by Abby Ayles
“You would like to make our vows to one another again?” he asked with eyes that appeared moved beyond speech.
“Yes, if you would be so agreeable as to appease me,” she replied.
“Tell me,” he said.
“These are the very same words that we spoke on that day. I should like to repeat them now,” she said, hoping that he would like the idea and not think her mad for such an act.
“I should like nothing more,” the Duke said in reply. “It is a very good idea and I am ashamed I did not think of it myself."
“I do not blame you for not considering it. But I know that I, myself, repeated them without meaning on the day of our wedding. I am not the same woman now, however. And if I tell you these things now, you can rest assured that I mean every word,” Thea promised.
"And I wish for you to remain confident that I do as well. I truly do, Thea. Every word, every commitment, I give to you in honesty and truth,” the Duke said.
Thea handed him one paper and the Duke looked over it with a new sense in his eyes. Before he had said the words meaning nothing at all. But now, they meant everything to the both of them.
“Shall I go first?” he asked, uncertain.
“I would like that a great deal,” Thea replied.
The Duke opened his mouth to commit to his wife and his voice came strong.
“I promise to take thee as my wife. I promise to hold to the vow and commitment made before God and the church to show you the love of our Lord and Savior as I have been instructed by His word,” the Duke began.
“I promise to honor you when your body is ill, when the materials we possess fail us, and until we are joined together again after death. I shall never part from you in this life. I shall honor you before God. This is my vow,” he read.
The Duke looked up at Thea and smiled, knowing he meant every word of it.
Thea then read the same vow to him, recognizing how her heart longed to see each word come to fulfillment. The Duke was her husband and they would now begin to live as such.
“My darling,” the Duke whispered.
“My husband,” Thea replied.
And as if their vow could not be made any sweeter, the Duke leaned in and Thea gratefully accepted his kiss.
Epilogue
The Duke of Sandon returned home to find the estate quite full.
“Oh my goodness,” he laughed.
“Yes, I do believe we have quite the congregation,” Thea replied, looking around.
They had been married for a year and now Thea’s entire family and all her friends were at the estate to celebrate the budding life that was to come.
The Duke very nearly wanted to run away and go back to meetings, but knew that his wife would appreciate any support that he gave her. It would not be right for him to flee no matter how he might wish to be free of this party of people.
It was not that he did not desire company. It was just that they were far louder than he was accustomed to and he had not been prepared for the sheer number of guests.
The kitchen staff had not been prepared either and he was grateful that they'd had a few pigs out back who were ready to give their lives to feed everyone. His mother had called him a fool for insisting that they kept animals on hand at the estate for just such an event.
He noted then that his very own mother, the Dowager Duchess, was in attendance.
Things had remained frightfully strained between them, but they were finally beginning to improve. He felt confident that, in time, his mother would grow to love his wife as much as he did.
In the meantime, his mother looked terribly bored and annoyed by the raucous being caused. They were not the sort of folks who were often invited to an estate like theirs and he knew that it was an exciting time for them.
He saw faces that he’d never seen before, but was assured that Thea knew them from her family's home.
Of course, her family had a new home, nearer to them. He wondered if some might not have come just to get a glimpse of the well-known Duke and his home.
"Mr. Tyndale!” Thea exclaimed upon seeing him. She rushed to him and gave him a look of pleading eyes, begging for rescue.
The Duke suppressed his laugh. He could not allow the guests to see how they wished for freedom from the party.
“Yes, my dear, we must…we must discuss a matter. Would you please follow me?" he requested.
Thea did her very best to look pouty and as though she had no interest in leaving her guests. However, she made it appear as though she were being urged against her will.
Thea follow the Duke and he led her up to the library where all was calm and empty.
“Good heavens, my dear. What on earth has happened?" he asked, frightened to laugh about it all.
"I hardly know, myself,” she replied. "It was meant to be only my own family and Margaret, perhaps her family as well. But someone must have called for more. I cannot tell you what a strange day it has been!” she exclaimed.
“I imagine so,” he replied dryly.
“Oh, do be joyful. I cannot bear to do all of this on my own," she complained.
"I shall try, but my dear. They are very loud,” he said, looking terrified.
“Is there any way we might get some to leave? At least those who do not actually even know us?” she asked.
“I should think that the sooner way to be rid of people is by feeding them immediately," the Duke replied, having worked this out to be the best possible solution.
“You are a very wise man," Thea laughed.
The Duke left Thea in the library, giving her a chance for rest and freedom from the guests. He found Mrs. Markley and insisted that they eat early.
“But, Your Grace, the food is hardly prepared,” she said.
“Then it must be finished rapidly. Even if it is not done well, they shall hardly know the difference. You know how most people are. All you need do is tell them that something cost a great deal and they will believe it,” he joked.
Mrs. Markley looked at him sternly. He could not blame her. He was being rude.
But the Duke wished for time with his wife alone. He wanted to know how she was feeling now that she had gotten through the difficult first stage of the pregnancy.
He would be a father soon. In a matter of only a few more months, they would have a child of their very own.
The Duke wondered whether it would be a boy or girl. He wondered what sort of future the child would have.
As he had worked so hard to restore his own financial status, he knew that his children would be well settled for. But the Duke still worried. Times changed things. He could not control that from happening. He could only try to prepare his children for the changes they didn't wish for.
The Duke return to his wife in the library. She was reading a book and nearly asleep when he came.
“My dearest I do believe we must return to the party,” he said.
“Oh, can we wait just a bit longer?” she asked.
“I do not think it wise,” he said.
“But why my darling?” she complained, eager to rest.
“Well, if we should stay away longer they might come to suspect that we don’t want them here,” he said.
“In other words,” she began, “you think that we are to hide the truth from them?” she asked with a laugh.
The joke was not lost on the Duke. He left along with his wife and returned to the party. It was true that they did not desire to spend the rest of the evening among such a crowd. It was true that his wife was exhausted. But it was his duty and hers to make all feel welcome, to make everyone believe that they were cared for.
And this, too, was not untrue. They did care a great deal for many. It was just that now was not a time to be surrounded by so many.
“Have you heard anything of Mr. Cotswold of late?” Thea asked suddenly. It was the last thing the Duke expected her to question at that time.
“Oh goodness, I have not. Last I knew, he had been imprisoned for t
heft all over again,” the Duke replied, relieved the man was once more kept from what he had been doing.
“What a shame," Thea said.
After the loss of the ship, the man had become a great hider and had gone out of his way to con many men into giving him money for a variety of things that never came to pass.
When his true identity had been revealed, and some of his criminal activities were known, he had been imprisoned. After his release, it sounded as though he had returned to crime and bee thrown in once more.
“I am glad that you no longer have to work with that man," Thea said with a sigh.
"Indeed. Who would have guessed that losing the majority of my fortune came with such a great benefit?” the Duke laughed.
Thea gave him a warning expression in reply. He was aware that she still did not view it as something to joke about when the man had done so much to destroy them.
However, the Duke knew that she, too, was relieved.
They returned to the party soon after. Thea found her family and spoke to them telling them how grateful she was for their coming. She looked forward to seeing them with her child in the near future.
Her family had still been strained and had changed a great deal. She often thought of her father with confusion, even now. She did not see him as the man that he had been.
Yet she loved him. She loved all of them, even Georgette who had been such a nuisance to her during her younger years. But now Georgette had blossomed into a fine young woman. She was a young woman whom Thea could be proud of.
Delia was at the party as well, enjoying her time with her family. The break from her work was a delight.
Thea was elated too. Now that the food had been distributed and many of the guests had eaten, some of them began to leave as they had enjoyed their fill. Her family remained and she was able to spend the lingering amount of time in their presence.
Soon after, the Duke of Sandon noticed she was surprised to be approached by the Dowager Duchess. This had not been expected. The woman had hardly spoken to her since the time she had told Thea to leave him.
He pretended to follow a conversation between Mrs. Caulfield and Georgette, while truly his attention was fully on a different conversation.
“My dear,” his mother began. “I am glad to see that you are with child. I am glad to see how my son cares for you and how you care for him in return. I was wrong all that time ago. I knew nothing of who you were.”
Thea was stunned into silence. The Duke of Sandon believed that she had not anticipated a conversation like this ever occurring between her and the Dowager Duchess. And yet in this moment, it seemed fitting.
“Your Grace,” his wife replied, “It is my honor to have you in our home. I am glad that you see me in a new light. And I do hope that we should be family.”
“You should always be family to me," the Dowager Duchess replied. “I did not always see this, but I see it now. I see it in the way my son looks at you. And I see it in the way you carry the child.”
The woman fiddled with a string of gems along her neck. She was uncomfortable and the duke didn't mind it. He knew that they were both awkward at this conversation. But the acknowledgement from his mother was more than either the duke or his wife had anticipated. He knew t meant a great deal to Thea. It meant a great deal to him as well.
“Thank you for seeing it so,” Thea replied.
“Thank you for choosing to accept me as a member of your family,” the Dowager Duchess said in return.
Thea stood with a grin as the woman walked away. She had not anticipated this settlement in all her life, the duke was certain of it. But it seemed to be an evening of things settling. It was a season in their lives in which things were coming to pass.
Slowly, little by little, guests disappeared until not even family remained.
“I am glad that we survived such a feat," Thea said with a laugh.
“Indeed, Mrs. Tyndale. I did wonder," the Duke replied.
“As did I,” Thea replied. "But alas, here we are. We have made it, Mr. Tyndale," she responded triumphantly.
“I think it should hardly be the last of our feats,” the Duke said.
“Oh most certainly. You and I are rather talented at getting ourselves into fantastical situations,” Thea teased.
“And I am grateful for every last one of them,” the Duke of Sandon said to her, leaning his forehead into hers.
With their eyes locked on one another, the Duke breathed a sigh of relief. He was with his wife. They were one. And nothing could ever tear them asunder.
The Extended Epilogue
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A Second Chance for the Broken Duke - Preview
Chapter 1
Lady Elizabeth Owens was one of the most prominent and lovely young ladies in London, at least according to her dearest friends. At twenty years of age, she was slender, just five feet tall and had long, curly blond hair. Her eyes were naturally narrow and changed from blue to green, depending on how she was feeling.
She cast her eyes out the window of the coach, admiring the rolling green hills as she rode to the Thornwall estate, a castle far from London. Her heart beat with anticipation, thinking about her closest friend, Lady Agatha. Lady Agatha’s brother, Malcolm Hickson, was the Duke of Thornwall.
The Duke of Thornwall was known to Lady Elizabeth only because of her friend’s description of him. She was very flattering and Lady Elizabeth had a feeling her friend was becoming a matchmaker. She’d heard rumors that he’d gone into seclusion, after a house fire took his betrothed from him but she didn’t reveal to Lady Agatha that her brother was on the tongues of society. She was afraid it would hurt her feelings.
Lady Agatha had recently been thrown from a horse and injured herself quite severely. It would be the worst time to tell her such things about her brother. It was obvious from her letters that she dearly loved him.
Upon hearing the news, Lady Elizabeth immediately asked her parents for permission to visit the Thornwall Castle to aid her good friend. It was not the season for socializing in London, so they obliged.
Lady Elizabeth was looking forward to meeting Lady Agatha’s brother. Her friend had always spoken highly of him, saying he was handsome, kind, and generous. She was anxious to find out how compatible the two of them would be. Lady Agatha had mentioned at their last meeting that she felt Lady Elizabeth would be a good match for the Duke of Thornwall.
Lady Elizabeth had not told her parents this, as she did not want them thinking she was going to see Malcolm instead of Lady Agatha. Either way, she was accompanied by her chaperone, Phoebe, whom she considered to be a very dear friend as well as companion.
“You are looking quite anxious, my lady,” Phoebe said with a smile. “You have not seen Lady Agatha in some time?”
Lady Elizabeth turned her head to look at her companion, also smiling. “Yes, it has been some time. I almost cannot remember the last time I spoke with her in person.”
“That is a long time.”
Lady Eli
zabeth giggled, covering her mouth with one hand. “I am teasing, of course. I always remember when I see Lady Agatha. She is such a dear friend to me.”
Phoebe looked amused.
“I am so pleased that she has moved back to Thornwall Castle. She was sorely missing her home for so long.”
“Where has she been, if I may ask?”
