Talking to the horse, the head groom disappeared around the corner toward the stable, as the carriage, bearing his valet, and his meagre luggage, drew up before the house.
~~~~~
Nerissa looked at her reflection in the tall mirror and sighed.
She would never be an Incomparable, and that was that. Her colouring was all wrong, she was too tall and her face was too angular. In the pale pastel colours that were deemed fashionable for young ladies, she faded into insignificance. She sighed again, thinking of her sister Maria, an acknowledged Beauty, who had cut a triumphant swathe through the ton during the previous Season.
It had been fashionable to be in love with Maria, with her flashing amber eyes, rich blonde hair, and flawless creamy complexion.
Thus, Maria had had the opportunity of choosing from amongst a veritable army of suitors and was now betrothed - very advantageously betrothed, to be sure, to a wealthy Earl, to their parents’ delight.
Donning her fur lined pelisse and her velvet bonnet, Nerissa crossed the hall and stepped into the carriage with her maid, bound to Meltonbrook Chase, where she was to have tea with her bosom bow Alyse, the Duke of Melton’s daughter. No, not daughter, sister, she amended her thought. Hunter was Duke, now, after the untimely demise of his father and his elder brother.
She blushed. They hoped that Hunter would be home soon, for he had sent his family a message from London, but with the deep snow on the roads, he was likely delayed. Would he recognise her? She did not think so. He had had scant interest to spare for her, to begin with, when he was a young man just back from his term in Oxford, and she was just a shy ten-year-old, all angles and elbows and not even a promise of feminine allure.
Nerissa leaned back on the carriage seat, closing her eyes. ‘Much good it does me to wool-gather like that’, she chided herself. ‘I’ll be lucky if I don’t find myself married to some gouty old man before the Season is over.’ She shivered, and not because of the sharp wind blowing and howling through the naked trees.
~~~~~
As Hunter approached the door, the butler, a delighted expression lighting his usually impassive features, opened it. Immediately regaining his formal demeanour, Jermyn schooled his expression to a more serious face, better suited to the Butler of a great house.
“Welcome home, my lord. The ladies are in the drawing room. Follow me, please.”
“No need, Jermyn, I know the way”, answered Hunter, secretly amused by the butler’s display of self-restraint, and almost ran to the drawing room doors, suddenly unable to wait any longer to see his family.
He opened the doors, and an instant of shocked silence followed his entrance. Hunter scanned the tableau – a morning visit frozen before him. All of his family were there (although part of his mind still expected to see his father and Richard as well), and there was someone else. A woman he did not know, a woman who was more beautiful than any he had seen. She had burnished golden hair, surrounding her face with a profusion of waves and ringlets, a honey and gold complexion; long, almond shaped green gold eyes, fringed by thick burnished golden eyelashes and emphasized by high cheekbones, and a tall, shapely body. The only feature detracting from perfection, but greatly adding to character, was a rather large, mobile mouth, much more capable of expressing feelings (and temper, he suspected!) than a proper prim little rosebud.
He was captivated. Her eyes met his across the room, and for a moment, everything else faded away. He was brought back to the moment when the silence was broken by his sister Alyse, who cried out.
“Hunter! Hunter, you are back! Is it really you, Hunter?” and, without any further ado, threw herself at him. His eye contact with the woman was broken, and he forgot her in the chaos that followed. Hunter’s mother, the Duchess Louisa, half-fainting, reclined on the sofa, fanning herself and calling for her vinaigrette.
His sister Sybilla almost jigged around the table, before forcing herself to behave with greater propriety. His brother, Charles, obviously tried to be the cool gentleman, but could not help but step forward and embrace Hunter, his eyes shining with held back tears.
“At long last, my son,” sobbed his mother.
“Come here, and let me look at you. Last time I saw you, you were a boy. Now you are a man. And what a man! Your father, God rest his soul, would be so proud of you…”
Moved despite himself, Hunter gathered his weeping mother into his arms. “Shush, Mother, I’m here to stay. I’m so sorry I was not here when it would have really mattered. I feel that I have failed you all, yet it was at the time of Waterloo, and I did not even hear the news for months! I’m so sorry…”
The Duchess brushed her tears impatiently aside.
“I’m a foolish old woman, my son. This is not a time for weeping, but a time for rejoicing. God knows, we have been mourning long enough. And look who is here, Hunter. Do you remember Lady Nerissa Loughbridge, Lord Chester’s youngest daughter?”
A faint recollection of a meddlesome brat, always trying to follow him around, vaguely stirred in Hunter’s memory. He turned his head and froze again, caught by her appearance.
Brat? She was not a brat anymore, she was a woman, and a very beautiful woman at that, more so because of her unusual colouring. It was all he could do not to stare at her with his mouth agape. He tried to react in some polite way, and smiled, suddenly recalling one of Nerissa’s youthful misdeeds.
“Nerissa? Was it you who hid inside your brother Kevin’s portmanteau, because you wanted to come with us when we went to our hunting lodge near Cottesmore? And did we not discover you because you sneezed? Do you remember, Charles?”
Nerissa had not heard a single word. Hunter’s sudden appearance had completely stunned her. All her childhood emotions flooded back, crowding her mind, amplified with new meaning and significance. A rosy blush washed upon her face as she dared to smile back.
“She’s not a child anymore, Hunter,” broke in Alyse.
“She is a dear friend to us all, and I really don’t know how we would have managed without her. She is a sensible young woman, with a good head on her shoulders, and she gave us invaluable help when Mother was so ill after…” Alyse’s voice faltered “…after the accident…”
Hunter looked at his family: his sisters, pretty, vivacious, eager to try out their wings during the London Season, his mother, with her gentle face marked by loss and sorrow, his brother, suddenly scowling and dark browed, and the enchanting stranger in their midst. He felt rather like he had stepped into the centre of a whirlwind. Suddenly he felt mortally tired, in dire need of rest and solitude. He went to his mother and kissed her gently on her cheek.
“Will you please excuse me, Mother? I have had a long and tiring journey and I’m much fatigued. I believe that, if you will forgive me, I will have a bath drawn and a tray sent to my room. I am not really up to a formal supper. Tomorrow, we can all begin to catch up.”
“But of course, my dear. How thoughtless of me not having foreseen your needs… my happiness at seeing you again quite overwhelmed me. I have not all my wits about me, I’m sure… Jermyn, please, see His Grace to his apartments and make sure that his valet attends him.”
“Yes, my lady. Please follow me, Your Grace.”
To his chagrin, Jermyn did not lead Hunter to his bachelor’s quarters as he had unthinkingly expected, but to his father’s apartments. That was the precise moment at which the full import of his new condition crashed in upon him like a dark and overwhelming wave.
He was the Duke of Melton. Not his father, nor his elder brother, both now dead after a freak carriage accident. Himself. He had not wanted it, he had not coveted it, truth to tell, he had no idea how to go about being a Duke, but there it was, with all its implications and obligations, including the need to marry, and to sire heirs to the title. It was like a bad dream, but it was not going to disappear at dawn.
Continued…
Read the rest at
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Books
in the ‘His Majesty’s Hounds’ Series
Books in ‘The Derbyshire Set’
The Earl’s Unexpected Bride
The Captain’s Compromised Heiress
The Viscount’s Unsuitable Affair
The Count’s Impetuous Seduction
The Rake’s Unlikely Redemption
The Marquess’ Scandalous Mistress
The Marchioness’ Second Chance
Lady Theodora’s Christmas Wish
The Derbyshire Set Omnibus Edition Vol. 1 (the first three books all in one)
The Derbyshire Set Omnibus Edition Vol. 2 (the second three books all in one)
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Restoring the Earl's Honour: Sweet and Clean Regency Romance (His Majesty's Hounds Book 17) Page 14
