fleeing to the rakish duke
Regency Romance
Grace Fletcher
Copyright © 2019 by Grace Fletcher.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Contents
Prologue Unwelcome News
Chapter 1 Uncle Red
Chapter 2 Run
Chapter 3 Rescue
Chapter 4 Luxury and Lothario
Chapter 5 Meeting of Unlike Minds
Chapter 6 Confessions
Chapter 7 Discomfort
Chapter 8 Governing the Family
Chapter 9 Revelations
Chapter 10 Red
Chapter 11 Uncertainty
Chapter 12 Truth and Lies
Chapter 13 Confrontation
Chapter 14 Revelations
Prologue
Unwelcome News
Miss Georgina Adams hurried down the stairs, sighing when her shrieking siblings came tumbling down after her, all of them clamoring for attention. The knocking on the door was growing more insistent and though Georgina was expecting her older brother back home, it was not until the next afternoon.
Opening the door, yelling for her brothers to be quiet, she turned back to see a couple of well-dressed men on the doorstep. She frowned, curling a hand into her dress at the solemn looks on their faces.
“Can I help you, gentlemen?”
“Miss Georgina Adams?” The man who spoke was about her brother’s height with fair hair. At her nod, his face schooled itself into something calm and collected. “I am afraid I bring unfortunate news.”
Something heavy settled in Georgina’s stomach and she swallowed around the lump in her throat. “Oh?”
“Mr. Peter Adams was involved in an accident,” the man began, and Georgina had to clutch at the doorway to keep herself upright.
The screams and laughs of her siblings faded into the background, white noise against the tumble of dark thoughts in her mind. How could Peter be dead? It was only yesterday he had bid them all goodbye, smiling and happy and promising to come back soon. Georgina wished to wake from such a horrid dream, but as she closed her eyes tightly, opened them again, the men were still on her doorstep, her brother was still dead.
“Thank you for telling me,” Georgina said, though it felt to her as if she were speaking across a great distance. “Excuse me.”
“Of course,” the other man said, the first words he had spoken. They turned away, hats tucked against their chests, and Georgina shut the door on them, pressing her forehead against it, taking a few moments to calm herself.
She did not relish the idea of having to tell her siblings what had become of Peter. Helena, the youngest, would be devastated. She had always been Peter’s favorite. Though, Georgina thought, she had been given a life of her own making through Peter’s generosity. Though Peter wished marriage for her, he left it to her own mind, her own feelings. She preferred to spend her time indoors, reading and learning, and Peter had afforded her that.
When their parents had died, Peter had raised them all, Georgina first, and with her help, their younger siblings as well. Now Georgina was all they had, and she did not think she could do it alone.
Chapter 1
Uncle Red
Uncle Rudolph, or Red as he was known to his friends—and had demanded Georgina call him—was due to arrive on the hour. Georgina did not know what to expect from her father’s brother. It had been a decade since she had seen him last, before Helena was born, and she could not tell what would become of them.
She hoped that he was an accommodating man. They had grown accustomed to their life, and she could not bear the thought of having to change their routine. Jacob and Joseph, the twins, were chafing at her strict control. It was partly to aid their transition to somebody else’s care, but also to put a stop to the tantrums and screaming they had taken to alternating in Peter’s absence.
It was difficult to think of it as anything other than absence, though she was aware it could be detrimental to imagine her brother as alive enough to walk through the door.
Tom and Helena were mostly silent, trailing after her as though lost lambs. It was an apt description, but also included herself, Georgina thought. They were adrift, waiting for Uncle Red to come and anchor them.
Given a moment’s peace, Georgina had retreated to the kitchen, a place the children only came when they wished to pester her for food. They had eaten only a half hour ago, so she knew she was safe to collect her thoughts. It was terrifying; the life stretching out ahead of her. She was worried for her siblings, how they would take to Uncle Red, how he would take to them. She was worried for herself; though Peter had been kind and easy going, many had not been.
“George! There’s someone at the door.”
Georgina winced. Jacob had called her that since he was a babe and could not complete the rest of her name. She doubted it would be tolerated. Leaving the comfort of the kitchen, Georgina thanked Jacob quietly, noting that the four children had gathered in the sitting room, hovering in the open door. It was a lavish house, Georgina thought, as she unlocked the door. Perhaps she would even get to remain inside of it.
Uncle Red was not what she had been expecting.
Her father often talked of his brother as large and booming, everything about him big and brash. He had always done great deeds and was an aloof if kind man.
The Uncle Red on her doorstep was completely different. A slight, severe man, he regarded her with cool appraisal.
“You must be Georgina,” he said abruptly, sweeping past her and into the house.
It was all Georgina could do to flatten herself against the wall and stay out of his way. After Red came a couple of other men, servants by the looks of them, and they gave Georgina a look of derision. She bristled immediately; she may not have high social standing, but she did not deserve to be looked on in such a way.
“So,” Red said, raising his eyebrows at Georgina and gesturing at the children.
She sighed, smoothing down her dress and giving Red her most genuine smile. Inside, she was bristling at his treatment of her siblings, but it was clearly an adjustment for him as much as it was for her and her siblings.
“Jacob and Joseph,” she said as she approached, gesturing at each of the twins in turn. “Tom and Helena.”
All four of the children were still standing in the doorway to the sitting room, looking up apprehensively at this man who was to become their guardian. Red gave them the once over, his lip curling slightly, but downward. Georgina clenched her fists, wanting desperately to bring him to task for treating her siblings in such a way, but she was no longer under Peter’s care. Everything would be different, and she could not start off a relationship with Red by being antagonistic.
“Would you like a drink, Uncle?”
“Call me Red,” Red said immediately, something about his expression at being called Uncle sending a shiver down Georgina’s spine. “And yes. Something strong.”
Peter had kept a small selection of drinks in the study and Georgina said as much, directing the way down the hall.
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br /> “I will expect a tour of the house, of course,” Red said, looking appreciatively over the rooms as they walked. Georgina nodded, pressing her lips together in a thin line. She turned to look back over her shoulder, to where the two footmen were staring at the children in disgust.
“I can have the children upstairs,” Georgina offered, wanting to protect them as much to get them out from under Red’s feet.
Red hummed thoughtfully, eyes taking in the study.
Though it made her uncomfortable to turn her back on him, Georgina did so, crossing to the bureau to make him a drink. “Do you have a preference?”
“I said something strong, did I not?” Red said, with a touch of a glare.
Hurrying through the process of making Red a whisky, she handed it over tentatively. “The children?”
“Ah yes,” Red said, sipping at the whisky. Yet another satisfied smile. “It would be best, I think, while I acclimatize to the house, to not have them in the way.”
“Of course,” Georgina said tightly. “I’ll see to it immediately.”
“Indeed,” Red said, meeting her eyes. He ran his eyes over her, now, making her shiver under his scrutiny. “Then we should see about finding you a husband, should we not?”
Georgina swallowed thickly, eyes burning with tears. She would not cry, could not, when she had her siblings to take upstairs and console. She felt angry at her father for putting an ideal of his brother in her head when the reality was so much worse than she could have feared. “Of course.”
Rushing from the room, Georgina swiped angrily at her face, straightening her spine and standing in the doorway of the sitting room. The two footmen had begun to move Red’s things into the house, boxes and trunks piled into the sitting room, her siblings crushed on the sofa, one of the footmen watching them with a sneer.
“Excuse me,” Georgina said, affecting the voice Peter had often told her was her mother tone. She thought of it fondly and with a touch of pain. Never would she hear his voice again. Cutting off that line of thought, she narrowed her eyes at the footman. “Is there a reason you have sequestered my siblings on the sofa?”
The footman immediately turned with a bow on the wrong side of respectful. “Ma’am, apologies. We did not want them to get hurt.”
“I doubt they would have,” Georgina said immediately. “It is not the first time they have seen trunks and boxes.”
Opening his mouth, looking as if he had something to say about that, he immediately closed it, either at the look on her face, or thinking better of starting something with his master only a few rooms away.
“They may be children,” Georgina said, gesturing for her siblings to stand and go upstairs, “but do not for one moment think you have the authority here to tell them what to do.”
“No, ma’am,” the footman said, something in his eyes dark and dangerous. “That would be my master, would it not?”
Though Georgina wanted to back down, if she did so, they would be treating her with much more disrespect and derision. “Indeed. Unless you have suddenly taken on that title for yourself, remember your place.”
Without waiting for a reply or to see what expression the man wore, Georgina swept after her siblings, clenching her shaking hands. Her heart was pounding and though she felt as if she might break at any moment, she would not.
Chapter 2
Run
They would need food, Georgina thought, as she hurried through the house. The twins were gathering Tom and Helena together with some clothes, and she was grateful. Though they were trying to remain silent, she had no doubt that she would have given the game away as she tried to get through everything that she needed to prepare for them.
Collecting enough food for a couple of days, hoping to find somewhere to stay before then, Georgina grabbed the children’s cloaks from the hall and peered into the parlor where Red’s two footmen had taken up residence.
Georgina tried not to think about the conversation she had overheard as she closed the door on their sleeping faces, taking care to make sure it made no noise. Thankfully, they had not chosen to sleep in the back room, with the creaky door. The children were tiptoeing down the stairs when she passed, and she gestured for them to hurry, passing over each cloak as she did so.
“Why do we have to go?” Helena whined, shushing only when Georgina placed a finger over her lips.
“Do as you’re told,” Jacob whispered furiously, and Georgina was grateful. Though he had not asked any questions when she had woken him, he had immediately taken charge and done as she requested. He was already so much like Peter, and though he was only the elder twin by a minute, he wore the mantle of the eldest son like a well-fitted suit.
Helena groused silently but did as she was told.
Eventually, Georgina managed to get the four children outside, a sack of food tucked under her arm, and though the house had a stable, there was no time to tack up a horse without drawing attention to what they were doing. Georgina was loath to have the children walking for so long, but there was nothing for it. She had a little money, enough for them to get a cab a short distance, and that was where she directed the children.
They clambered into the coach, the driver tipping his hat and taking the money. If he was surprised by Georgina’s request to take them as far as he was able, he did not say anything. He waited until the door had closed behind her and started the carriage. Georgiana almost fell into her seat, but she managed to catch herself from crushing Helena. Jacob and Joseph had Tom squeezed between them, and Georgina gave them as big a smile as she could manage, and settled for wrapping an arm around Helena, letting her lean into her side. Part of her wanted to look back at the house, but she could not bring herself too. It was not gone forever, she told herself. Just until she found somewhere safe for the children and she could decide where to go.
Georgina did not know how long they were traveling for, but eventually, the carriage came to a stop. She could hear the driver walking towards the door, and started to herd the children out, catching the driver’s concerned gaze.
“Are you sure this is where you’ll be wanting to stop?”
There did not seem to be anything for miles, but Georgina nodded brightly, hoping to convey that everything was fine. Thankfully, it was nearing daylight. “I wanted the children to experience a long walk. This has been most helpful, thank you.”
Though she had kept a few coins for herself, Georgina took another look at their surroundings, and wished she had asked to travel a little further.
“Good luck, Miss,” the driver said, with another tip of his hat, and a grin for the children. “Children.”
“We’re not children,” Jacob muttered, and Georgina had to laugh, otherwise she’d cry.
Making sure the children were wrapped up as warm as they could be, Georgina sighed, gesturing for them to start walking. “Come on.”
There was a fair amount of grumbling, as was to be expected, but Georgina did her best to ignore it. She did not want to frighten the children by telling them what was going on, and thankfully they did not outright ask. Helena did her best to keep up with the others, but it would not be long before she would tire. Her legs were still fairly small, and Georgina had walked enough with her sister to know she tired very easily when out in the country.
Though it had looked initially as though there was nothing around for miles, Georgina could make out some farmland with cattle, and beyond that, a barn that stood strong and erect against the horizon. It would do, in a pinch, and though they would probably be chased off the ground before too long, Georgina made sure to guide the children that way.
“How long are we going to have to stay out here?” Jacob asked, and though it almost sounded like a whine, his eyes did not stray from the barn, as though determined for them all to make it.
Georgina did not know, but she squeezed his shoulder, if just to give him momentary comfort. “Not long. Just enough for me to find some other solution.”
There were qu
estions in his eyes, in Joseph’s eyes, and Georgina knew before long she would have to answer them. For now, she simply urged them onward, towards the safety of the barn.
It could not have come too soon; as they were making their way through the cattle field, avoiding the cows as much as possible, it started to rain, spits and spurts at first, and then a momentary lapse before the skies opened and they were almost drenched.
“Run,” Georgina said, sweeping Helena up into her arms as the boys started to race across the open ground, towards the barn. Up close, it looked more like a stable, and she supposed it was where the cattle stayed during terrible weather. They did not seem to be disturbed by the rain, continuing to graze, and Georgina breathed a sigh of relief as they all entered the stables, the boys immediately complaining about being wet.
There was a scattering of straw covering most of the floor, including a tower of bales towards the back.
“There,” Georgina said, nodding. “We will be safe there for the moment.”
“I’m hungry,” Tom said, shaking out his cloak.
Georgina sighed, and put Helena down, who immediately groused about wanting to be picked up again. Thankfully, Joseph and Jacob had already started shifting some bales, as best they were able, into something resembling a hideaway amongst the stable. “I have a little food.”
“Come on,” Joseph said, gesturing for Tom and Helena to come and sit.
They did, following the twins into settling down in the bales, and forming a little circle to keep themselves warm. The rain was coming down heavily outside, and though the barn did not seem to be leaking, the wide-open doors did not keep the heat in. It was not a permanent solution, and they could not rest here indefinitely, but for now, it would do.
“Let’s get something to eat, shall we?” Georgina asked with a bright smile, relishing the cheers of her siblings as she took some food out of her bag.
Chapter 3
Rescue
Three days later, they were running out of food and Georgina was getting desperate. The boys had started grumbling, even Jacob demanding they leave soon and find somewhere to stay. The rain had stopped, but frost had set in, and Helena had a bad cough that would only get worse.
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