let your brother marry the woman you have fallen in love with?” Sarah finished plainly.

  Lord Townshend and I stared at her, open mouthed.

  “Think of it this way,” she said. “Could you truly imagine a life where you would have to see each other all the time, but not be married? Family events, dinner parties, balls? Unable to ever do more than converse politely?”

  He and I glanced longingly at one another. Sadness filled his eyes as it filled my heart. The idea was torturous.

  “Could you truly imagine having to life with the knowledge that you could have been together,” Sarah continued, “been so very happy, if you had only been brave enough to say something to everyone?”

  Lord Townshend opened his mouth to reply, and then shut it firmly.

  Brave enough? It was more than bravery that was needed. Could Sarah not see that? It could mean disrupting our entire families, possibly causing us both to be scorned at best, disowned at worst. Who knew how Lord Henry would react, how that would damage his relationship with his twin brother?

  “You may not ever have another ch
ance like tonight,” my sister said, a finality to her tone. “And what better night to have your dreams come true than on Christmas Eve?” she grinned at the both of us.

  I looked up into the brilliant blue eyes I had fallen in love with behind the mask. My heart constricted in my chest. Sarah was right. I would never be able to live with the knowledge that I could have married the man I had felt so connected to, but let the chance slip away from my hands.

  “What…do you think?” Lord Townshend asked me cautiously.

  I did not answer for a moment.

  “I cannot imagine having to see you all the time, knowing that my brother married you instead of me,” he said quietly. “It would break my heart.”

  I stared up into his face. That was all I needed to hear. “And I could never truly love your brother when you were right there beside him. I would look at him every day and all I would be able to see was you, and think of what could have been.”

  “That settles it, then!” Sarah cried, joyfully clapping her hands together. “How should we proceed?”

  Lord Townshend rubbed the back of his head nervously. “I suppose…I suppose I shall gather both of our parents, and my brother, in the drawing room. Perhaps you should change your dress, darling, as you said you were going to do that. We might as well ensure there is as much truth in our story as possible.”

  My heart fluttered happily at the word darling. I beamed up at him.

  “I shall help you get changed,” Sarah said. “We will not be but a few minutes.”

  Sarah and I rejoined the others in the drawing room a quarter of an hour later. I had changed into the red dress I had worn at the ball. When we stepped into the room, I saw Lord Townshend standing beside the fireplace with a drink in his hands, and everyone else seated on the sofas and settees before him. They looked at me expectantly as Sarah and I walked in.

  Lord Townshend’s eyes lit up when he saw the dress I wore. I had hoped, but had never dreamed, that he would see me wearing it again. It seemed fitting, considering what we were about to tell everyone.

  Sarah nudged me in his direction, and she found a spot on a sofa beside Mother to sit down.

  “Now, what is this all about?” Lord Walford asked, his brow furrowing.

  Standing in front of them all was much harder than I had imagined it would be. Confusion clouded Henry’s eyes, and Father seemed dumbfounded. Could they already sense what was coming?

  I doubted it. Our story was going to seem like a fantasy after we told it. It was unlikely that they could know the truth.

  “There is…something very important that we need to tell you all,” Lord Townshend began quietly, his tone even and calm. I was glad that he had decided to speak. I was not sure I would have been able to. “And we realized that it was necessary that we tell you all as soon as possible. We ask that you listen and are patient with us. This is going to be difficult enough as it is to get through.”

  And with that, he launched into the story of the masquerade ball. He told them all how we had danced together, and how we had so enjoyed each other’s company that we went out to the terrace to dance again. I was surprised when he left out the detail of the kiss, for which I was exceedingly grateful for, but he told them all with no shame how he had felt about me after we had parted ways. He told them all how he had looked for me, wished to discover who I was after not having learned my name.

  He told them all about the conversations we had at dinner earlier tonight. He said that, as soon as I had started asking about the ball, and the terrace in particular, he had known it was me. He told them how he had realized that I had been searching for him as much as he had for me.

  “So, you see,” Lord Townshend finished, “this is a very difficult situation that we find ourselves in.”

  He turned to Lord Henry. “Dear brother, first of all, I want to apologize to you. I want you to know that I had absolutely no idea until tonight, until an hour ago, that Lady Grace was the very same woman I had danced with at the ball. It was never my intention to make this situation so complicated. I hope you know that I wished, above anything else, that your betrothed and Lady Grace were not one and the same. Never in my dreams would I have wanted to take her away from you.”

  He sighed heavily. “On the other hand, had you not agreed to marry her, it is likely I would not have found her again so soon, maybe not ever. And who knows what could have happened then? Perhaps she would have wed to some other fellow. Or perhaps I could have been matched.”

  I chanced a look at Lord Henry’s face. He seemed contemplative, but not angry.

  I began to feel hopeful.

  “It is why I humbly ask you, dear brother,” Lord Townshend continued, “if you would rescind your engagement, and allow me to take your place as her betrothed?”

  He had bowed so deeply that his knee had sunk to the floor.

  Silence greeted his words. Wide eyes stared up at both him and me. Mother’s mouth hung open. Lady Walford’s lip trembled.

  “Brother…” Lord Henry began after an agonizing silence. “I remember you telling me of this enchanting woman at the ball with whom you had danced the night away…”

  To my great surprise, he smiled broadly.

  “If I had known that it was Lady Grace, I would have never agreed to the match in the first place. For you see, although I do believe she is beautiful and charming, I do not know her, and therefore, do not hold any affection for her.”

  I gasped in excitement as Lord Townshend blinked disbelievingly at his brother.

  “You… you are not angry?”

  Lord Henry shrugged his shoulders. “How in the world could I be angry?” he asked, laughing. “Brother, did you really think that I would stand in the way of your happiness? Why did you fear my reaction?”

  “I…” Lord Townshend began. All the color had returned to his face. “I do not know. It was not right for me to say anything. I was afraid of ruining a match arranged by Father…”

  “Dear boy,” Lord Walford said, getting to his feet. “This is all so foolish. It is your brother’s choice. If this arrangement suits you both, then we have no objections.”

  His wife nodded in agreement.

  “Wait,” Lord Townshend said, turning to Lord and Lady Walford, “you are not angry with me?”

  “Of course not, why on earth would we be?” His father laughed in a jolly fashion. “No harm has been done. The banns have not been called. Right, old chap?” Lord Walford asked, clapping my father on the shoulder.

  “Certainly not!” Father said, clearly astonished. “My dear, I had no idea that you had met someone at the ball. Why did you not tell us?”

  “Oh, I knew,” Mother said, smiling knowingly. “Only a woman in love acts the way she had those days after that ball.”

  I could not believe that she had known everything, and yet he had kept my secret. “Thank you,” I said weakly.

  “It is not often one finds a love such as you have,” Mother said, tears welling up in her eyes. “I am so happy for you both.”

  “A toast!” Lord Walford cried, swiping the bottle of brandy from the table and lifting it into the air. “To love! To life! And to the miracles of Christmas!”

  Everyone cheered, and Lord Townshend and I stared at one another, in utter disbelief that we had found one another.

  “Come, everyone! Let us sings carols and celebrate my dear brother’s engagement!” Lord Henry exclaimed, leaping up from his seat and making his way over to the piano beside the window.

  “It has started to snow,” Sarah said as she stared dreamily out the window. “How wonderful!”

  As everyone gathered around the pianoforte, my heart swelled so much that I felt as if it might burst.

  “This is the very best Christmas that I have ever had,” I said, turning to Lord Townshend.

  “And may it be the first of many, many more,” he said, reaching out and taking my hand in his.

  The End.

  Part VI

  A Duke’s Hear
t for Christmas

  By Caroline Johnson

  1

  July 2, 1814

  Eleanor Chatham sat on the wooden pew of the church and tried to concentrate on the sermon. Despite her best efforts, her thoughts drifted to other more tempting subjects. She knew she should feel ashamed, but she was already familiar with the sermon. This morning marked the third time she heard it all the way through, in its entirety. Her father, the Vicar of Lansdowne, had been rehearsing it all week.

  In truth, her thoughts were drifting to the invitation to the Summer ball that her family had only just received yesterday afternoon in the post. Eleanor could hardly contain her excitement. Music and dancing brought joy to her heart. Secretly, she also hoped that Mr. Charles Selkirk would finally propose at the ball.

  Of course, she knew that was a silly thought, but still, a girl could wish. She smiled as her thoughts turned to Charles. He was so handsome, his dark hair fell into soft waves that framed his masculine face, and his eyes were riveting. She sighed thinking about his steel gray eyes. Lost in her daydreams, she hardly noticed the jab at her side.

  Her slightly younger sister, Emma, had elbowed her. Eleanor turned to her sister and raised her eyebrows to question Emma’s actions, but realized that everyone was standing for a hymn. Eleanor quickly stood up. Emma had the hymnal open to the right page and thrust the book in front of her sister. Eleanor could not believe how distracted she was today at church, but the thought of Charles and ball wouldn’t leave her mind.

  The congregation sat down and Eleanor’s father gave the final prayer. At the last amen, Emma was overcome with curiosity.

  “Eleanor, I have never seen you in such a state, what is the matter?” whispered Emma.

  “I am feeling all right; I just was not paying attention,” Eleanor answered in a quiet tone.

  “I could see that. You know we have a standard to uphold, especially you.”

  “I know, Emma, I cannot account for my behavior this morning. It’s that invitation from yesterday; it has me quite distracted.”

  “The Summer ball? I must admit I can think of little else either. I suppose you did have a valid reason this morning,” replied Emma.