“A... actually, m’lord, I... we have a lot to take care of, here, I should probably get back upstairs to help Ana with the cleaning,” Audrey mumbled, painful tears streaming from the corners of her eyes. Lord Parris stopped dead in his tracks, tilting his head curiously.
“...Excuse me, dearie?” he asked quizzically.
“I’ve... you know, I’ve rethought a lot... about all of this,” Audrey stammered. She couldn’t stop herself from crying, crying hard; she wanted to collapse on the stairs, her legs barely able to keep her standing through this emotional torment. Ana watched closely, darkly satisfied by the tears and the hurt flowing from Audrey. “I’ve... maybe, maybe my aunt was right. Maybe you’ve just talked sweet, and... and I don’t... I don’t know, I have to rethink all of this. I’m not... going with you, Audrey stuttered through the tears.
“...Ms. Fisher, what are you talking about?” the duke asked, baffled. “I’ve already gotten the carriage ready. We’re expected. We can think about things together, and—”
“I’m not going to be a mistress! I’m not... I’m not going to be... this,” Audrey broke down, falling to one knee at the foot of the stairs, tears flowing and staining her cheeks red. “This... this has to be over. I can’t...”
“Audrey,” the duke’s voice fell to a quiet whisper. “What’s gotten in to you?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I can’t be... party to this, anymore.”
“There’s a lot I have to tell you. You have to understand. Please, come with me. We can talk about your station, our situation...”
“There’s no talking,” she sniffled, standing up cold as ice. She glared up the stairs to Ana, who stood perched by the rail, gleaming with corrupted pride. Fighting back another wave of tears, Audrey pulled herself out of the duke’s comforting embrace and dragged herself towards the maid’s chambers.
“Audrey, this— you can’t just walk away from this. I can’t just walk away from this,” the duke insisted. “I realized — I realized I love you.”
“I have to, I’m sorry,” Audrey howled back to him, slipping into the maid’s quarters. The moment the door shut she slid to her knees against it, the tears flowing free and hot and raw.
The wicked witch had gotten her way.
Chapter 9
One week.
Audrey had figured one week would be enough time. Enough time for the letter to reach the city; for her aunt to prepare her old room. Audrey could only imagine the verbal lashings she would receive on returning disgraced back to the family inn in London. She had done just precisely what her aunt had warned her against doing - she’d started to fall for a man she could never have. Worse yet... she had endangered her family name, called scandal down on the house she was meant to serve.
Sitting by the smudged window in the maidservants’ chambers, watching carriages and wagons roll slowly along the rural cobblestone paths, she contemplated her fate. Packed bags and sacks full of her clothing, her effects - those same sacks that she had arrived with, soaking-wet in the pouring rain - lay gathered around her chair while she recalled that trudge through a darkened, mired storm. It felt like it had been so long ago, and she had learned so much about herself since then. She had learned she wasn’t the chaste creature she thought she could be, so easily - she had learned so many dark things about herself that the duke she had started to fall in love with brought so proudly out of her.
“Are you sure you want to do this? I’m still quite puzzled,” Agatha asked, arms crossed atop her chest as she watched clouds begin to gather over the moor. Caravans and commoners hurried along the paths; gray midday clouds blotted out the sun, and thunder rumbled a muffled noise in the distance. Soon it’d be raining, and Audrey would leave the McClellan estate similar to how she had arrived - save for the extra heartbreak.
“I... I have my reasons,” Audrey’s voice quavered. She didn’t want to leave. But she knows she has to.
“What reasons are those?” Agatha asked, insistent. Audrey had discussed leaving with Agatha after the day in the foyer. She knew she couldn’t stand to stay here - with a man she loved, but could never truly be with.
“Why do you insist on pressing her? I’m sure she has good reasons. Hasn’t she?” Ana stalked her way into the maidservant’s quarters; her very presence brought a dark cloud over Audrey’s heart, her eyes downcast and her hands shaking. She fought back tears as Ana loomed closer, her expression rough and wicked. “Hasn’t she?”
“And what business is this of yours?” Agatha bellowed angrily. “You’d been the woman complaining about too much to do around the house, before Audrey arrived. Yet you seem quite amused by her sudden and unexpected departure. Perhaps I ought to wonder what sort of hand you had in it,” Agatha’s eyes narrowed, anger seething through them as Ana approached.
“What hand I had in it? What makes you think I had any hand in it?” Ana played innocent.
“That smug smirk on your face tells me a whole lot, woman,” Agatha rumbled, squaring up with the much smaller, intimidated Ana.
“S-mug?! Agatha, I put up with quite a lot from you, but—” Ana stuttered.
“Perhaps something to do with that conversation I happened upon, but a week ago?” Agatha retorted, rage bubbling up. “Perhaps I should’ve been the one doing the smacking.”
“Agatha— please,” Audrey begged meekly, feeling the tears start to fill her eyes. “I don’t... don’t want this to happen. You still have... to work together, with Ana,” she sighed. Smugly Ana took a step back from Agatha, sneering.
“I don’t smack,” Agatha warned, still standing tense and staring at Ana. “You’re lucky, for that. That I would never strike my girls.”
“Good,” Ana snarled. “I came by for a reason, you know. The duke - he wants to speak with Audrey before she leaves. She needed me to let you know,” Ana smirked, giving that knowing glare to Audrey. “Your last conversation with him... it feels so surreal, doesn’t it?” Ana’s devious voice sizzled in self-satisfaction. Audrey’s heart thumped. She didn’t want to talk to him. She didn’t even want to see him again - it felt too painful, knowing she had to leave. For his sake - and for her own.
“Yes,” Audrey nodded, crestfallen, to Ana, who put on a snotty, facetious smile.
“He’s up in his bedchamber,” Ana said. “You should hurry, yes? Your carriage will be arriving soon. To take you back to the city. For good,” Ana spoke coldly.
“Y... yes,” Audrey admitted. That quiet ‘yes’ told Ana all she wanted to know, and her evil smile grew. Audrey sucked back her tears and dragged her feet through the foyer, taking step after painful step one at a time through the hall. Face to face with the door to his bedchambers, memories rocked her mind - memories once so pleasing and idyllic, but now memories to be swept away; forgotten in shame. Memories she can never relive. Memories of how she let herself fall in love with someone who could never truly love her back - memories, now evidence against her, by that wicked Ana.
She rapped softly on the door. Little strength remained in her limbs. She hadn’t slept in days. She wanted to load herself into the carriage and sleep for hours on the ride to London, though she knew all she would likely accomplish on the ride back is a long, painful cry.
The door opened; the duke looked out, his eyes tired and wary; a dusting of stubble spackled across his chin. He examined Audrey, his nostrils flaring as he took a deep breath. Muddled light poured into the bedchambers; she could see it hadn’t been tended in the entire week they had been separated from one another. Sheets lay in a messy bundle; chairs sat askew, clothing strewn across the Persian rugs.
“Ms. Fisher,” he acknowledged her coldly. Thunder rumbled louder, and the soft patter of raindrops against the estate’s roof and windows started at an unsteady, jostling pace. “Agatha informed me today will be the day that you leave the estate. Is that true?” Audrey swiped a stream of tears from her cheek; seeing his gorgeous face, so stricken with pain - the same pain she carried - forced her to crack. Tears s
treamed heavier, faster; she pulled a handkerchief from her apron, using it to sponge away reddening streams of melancholy.
“Y... yes, today, today’s the... the day, m’lord,” she nodded. “I... Agatha, and Ana, and the other girls, are more than capable of... of filling the gap, until you can find so... someone else to come on-board with the staff.”
“Okay,” he answered, his voice cold and rigid; not that smooth and seductive tone he had taken with her in their first encounter; not the steamy and dominating tone that could reduce her to smoldering, sexy embers in an instant. She had never heard this side of him - and she interpreted that it was a voice of true hurt. Real pain.
“I... I should get ready to go, here... my carriage to London should be arriving,” Audrey said with a long sniffle.
“A storm is coming,” the duke commented in a distant voice. “The ride could be rough. Dangerous. Keep yourself together.” They stood awkwardly; neither wanted to look at the other. Pain seethed in Audrey’s nerves every time she dared look at his face; dirty, his hair matted, the stubble so uncharacteristic. She thought to reach out to him. That he hurt just as much as she did, over this.
“O... okay,” Audrey responded, breaking a moment of tense and confused silence. Was that all he had left to say to her? She didn’t want to believe it was. She wanted him to embrace her; for all of this to go away, but as long as the duchess and Ana existed in the duke’s life - and as long as he stayed the Duke of McClellan - she could only watch, and she could only cry.
“Your carriage is arriving,” he murmured, watching the rain start to pick up; lightning flashed through the windows, and the clop-clop of horse hooves echoed beneath the rain’s patter, as the vehicle approached the front door. “You should go down. Now,” he exhaled sharply, before slamming the door shut. Audrey blinked, shock in her nerves. Not a kiss... not a hug. Not even a goodbye. She’d leave behind the man who had claimed her virginity and who had taught her what it was to feel like a woman, without even a parting word.
“I love you,” she mouthed silently, staring at the door as the tears flowed freely. Footfalls creaked up the stairs behind her.
“Audrey, dear?...” catching the girl crying, concern crossed Agatha’s face, and she rushed to cradle the maidservant gently in her arms. “Audrey, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“Everything happened, everything that shouldn’t have happened,” Audrey admitted weakly, the sobs throbbing painfully in her voice. “The duke, the duchess... I got in the middle of a mess, and Ana—” she stopped herself with a sniffle. “I... I shouldn’t. I just need t... to get out of the estate, Ms. Agatha. I’m sorry for letting you down.” The old woman’s face twisted, stony; she deciphered the story in her mind, shaking her head sagely.
“You have nothing to feel bad about. I’ve never seen the duke like this, and—”
“Ms. Agatha, I need to go,” Audrey silenced the old woman’s emotional ponderings. She didn’t want to let anything else get in her way. She needed to get back to London. It was the only way to keep the duke - and herself - safe from Ana’s scandal. And the duchess’s wrath. She didn’t want to hear anything else that would convince her to try again. Agatha sighed.
“Very well,” the old woman’s shoulder slumped in disappointment. Audrey pulled herself from Agatha’s comforting embrace, facing the cold of reality once more. She trudged down the stairs once again, her tears stopping; she couldn’t cry anymore. She’d cried enough. Now, sobered by the pain of stress and loss, she dragged herself to the front door, pulling it open. The splash of dewy raindrops immediately struck her face; the valet, a portly man in a rickety wooden cart, hurried from the carriage to the front door.
“S’a hell of a storm out there today, love,” he commented cheerily. “Get yer pretty self into the carriage, savvy? I’ll grab th’ luggage, load it up.” That, at least, was a relief. Audrey stepped sprightly through the puddles of rain pooling near the front door, rivulets of water rushing between uneven cobblestones. She pulled open the squeaking carriage door, rain soaking through her linen blouse, and she hauled herself onto the stiff bench seat, exhaling deeply as she pulled the door shut behind her. Alone, now - so alone, with only the pitter-patter of rain on the roof to keep her company.
Quiet. Audrey looked out the window, across the moors - gray clouds darkened the sky, trees swayed in violent breezes. A knock on the carriage door interrupted her discordant, jumbled reverie; she opened it to see the valet.
“S’it the stuff in the other room?” the valet asked. “Yer luggage.” Audrey sighed in exasperation.
“Yes... in the back room, the maidservants can show you,” she exhaled, pulling the door shut again before too much rain flooded her cabin. Stilted quiet again. Nothing but her own thoughts to suffer with. Like detritus the storm would wash her away, carrying her back to London, leaving the idyllic fields and the palatial, rich halls of the duke’s estate - and all the promise and love and the bright future it represented - behind her.
Audrey had just begun to close her eyes when another, loud knock pounded on the carriage door. She sighed, pushing it open.
“The luggage are the sacks in the maidservant’s quarters,” she said, exhausted. “They’re—”
She could say no more before a pair of powerful, wet arms embraced her; a pair of pillowy, inviting, perfect lips pressed against her own. She quivered, knowing that kiss and those hands like she could know no other - and when she opened her eyes she saw him; his suit soaking as the rain fell hard across his body. A moan fell from her lips; he got her wet, soaked with the falling rain, and she wanted nothing else. For a moment she thought she was dreaming, but when his voice rumbled into her ear she knew he was real.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he demanded. “I love you, Audrey Fisher... I love you, and I have to have you. Not as a mistress, not as a side lover, not as a game. I love you, and I’m making you mine,” he growled. She had wanted to hear those words for longer than she even knew, but they did little to massage away her fears.
“M... master,” she trembled, “I... I can’t, we can’t. Ana... if she tells the duchess, there’ll be scandal, scandal that will ruin you, and me—”
“I don’t care about scandal. I don’t care about station, I don’t care about what they expect of me. I will have you, Audrey Fisher, if it takes pulling the stars from the sky,” he moaned into her ear, pulling her out of the carriage and into the rain. They embraced, and kissed like they had never before; with passion, power, and vigor.
“Come with me,” he demanded, in the powerful, enticing voice she knew so well. He took her wrist, and everything felt so right again as he led her back into the estate.
Chapter 10
“I told you before... that I had darker tastes that I felt I could only indulge with you, Audrey,” the duke purred as he led Audrey up the stairs, gently squeezing her wrists. His hand on hers reminded her so vividly of the tight leather, binding her wrists together; keeping her soft, pliant, and so aching with want for him to do everything to her supple body. “There’s... more, there’s a lot more,” he admitted, his voice tense. “More that I want to do with you... you’re the only woman in the world who has ever made me feel so alive. And it’s why I have to have you... it’s why I love you, Audrey Fisher.”
“M’lord,” she whimpered.
“Bryce,” he insisted, looking back at her as they entered his bedchambers. He shut the door... and locked it, tight, behind them. “I’m Bryce... but,” he added, “to you... in our bedroom...”
“Master,” she whispered breathlessly. He grinned, the first time she had seen him grin in so long. She stood, shivering in the cold; he moved to her back, unfurling the cords keeping her dress tied back. The garment fell loose on her shoulders, wet parts of it clinging to her softly-blushing, pink skin; with kisses to warm her, he peeled her dress away, until she stood damp and naked, as the storm raged outside of Bryce’s open windows. The breezes curled around both of them, making them shive
r together; he kissed away the cool rain with his hot lips, from her hips to her breasts back to her neck. She blinked, quaking in want; and then, the world went dark, as he pulled a black cloth back across her eyes. Panic set in at first; she felt so tense, giving up her every sense - not just her physical freedom, but now her sight, to her master.
“Do you trust me?” he whispered hotly into her ear. She so relished feeling that breath against her skin, and while the fear still pumped adrenaline into her heart, she certainly couldn’t deny that something so hot and so dirty made her feel so good.
“Please, I want to trust you,” Audrey murmured, her voice all full of tense steam. “I don’t know... what to feel, I’m so conflicted. This could cause so many problems, for both of us,” she breathed out, those last lingering doubts clouding her mind. “We don’t know what... what could happen, if the duchess found out about us—”
“Trust me,” he huffed heated into her ear. “Not just in the bedroom... but elsewhere. Trust me,” his voice felt so hot and perfect on her skin and she surrendered herself to him, leaning back against his body. A ruffling had preceded him removing his own jacket, and now his bare, wet chest hosted her, his arms telling her a thousand secrets with how hungrily they cupped her breasts and held her tight. “Do you trust me...?” he asked, his lips on her cheek.
“I trust you, master,” she whispered; and then, she found her body lain against the sheets of his bed; she couldn’t see anything, but she could feel the silk and the soft down beneath her.
“If you trust me. Obey me,” he growled into her ear, like a feral wolf pleased with its pliable prey. “You’re going to feel new things... don’t move... don’t make a sound... okay? Or else...” he threatens lustily, “I’ll stop... and you’ll feel nothing... so are you going to be a good servant to your master?” he exhaled sharply. She didn’t know what awaited her; darkness shrouding her senses, her ears felt hyper-active, picking up every quiet tossle and ruffle and movement of her dirty duke-lover behind her. His breath tickled her cool body and she waited; she waited, and listened, not sure what could be coming. What he had in mind.
Regency Romance Omnibus 2018: Dominate Dukes & Tenacious Women Page 61
