Loving a Fearless Duchess: A Historical Regency Romance Book

by Abigail Agar

  Henry pulled Penelope from the horse roughly. She fell to the ground on her bottom with a jolt that went up her spine.

  “Get up,” he yelled.

  She had to manoeuvre her legs underneath herself and get on her knees. Then in her skirts, she had to raise one leg onto her foot then the other, and then stand. She deliberately took her time doing this.

  Edward would come looking for her, and this was a logical place to look. She wasn’t about to hurry to her torture and death if she could help it.

  The dark clouds crossing the grey of his eyes meant Henry had wound himself up tighter. He took her by the arm again and all but dragged her into the lodge.

  She looked up. Her childhood memories dropped into place around her like so much rain. The chairs around the fireplace. The blanket she used to wrap herself in until the fire warmed her enough.

  The cabinet with food. She wondered what was in there now. She remembered they ate every biscuit in there one time. The same time they had all split bottle of wine. She worried for three days that her mother might find out.

  Henry’s face in front of hers snapped her back to her predicament. He grabbed her arm again and pulled her down the hall to one of the two back bedrooms. He threw her on a bed and headed for the door.

  “I’m locking you in. There are a lot of tools and preparation that needs to be done, and I don’t need to worry about you while I’m doing it.”

  He left, and Penelope heard a bolt slide on the other side of the door. She sat up and looked around for anything sharp that would cut rope.

  *****

  Nash rode his horse to the front door planning to give it to a stable boy. Thomas opened the door and ran to Nash.

  “Henry lit the dower house on fire and escaped. He came in the night and took Penelope, using the house tunnels. He stole a delivery cart, killed the delivery man down the road a bit, unhitched the cart, and continued with only the horse and Her Grace.”

  “Which way?”

  “They think he went to the hunting lodge, but they aren’t sure. Lord Balfour and a group of men are headed there now.”

  “How do you get to the hunting lodge? What are the directions?”

  Thomas shook his head. “I’m sorry, Your Grace. I don’t know. I will find someone who does.”

  “Never mind, Thomas. I’ll go to the stables. Someone there must know.”

  Nash reached the stables quickly and dismounted. “You, there,” he said, pointing to a stable boy.

  “Yes, Your Grace?”

  “Feed and water my horse. I need a fresh mount and directions to the hunting lodge.”

  “I can take you,” a man said.

  Nash turned around. “Are you a member of this estate? What is your name?”

  “It’s Merrill. I’m a villager Lord Balfour employs for odd jobs when he has them.”

  “Can you ride fast?”

  “Very.”

  Nash said, “Get on your horse. We’re leaving.”

  He yelled for the stable boy, “Where’s my fresh horse?”

  The stable boy walked out with a saddled horse and passed the reigns to Nash.

  “Good man. Don’t forget to take care of the horse I rode in on,” he said, mounted, then galloped off.

  Nash shouted at Merrill as they rode, “How long?”

  Merrill yelled back, “A little less than an hour.”

  *****

  Edward felt like the world was turning in slow motion. The trees were passing by too slowly, and the horses weren’t eating up enough ground. He didn’t remember the hunting lodge being this far away.

  He reprimanded himself. How could he have left the dower house without finding out what time Minton opened the door? He didn’t know what kind of head start Henry had. How long has Penelope been at the lodge?

  He knew in his heart that Henry took her there. A sane man would have taken her somewhere unpredictable where no one could find him, but Henry was not a sane man. And for that, at that moment, Edward was eternally grateful.

  How had it come to this? They had once had fun coming to the hunting lodge. He and Penelope would build a fire, raid the food, and spend relaxing afternoons talking about their hopes for the future.

  Once Henry caught on, things changed quickly. At first, they tried to include him around the fire. It’s hard to talk about your hopes for the future when insults are being lobbed at you. Like everything else, Henry ruined that too.

  Did he hate Penelope or think her his only ally? Did he want to kill her or use her to get away? He was so unpredictable, who knew?

  They would have to approach quietly. If he got startled, he was likely to react without thinking.

  Edward put up a hand to halt. The horses stopped then surrounded him. “How much longer?”

  “About a half hour, My Lord,” the stable boy, Buddy, said.

  He looked in Buddy’s eyes.” Alert me when we are ten minutes out. We are going in quietly. We’ll talk strategy then. Let’s ride.”

  *****

  Merritt had estimated that Edward and his riders had started out twenty to thirty minutes ahead of him and Nash. When Nash asked, Merritt didn’t think they would catch up with them before they made it to the hunting lodge.

  But Nash’s goal was to catch up with Edward before they got to the lodge. He and Merritt were riding faster than a larger group of men could. Every so often, Nash would find Merritt in his peripheral vision, keeping up length by length with Nash’s horse. It was a good thing. He wasn’t going to slow for anyone.

  Nash felt like he had been riding an hour although he knew it wasn’t true. Even so, they were getting closer to their goal. The road had long since turned into a path. Now the path was narrowing, and Nash and Merritt couldn’t ride side by side. They had to slow their horses when the path turned into a trail.

  When they slowed, Nash could hear voices ahead. They would run into Edward’s riders after all. He drove his horse as fast as he could go.

  “Hey,” he yelled to the last horseman in line.

  The man turned around. He grabbed his pistol, “What do you want?”

  Nash raised his hands to let the rider know he was unarmed. He lowered them and said, “I’m looking for Lord Balfour. Is he with your group?”

  “He’s up front. What’s your name?”

  Nash hesitated, knowing he was about to get this man flustered. “Nash Finch, Duke of Norfolk.”

  The man drew in a breath. “Your Grace, pardon. The pistol was a precaution. Pardon, Your Grace.”

  Before he went on any further, Nash raised a hand for him to stop. He did.

  “Could you pass my name up the trail until Lord Balfour knows I’m back here?”

  The man nodded and turned. “Benny, tell Lord Balfour that the Duke of Norfolk is back here.”

  Nash could hear the voices pass along the word up to the front. He heard a whoop and knew it was Edward. The horses moved to the side as Edward’s horse made his way to Nash.

  They faced each other on horses. “Your timing is excellent.”

  “I think that is still to be determined, but let’s hope. Is there a plan Edward?”

  “There is. At the next clearing, we will finalize it. Want to join me?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  The two men walked their horses to the front of the line and talked quietly while they moved through the woods.

  When the path opened up to a clearing, Edward and Nash positioned their horses in the middle while the rest of the riders surrounded them.

  *****

  “I’m back, dear Penelope,” Henry said while he slid the bolt back and opened the door. I’ve brought a lot of tools to the kitchen table. Once you take a look, if you see a tool and don’t know its use, ask me. I will enlighten you. Follow me.

  “Here. Sit in the seat saved for the guest of honour. That would be you.” Henry smiled. Penelope saw his eyes were lit up. She had seen them look that way before, and it didn’t bode well for her.


  Penelope sat in a wooden kitchen chair in the middle of the room. There was a large array of tools spread out neatly on the kitchen table. Items from an axe to a small knife and quite a few things in between.

  “I see you have interest in my tools. Would you like me to explain what each one does?”

  Penelope shook her head no.

  “Until now, I’ve only used them on animals. I think this will be much more fun.

  “Don’t worry. No one will miss you. Edward and Nash don’t really care about you. You’re too ugly. If you thought they did care, you were delusional.

  “For me, besides being ugly, you have been a thorn in my side since the day my father picked up you and your pathetic family. You were two days away from whoring yourself out for food, weren’t you? How is it, Penelope, that you can be so close to becoming a whore, and all those years later you can also ruin me so that I wouldn’t be a Duke? But, don’t worry. I’ll kill the imposter ‘heir’ then leave here for some time; lay low, and return when this has all blown over. Then I’ll be Duke, and you’ll be dead, so you can’t stop me.

  “You keep looking at the door. If you are thinking Edward will come for you, you’re wrong. He isn’t going to find us. Not soon anyway. You’ll be dead before he makes it here. You’ll be long dead, and I’ll be long gone. I’ll come back for him when he least suspects it.”

  Penelope sat and listened. Her head was swimming down at the bottom of the ocean. She couldn’t think. The water was so much thicker than the air. Things were coming into her head slowly. She was having trouble keeping up. She just needed to stay alert and stick to the plan.

  She was still gagged, and even if she were not, she wouldn’t say anything. She didn’t know what might set him off.

  Penelope looked over at the table again. She wished she could take a better look at the tools without Henry noticing. If he knew of one she was looking at closely, he would probably use it on her.

  “I’m having such fun trying to decide which tool I should start with while I’m watching you squirm. So many times, I’ve been around you Penelope, and I haven’t been in charge. I need this.

  “Oops. I left the saw by the woodpile. Be right back.”

  As soon as the door slammed shut behind him, Penelope jumped up, leaving the rope she had cut while in the bedroom on the chair. She ran to the kitchen table and picked up the axe. She didn’t want to use a little knife or some contraption that screwed open and shut; she wanted to wield something substantial.

  She gripped the axe and took a practice swing with it. She liked the weight.

  Penelope stood against the wall next to the door taking off her gag. She didn’t have to think whether or not she should do it. She knew she had to do it, and she was at peace with it.

  The door began to open, and she set herself, her feet apart, and the axe at her waist. As soon as she saw him, she swung. She didn’t give him a chance to see her. He wasn’t looking for her there. She was supposed to be sitting in a chair in the middle of the room.

  The axe connected with Henry’s chest. His eyes grew large, and he looked up at her, confused. When Penelope looked at the axe, the tip was embedded a good six inches into the middle of his chest. Blood was beginning to flow at a faster pace than at first.

  Henry dropped. Unfortunately for him, he dropped front side down and yelled when the axe went in further. He rolled to the side.

  Penelope was through watching. Most likely, he would bleed to death. She didn’t need to stick around for that. She fled the house, still in the night-rail she put on the night before. Now, blood splattered the front in delicate drops that were too small to drip.

  Without a backward glance, Penelope left the lodge and found Boney’s horse. With a little difficulty, she saddled him. She led him to a rock where she mounted him astride.

  She couldn’t be caught on the open road wearing a bloody night-rail. She took the long way home.

  *****

  Edward, his riders, and Nash dismounted and tethered their horses. They had agreed to spread out in a semi-circle and slowly walk towards the lodge.

  They heard nothing on their approach nor did they see the horse. Nash gave Edward a quizzical look.

  At the door, Edward and Nash mouthed one, two, three then kicked in the door and rushed in. Nash, having gone in first, tripped over Henry and landed on the floor. Edward stopped short, staying upright.

  He turned and yelled “Clear,” to his riders.

  Nash turned Henry over and laughed. There was Henry, on his back with an axe sticking out of his chest.

  “Penelope? Are you here? Come on out,” Nash yelled.

  Edward turned back towards the door. “Search around the lodge for the Duchess.”

  Nash had searched the entirety of the inside of the lodge during that same time. He stopped at the kitchen table and looked at the display.

  “I’m thinking she killed him then took off on the horse,” Nash said.

  Edward yelled, “Gerald.”

  He was standing behind Edward, “Yes, My Lord.”

  “We need to track the horse that was here. We need to know where it went.”

  “Halt,” Gerald yelled. Then men froze. “Don’t move until I have a print.”

  While Gerald tried to pick up tracks, Edward spoke. “Once we are cleared to move, I want you to go back to Edgewood and let everyone know Henry’s dead. We haven’t found the Duchess yet, but I suspect she’s alive, and if she is injured, her injuries are minor. We’ll be tracking her.

  “If any of you see her, bring her back to Edgewood and deliver her into the hands of Lady Balfour. Then find me.”

  “My Lord,” Gerald said. “I have what we need.”

  “Excellent. Everyone move out,” Edward said. “Gerald, Nash, let’s move.”

  Gerald bent down and showed Edward and Nash what they were going to track.

  Nash was unclear. “Why would she go this way? She knew how to get to the lodge on her own, didn’t she?”

  Edward said, “Yes, she did. This is the long way. I hope she’s not panicked that someone will arrest her.”

  Nash prodded his horse forward. “I need to find her.”

  Edward turned to Gerald. “Let’s let him go.”

  Nash rode as fast as he was able on the tricky path. He had to dodge trees and take tight curves.

  All the while, he yelled for her. “Penelope, stop, call out, where are you?”

  Nash kept going, muttering the whole time about this path. His day had been a nightmare since the moment he approached the front door of Edgewood. He wanted it to be over.

  If he felt that way, what must Penelope feel? She was kidnapped, dragged up to this lodge, who knew what was done to her? She killed a man, and now she was on horseback. He hoped she wasn’t running away. There was no need for that.

  “Penelope, where are you?”

  Nash grinned. She put an axe in Henry’s chest. Good for her. I better be on my best behaviour, he thought.

  “Penelope,” he yelled.

  Well, this is better than locking him in the dower house for twenty years, he thought.

  “Penelope,” he yelled.

  “I’m here,” she said, her voice far away.

  “Where are you?”

  “Over here, to your left,” she said.

  Nash looked ahead to his left and saw her sitting on a rock, the horse grazing nearby. He got off his horse and ran to her, taking her into his arms.

  “What are you doing in the middle of the woods sitting on a rock?” he said quietly.

  She looked up at him. “I killed Henry.”

  He smiled. “I know. And I love the way you did it. An axe. Nice touch. Edward says I better be nice to you, or I’m going to end up with an axe to the heart.”

  Penelope laughed. “I think you should listen to Edward.”

  She rode with him, leading her horse behind them, leaning against his chest, the fear coursing through her body settling down.

  *****


  Nash helped Penelope down from his horse and took her by the hand. When they entered Edgewood, Cecilia was standing in the foyer.

  “Oh, Penelope. Thank God you are alright.” She hugged her hard.

  “I’m bringing her upstairs for a while.” He turned to Thomas. “Order a bath and some food to be brought upstairs.”