Lord Dunkirk glared at her in exasperation. He had started forming a plan of what to say but his mind jumbled and he asked, “What could I possibly want to talk about? Are you mad right now?”
“I am not the one sneaking around in the middle of the night, throwing pebbles at people’s windows. You are the daft one here, not I,” Lady Mirabell proclaimed.
“Yet here you are, sneaking around to meet a madman. Who is the most daft out of the two of us, my lady?” Lord Dunkirk answered wryly. But truly, he had grown tired of all these retorts from Lady Mirabell and only wished to tell her the new news. “You very well know that I want to talk about that show you put on in town earlier. After everything that has happened between us, why would you want to show off your courtship with that fellow?”
“Why do you even care?” Mirabell pleaded. “This should not affect you in the least. You have a fiancée, as do I. I have done what you asked. I have moved on with my life, and I suggest you do the same.”
“How could you throw that in my face?”
“I did nothing of the sort,” Mirabell defended and dropped her arms to her sides. Her mouth was agape as his words penetrated her heart. Then confusion set in as she remembered what happened the last time he confessed his feelings to her. Her eyes searched his face as she tried to make sense of it all. She realized that maybe he was here because he did care for her.
Lord Dunkirk scoffed and shook his head incredulously. “Is this a game to you, Mirabell?”
“A game?” Lady Mirabell questioned. “You are under the impression that this is a game to me? How about you? You lead me on only to tell me that you are to be married to another woman. Then, you proceeded to cause me to unearth a letter about how much you really cared for me but could never be with me due to your obligations to your engagement. A game, indeed, my lord.”
Let me tell you something, Frederick.” Lady Mirabell said his first name with thick condescension. “If you had wished to be with me, regardless of your obligations, you would have done so. I know you well enough to know that you are as determined as a bull, and nothing ever gets in the way when you truly want something. You fight for what you want, and that was the reason why I loved you as much as I did.”
“Honestly, woman. I had no idea that you cared for me at all before you showed up here. How is that fair for me to have to put my entire life on hold for someone I knew when we were only children?” Lord Dunkirk asked bitterly in his pain.
“Only children?” Lady Mirabell’s voice started to crack, as she felt tears begin to build up in her eyes. “If that is how you truly feel, then I do not see what I am doing out here.” She breathed, but as she turned to leave, Lord Dunkirk let out a loud and long sigh as he reached out to stop her from going.
“My lady. Wait.”
Lady Mirabell stopped in her tracks as she waited for Lord Dunkirk to finish his thought out loud, completely unsure of where he was going with his statement. She was more confused than ever.
“Let me speak plainly. I am here because I have received news that your duke has been sending expensive gifts to another woman for the past two years. He sent one even as recently as yesterday. I wanted to tell you this before your engagement is finalized by your parents,” he said with sincerity.
“Gifts? To another woman? One sent the day before he asked me to marry him?” she asked as she paced around the grass and let this even worse news set in. “How can you ask me to break off an engagement? You cannot expect me to. And if I were to proceed, where would I go, what would I do? The engagement is not finalized yet, but I could still be ridiculed or gossiped about. We have not been unchaperoned together, but who will prove that? I will be ruined if I do not go through with marrying the duke.”
“I expect you will do what is right for yourself,” Lord Dunkirk said solemnly.
“What is right,” she repeated his words. “Who will marry me when I am ruined?” she asked and started pouring tears into her hands. “Not you. You will marry another. I will be a friendless, penniless old maid. I wish you had never told me this news.”
Lord Dunkirk had not envisioned all of these problems when he rushed to tell her what he learned about the duke. He could not offer to save her because he was not out of his betrothal yet. He dared not even give her hope that he had a way out of his betrothal since he was truly unsure of what the future would bring. He did not know what to say and remained mute.
Lady Mirabell had started to grow very impatient and was ready to take Ms. Nora and leave Lord Dunkirk standing alone in the dark.
“Why do you stand there saying nothing? I can tell that you are only attempting to play games with my heart to make me question everything. I know you truly feel nothing for me,” Lady Mirabell whispered angrily, fighting back more tears which threatened to spill over the edges of her eyes at any moment.
Fredrick was taken aback by her statement and took a step back. “I feel nothing for you? Do you know that hat you wore earlier today?”
Lady Mirabell simply nodded in response.
“When you walked in the store today that was the first thing I saw. When I saw you wearing that turquoise hat, I instantly started remembering the time when I chased the peacock that was chasing you. Do you remember that?”
“I do remember it.” She began to smile through her tears. “That was the reason why I loved that hat the moment I laid eyes on it. It reminded me of you,” Lady Mirabell answered mistakenly thinking the conversation was turning friendly again.
“And you simply had to ask His Grace to purchase it for you in order to think of me,” Lord Dunkirk answered sardonically.
“I did not ask him to purchase it for me. He saw the starry-eyed and nostalgic expression on my face and saw that it had made me happy by merely gazing upon it,” Lady Mirabell argued.
“How convenient,” Lord Dunkirk muttered.
“I am not required to stand here and listen to you make assumptions upon my life based on what you think you know of me. I am engaged to the duke, and that is the end of it,” she said this knowing that, perhaps in another lifetime, they could have been together.
“But this was not another lifetime,” Lady Mirabell thought to herself, “this was a lifetime where true love could never truly be allowed.”
Their parting was devastating to her, but Mirabell knew that she would carry Fredrick and the love she had for him in her heart for the rest of her life, and that had to be enough to get her through.
10
It was the day of Mirabell and the Duke of Granger’s wedding, and although Lord Dunkirk had promised himself that he would not allow it to affect him at all, he could not breathe properly. The mere thought of his beloved Mirabell marrying a man who was not him brought him down to his knees in the worst manner possible.
He had spent day after day on the terrace watching the road for a courier to bring him a response from Lady Amelia’s parents to void his betrothal. He had heard nothing, and as Lady Mirabell’s wedding drew closer, he asked his attorney to take the matter to court. His attorney knew that today was the wedding and that Lord Dunkirk had been waiting for the court to make a ruling on his contract. For at least a week, Lord Dunkirk knew that the court could rule at any hour, and he waited for his attorney to send a clerk on horseback with the paperwork. He did not know if he could win Lady Mirabell’s heart, but he had to try.
Mirabell was walking back and forth in her waiting room, dressed in a beautiful white wedding gown with lace trim and intricate beading on the bust. Although the gown fit her perfectly, Lady Mirabell felt as though she could not breathe, and she was convinced she was about to faint at any given moment. Ever since she had been a young girl, she attempted to imagine what her wedding day would feel like, but the only feeling she had inside her at that moment was nausea.
The waiting room was a small, white room with a full-length mirror in the far corner, dark drapes, and two chairs by the windows.
Mirabell had made the decision that the quicker she
was able to wed the duke, the better it would be for her. Lady Mirabell also ensured that it was not long before Lord Dunkirk and Lady Amelia’s wedding. That way Lady Mirabell could have her honeymoon and be settled in her new role as a wife without having to worry about Lord Dunkirk making an appearance, although after their last conversation, Mirabell feared she would never see him again. Lady Mirabell knew that if she was able to do this, it would mean that she would not feel as bad as she did today. At least she hoped.
Mirabell was alone in the waiting room, so no one else was around to see that she was almost in tears and that she really did not want to get married to the duke. Lady Mirabell knew that she had to, but she had hoped that she was to have another option. She wanted Lord Dunkirk, with all her heart, but he would never be an option. At least not for her. At that moment, she was not certain whether to feel pity for Lady Amelia or to feel envious of her. Either option seemed a point nonplus for her. On the one hand, Lady Amelia was lucky to marry such a wonderful man as Lord Dunkirk, but on the other hand, to be in a loveless, arranged marriage seemed torturous in itself.
Mirabell was well aware of that.
Mirabell stopped pacing as she looked at herself for the first time as a bride. Her hair was pinned back, and her veil covered her face and her up-do. Her lace gown was very simple with long sleeves that covered her arms completely. Although she looked beautiful, she did not feel the beauty and love shine through from every pore of her body as she had imagined when she was a young girl. It was rather tragic that she would never experience the feeling of true love with her new husband.
Lady Mirabell heard a soft knock at the door, her father telling her that the time had arrived for her to leave the waiting room and enter the church where her new husband awaited her glorious arrival. Lord Burkett may not seem the type of man who would use flowery words, but he was rather infamous for his lovely speeches at social gatherings, or so Lady Mirabell had been told.
With a shaky breath, Lady Mirabell turned around and reluctantly opened the door.
Lord Burkett’s eyes instantly lit up, and the proud gaze of a father shone through his smile. “You are a vision, my darling daughter.”
“Thank you, Father.”
“Shall we?” Lord Burkett asked as he held his arm out towards her, and she nodded.
Mirabell glanced down at the floor, as she walked into the church. Her father gave her a soft approving smile, as they waited for the piano to start and for the doors to open, signaling that it was time for them to enter.
The doors opened, and Lady Mirabell froze, unsure if she was able to move as she saw the entire town and more in attendance.
The church was beautifully decorated with a variety of white flowers and lace. Each pew was lined with a simple white lace, and the aisle itself was covered with a white cloth for her to walk on. If this were anyone else’s day, she would think it was something out of a childhood fairytale and not her own day, seeing as every man and woman in attendance was dressed in formal best and that her minister was all dressed up in his ceremonial attire.
But this was her day, and she was terrified that people would see the truth; that it was a marriage for convenience and not of love. That she loved a man that she could never have. That she was so nervous, she was sick to her stomach and completely unsure of herself. That she did not know if she was physically able to walk down this aisle at all.
Everyone was standing and staring at her and her father. They slowly began the long walk down the aisle. The duke was staring at her. He looked like he cared for her, but then why did he send gifts to another woman so close to asking her to marry him. Lady Mirabell also knew that he would not be able to look at her with the pure love that Lord Dunkirk would have felt for her.
“I am doing the right thing. I am doing the right thing,” she repeated in her mind, but doubt soon set in. “Oh my. I do not think I am, but it is too late to go back now. Lord Dunkirk is not waiting on me or for me. That is a ridiculous notion to even cross my mind.”
The more Mirabell’s thoughts raced through her mind, the more tears welled up in her eyes. Mirabell felt as if her father was moving her down the aisle, and she was experiencing something outside of her own body. She was in the moment, at least she knew she was, but it was as if she was looking at this as a spectator rather than as herself.
Before Lady Mirabell realized it, she was down the aisle and was standing by the man whom she would soon call her husband. The Duke of Granger and she would be the Duchess of Granger. An attractive title for someone such as herself, but titles did not matter to her at that moment. Lady Mirabell would much rather be Lady Dunkirk, the wife of an earl.
Titles did not matter to her, and they never had. It was love and loyalty which meant the most to her. Lady Mirabell felt like a hypocrite as she had scolded Lord Dunkirk for not being honest with her, while Lady Mirabell would not even be honest with herself.
The minister motioned for everyone to sit. He looked at the couple and then back at the attendees as he started the ceremony.
“We are gathered here today to celebrate one of life's greatest moments, the joining of two hearts and souls. In this ceremony today, we will all witness the joining of His Grace, the Duke of Granger, and Lady Mirabell Blackthorn in marriage. Who gives this woman to be married today?”
Lord Burkett proudly stepped forward and answered in a confident voice, “I do.”
The minister nodded in approval and continued his speech. “You have come together today so that the Lord may seal and strengthen your love in the presence of God and this community.
Mirabell looked down as the minister continued his speech, his words never really hitting her ears. "True love?” she thought. “He cannot possibly be serious. The minister would not know true love if it drew his own cork.”
“If there is anyone present who has just cause why this couple should not be united, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”
The entire church was quiet as Lady Mirabell knew they would be. There would be no knight in shining armor saving her today, that she was well aware of. Without even realizing it, Lady Mirabell held her breath and waited for the minister to carry on with his speech, but all there was inside the church was an eerie silence.
Suddenly, a loud boom came from the church doors, and they swung open abruptly as they were pushed by the nose of a brown mare. All the guests, including the bride and groom, gasped and turned to look at the man who jumped off of the noisy horse and loudly entered the church.
“I object.” Lord Dunkirk yelled for all to hear as he held up a bundle of court documents and receipts.
Lady Mirabell stood there in shock, unable to move or think. She felt as though she had to marry the duke as she had been engaged to him. Her reputation as a lady was at stake.
“I have proof that the duke has been unfaithful in his engagement with Lady Mirabell. He has been sending expensive gifts to another woman. I also believe he tried to make me think that I was engaged so that I could not ask for her hand myself. I hold the evidence right here in these papers,” Lord Dunkirk proclaimed confidently. “Additionally, this proof implicates Lady Amelia, who I thought I was betrothed to. These papers hold an agreement between the duke and Lady Amelia’s parents to cause me to believe that she was betrothed to me when we were children, but the entire thing was a forgery.”
The onlookers in attendance were shocked as their wide eyes followed his figure walking toward the couple at the altar as he explained. As the people watched Lord Dunkirk, they started to get out of their seats and move toward him to hear his words more clearly.
“The court thought the documents for my betrothal looked suspicious and had the signatures examined immediately, and they were found to be inauthentic,” Lord Dunkirk continued. “Furthermore, the notary who recorded the signatures in Scotland was investigated, and evidence of the scandalous agreement between the duke and Lady Amelia’s parents was found in his paperwork along with other illegal dealings
he had notarized for the duke.”
The duke stumbled off the altar and dove to steal the papers, but Lord Burkett was closer and grabbed them to examine them first.
“Upon my word,” Lord Burkett proclaimed, “all that Lord Dunkirk has said is true. The duke and Lady Amelia’s parents conspired to wed Lord Dunkirk without his consent. They probably wanted his vast property in their family line. So sad, so sad.” He shook his head while handing a few of the papers to other gentlemen to see.
“You have really saved us here, my boy.” Lord Burkett patted Lord Dunkirk’s back. “We do not want our lovely Mirabell wed to such a scoundrel.”
“You thought you were engaged? Does this mean that you are not engaged?” Mirabell asked Lord Dunkirk.
“I was never really engaged,” he said with a welcoming smile and lifted eyebrows. “The court has said as much right here in these papers.”
“This man has committed fraud,” Mirabell’s father said pointing to the duke. The angry mob started to converge upon the duke, and Lord Dunkirk grabbed Lady Mirabell’s hand and rushed out of the chapel.
“My lady, is all well?” Ms. Nora asked.
“Yes, Ms. Nora, please come and be my support,” Lady Mirabell asked, and Ms. Nora came to her side.
“Lady Mirabell,” Lord Dunkirk began, “I wanted to be an honorable man. I was determined to go through with this arrangement as it was planned out so well for me, but I could not stand by and let the only person I have ever truly loved marry another she does not truly love. Ever since the first day I saw you in Bath, I have tried to escape that ridiculous betrothal to a woman I never met.
“My lord,” Lady Mirabell breathed and lowered the flowers in her hand.
“My lady, I am aware that my decisions have not always been with you in mind, but I promise to always consider you in the future, as you are the most important person in my life. I have always loved you, Mirabell. My love for you has always been an everlasting love. I have loved you my entire life, and I will continue to love you long after I am no longer on this earth. I have waited so long to tell you, but could only tell you now that I am no longer betrothed.”
Regency Engagements Box Set Page 82
