Duchess Beware (Secrets & Scandals Book 2) (10 page)

Victor stood near the fireplace with a glass of red wine in his hand, boldly gazing at her with eyes as colorless as ice shards.  His fine clothes and lack of occupation marked him a wealthy gentleman.  He’d rented a manor house belonging to Lord Bentwood several miles away, so he obviously had a very adequate income. Why on earth did he want to marry her?

Silver gripped the sides of her dingy-gray dress, unable to rid the bad feeling building inside her.  She had no idea why she detested him so, other than knowing all the servants feared him.  Perhaps it was the intense way he always looked at her.  He straightened and stepped forward, his tall, lean body moving fluidly, like a panther stalking its prey.  She shivered, the urge to run grew stronger with each step he took toward her.

Victor halted inches away, his peppery musk scent nearly making her choke.  He captured her hand and lifted it to his lips.  The contact made her shudder.  “I hope you don’t mind my requesting your presence, my dear.  I missed you,” he said softly as he straightened.

Silver pulled her hand free before she uttered the words dancing on the tip of her tongue.  Of course she minded.  “Mr. Merrick,” she mumbled, unable to remember if a curtsy were necessary.  Deciding it didn’t matter, she turned away and found Katrina staring daggers at her.  Could that have been jealously?  How ridiculous.  The girl had been after Robin for years before he finally succumbed to her will.  So her cousin had no need to be jealous.

Mary walked by and Victor snapped his fingers.  “You there.  Can’t you see my glass is empty?”

The maid’s eyes went unusually wide.  “P-Pardon, yer lordship, I’ll go get the wine.”  She dipped a quick curtsey and dashed off toward the liquor cart.

“You will see, Silver, my servants are much better trained.”  An unnerving smile spread across his lips.  “They have learned not to displease me.”

Silver tightened her shawl around her shoulders, wanting to be anywhere else at the moment.  She took a shuddering breath and tried not to think of what her marriage to this man would be like.  A living hell, to be sure.

Mary returned and lifted the decanter to Victor’s glass.  Her hands shook so much that a few drops spilled right on the crisp white shirt cuff peeking out of his blue coat’s sleeve.  When he saw the three dark pink stains, his brows snapped together over furious eyes, and he hissed through his teeth.  “You daft cow, just look what you have done!”

“Oh, my, I am s-so sorry, yer l-lordship,” the maid whimpered, backing up a step.

“You will be,” Victor said softly.

Silver shivered at his chilling tone.  If he had yelled the words, they would have been less frightening.  Poor Mary just stood there with her mouth open, clutching the crystal decanter to her chest with both hands, trembling.

Victor waved the maid away with his free hand.  “Leave us.”

The terrified woman squeaked out some sort of reply and ran from the room.  Silver wanted nothing more than to follow after her.  The more she was around Victor Merrick, the more she disliked the man.  How would she ever be able to marry him?

“Mr. Merrick, Miss MacLaren, won’t you two join us?” Lady Longley called to Silver’s immense gratitude.  With a smile she hoped didn’t look too much like a grimace, she walked with Victor to the assemblage.

Silver inched closer and closer to the baroness as the lady went on about a new opera soon to open in London.  The woman then prattled incessantly about their recent expeditions to Bath and Brighton, the current trends in both fashion and hairstyle, and the dire need to replace her lady’s maid.  Complete and utter nonsense.  Thankfully, the baroness commandeered most of the conversation all afternoon, keeping Silver from having to speak to Victor again.

When the men had had enough and moved across the room to talk politics, she relaxed.  She didn’t even want to breathe the same air as Victor.  Moving to the chair Robin had just vacated, she poured herself a cup of tea, receiving a frown from Aunt Caroline and a silent warning not to have another cup.

“That maid of mine is a lazy trollop,” Lady Longley droned on, receiving titters and coos of commiseration from both Caroline and Katrina.  Silver nearly rolled her eyes.  Turning away, she found Robin staring at her from across the room. 
Rot!
  She’d been caught.  But a smile of understanding, not condemnation, lurked in his eyes.

Uncle Edward approached them a few minutes later.  “Excuse me, ladies,” he said, “the gentlemen and I have some business to discuss in my study.  We shan’t be long.”

The tight knot in her stomach loosened when all the men paraded from the room.  She lifted her cup, but nearly choked on her tea when Lady Longley asked, “How are the wedding preparations, Caroline?”

“Thankfully, they are almost complete, Harriet.  And what a nightmare!  Finding the right shade of gray for Sylvia’s wedding dress was no easy chore.  With such an abhorrent hair color, she cannot wear anything else.”

Lady Longley nodded, the tear-drop pearl at the center of her purple turban banging her forehead.  “And have you decided on the celebration?”

“Yes, a small affair after the ceremony is the best I can do.  Sylvia has no friends, mind you.”

Silver tightened her grip on the teacup and forced, with great difficulty, her lips to remain together.  How could she have friends when Aunt Caroline wouldn’t allow them?

“Speaking of weddings,” the baroness said conspiratorially, leaning forward a bit, “I just learned that the Duke of Kenbrook’s daughter has hastily married the Duke of—”

Silver’s teacup slipped from her fingers, crashing onto the floor before Lady Longley could finish that horrible announcement.  She closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her chest, her heart ripping in two.  Then she jerked to her feet and fled the room.

Daniel had married the goddess.

Chapter Nine

“Are you all right?”

Silver, studying an uneven stitch in her dreary gray dress, lifted her head.  She had been thinking that her entire wardrobe resembled those terrible thunderclouds she couldn’t abide.  Most likely, Aunt Caroline had been giving subtle reminders all these years that she blamed Silver for her sister’s death.

“Did you hear me, child?  Are you all right?”

“Yes, Aunt Prudence, I…”  Silver paused when the rickety old carriage dipped into a hole, jarring her back against the hard seat.  “I am fine.”

Prudence pursed her lips but didn’t respond.

The carriage rattled to a halt much too soon.  She gripped her trembling hands together, wishing she were anywhere else.  Mucking out the horse stall sounded like heaven right about now. 

The bells above the church tolled, sounding as cheery as a death knell, and her stomach clenched.

Her wedding day.  Her nightmare a reality.

The carriage door opened, and the driver assisted Aunt Prudence.  Silver made no move to follow.  “Are you coming, child?”

Her throat seized up, and she swallowed in order to speak.  “I…I would like a few minutes alone, please,” she whispered.

Prudence studied her for several seconds.  “As you wish.  But do not tarry long, else Edward will be in a rage.”

Silver nodded absently and her aunt made her way up the stone path to the church, holding onto her black taffeta bonnet as the wind picked up.

After five minutes, as long as she dared to procrastinate, Silver forced herself from the carriage seat.  She stepped down the iron step on wobbly legs, gripping her shawl tightly together, and turned to the church.  Lifting her gaze, she nearly toppled over.  It looked exactly as it did in those terrible dreams she kept having, and she pressed a quaking hand to her stomach.  The nightmares began in Scotland and continued to haunt her every night since, growing worse as her wedding day neared.  Nightmares of her marrying Victor Merrick and then him consummating their marriage.  The thought of his hands on her body sickened her.

Silver wrapped her arms around her middle and closed her eyes.  She didn’t want that man touching her.  The only man she wanted touching her was Daniel.  Oh, God, Daniel!  She remembered every detail about him.  How his lips curved up and his eyes danced just before he laughed.  How cool and soft his hair felt between her fingers.  How his rock solid muscles jumped when she ran her hand down his chest.  She could still feel the heat of his body against hers, could still taste the essence of him on her tongue.  His memory plagued her, causing her to yearn so deeply, it clawed at her heart.

“Praying for a miracle?  You daft chit, not even the Almighty can stop this wedding from taking place.”

Silver spun around at the sound of her uncle’s clipped words.  He stood there, arms crossed, face flushed and twisted in anger.

She swallowed.  “I…” she began, but he silenced her when he captured her arm in a bruising grasp and pulled her toward the church.

From the corner of her eye, Silver saw Colin.  She turned and noticed him standing at the corner of the building, holding a bottle of wine, watching her.  He smiled coldly, his eyes raking up and down her body, and lifted the bottle.  After a large drink, he swiped his sleeve across his lips, then mouthed
you will be mine
.  She shuddered and turned away.

Her uncle pulled her up to the arched timber doors.  He turned her around to face him, gripping her upper arms in a bruising hold.  “Remember what I told you,” he said, shaking her hard enough to rattle her teeth.  “Act the happy bride and wed Merrick, or I’ll throw Prudence out of my house.”  He gave her another jarring shake.  “God only knows why the foolish woman spent all her money on your education and books.  Damned waste it was.  But she has nothing left.”  He squeezed her arms and narrowed his eyes.  “I will throw her out, I swear it.”

Silver shivered from his fierce threat, knowing he would do what he said.  And her guilt soared.  Aunt Prudence shouldn’t have hired those tutors.  She should have kept the small inheritance her mother had left her.

The doors swung open, stemming her thoughts.  Silver’s heart thundered against her chest, the blood pounding in her ears.  She hesitated, but Uncle Edward dragged her into the dim interior.  Several of Aunt Caroline’s friends sat in the pews.  She hardly noticed.  Her attention focused on Victor at the front of the church standing before the vicar.  Icy fingers of dread wrapped around her neck, stripping her of her ability to move or speak.

Uncle Edward pulled her down the aisle and pushed her to Victor’s side.

Silver closed her eyes and prayed for that miracle.  What did she have to lose?  She silently begged God to have that old oak tree outside fall on the building.  Maybe one of the candles could topple over and start a fire.  Just a small one.  Perhaps Uncle Edward could suddenly keel over and…

“Ahem…  Young lady, you must answer.”

Startled, Silver wretched her eyes open.  She wondered how the ragged cluster of pink petunias got in her trembling hands before she glanced up to the vicar.  “I-I’m sorry, what did you say?” she whispered.

His full lips thinned, and his obsidian eyes shot her a look of annoyance.  “I asked if you will take this man as your husband.”

Her stomach flopped over.  “I…”  Her gaze slid from the vicar’s stern face down to the large black book open before him on the lectern.  She didn’t dare look in Victor’s direction. 
Please, Heavenly Father, help me just a little.
She held her breath, waiting for something to happen.  Anything.

Silence.

Then Uncle Edward cleared his throat, the sound echoing off the stone walls, nearly making her jump.  His threat to throw Prudence out of his house rang in her ears.  Slowly, Silver glanced back up to the vicar.  “I—”

“Wait!”

As his achingly familiar voice bounced around the interior of the church, Silver bowed her head.  Surely, she hadn’t just heard Daniel.  It must have been the wind outside.  But when heavy footsteps clapped against the stone floor, followed by loud murmurs from those seated in the pews, she turned around.  And almost swooned at the sight of him.

Daniel looked every inch the imposing duke.  Dressed in top finery, he wore a deep blue overcoat and matching trousers, a pearl-gray waistcoat over a white silk shirt and a precisely tied neck cloth with an enormous sapphire twinkling from the center of its snowy folds.  Very elegant, very expensive, and very, very aristocratic.  Silver lifted her gaze in wonder to his face. 
Dear Lord, how could he possibly be so beautiful?
  She twisted the poor flowers in her hands, wondering if her mind had conjured him.  No, no, not a figment of her imagination.  Every eye in the church stared at him as well.  What was he doing here?

His gaze found hers as he stepped forward and Silver could not look away.  Something passed between them, something deep and strong.  She had no idea what it was, but her body stopped trembling and her stiff muscles eased.

Daniel halted before her, close enough she could reach out and touch him.  The heat of his body warmed her.  His sandalwood and spice scent drifted to her.  Silver could only stand there and wring the blasted flowers in her hands.

“Is it your wish to marry this man?” Daniel asked, then set his lips in a grim line as he awaited her answer.

As her numb brain tried absorbing those words, Victor moved closer.  “How dare you barge in here on my wedding?” he hissed.  “Who are you?”

Daniel ignored Victor.  His glittering green eyes remained fixed on her.  “Is it?”

Silver’s thoughts and emotions spun in a vortex of chaos.  She opened her mouth to demand to know why he’d come here instead of being with his new wife, but those weren’t the words that sprang from her lips.  “I never wanted to marry him.”

Whispers erupted.  Had that been relief that flickered in Daniel’s eyes before he turned? Surely not.  She watched him nod to the men behind him and wondered when they had come into the church.  Then she heard the unmistakable roar of her uncle’s enraged voice and cringed.

“What in God’s name is the meaning of this?”  He charged toward them, his face purplish-red, his lips twisted, and his eyes almost crossed in fury.  Silver wouldn’t have been surprised to see smoke bellow from his ears.

Daniel turned and squared his shoulders.  “Are you Edward Pennington, Silver’s guardian?”

Her uncle paused, his eyes sweeping over all that costly apparel.  Calculating worth, no doubt.  “I am.”

“Come, we have much to discuss.”  Daniel’s tone conveyed his commands—the commands of the Duke of Huntington—were obeyed without question.

Edward shifted uncomfortably but followed Daniel into the small chamber beyond the altar.  Daniel’s two men, Victor, and the vicar marched in after them.

“Silver.”

Startled, she spun around.  “Garrett.”  The cumulative murmurs in the church stopped abruptly.  “What is happening?” She tried to ignore the dozen or so people in the pews straining to hear.

Garrett grinned.  “Patience, my lady.”

She shook her head.  “But why is Daniel here?  Isn’t he married?”

His grin melted away.  “Where did you hear such nonsense?”

She gasped.  Daniel being married was nonsense?  “But I thought he and Lady—”

“Sylvia, have you lost your mind entirely?” Aunt Caroline stomped toward them, her thin dark brows pinched together over furious blue eyes.  She stopped and raised her knuckles to her hips.  “Halting the ceremony will gain you nothing but a severe thrashing with Uncle’s riding crop, even worse than the last one.”

From the corner of her eye, Silver watched Garrett stiffen.  “Miss MacLaren did not halt the ceremony, madam.”

Just as Caroline started to argue with Garrett, the door beyond the altar screeched open.  Silver found her uncle emerging with a slack jaw and dazed eyes, as though an anvil had struck him on the head.  She knew how he felt.

Caroline rushed to him.  “What has happened, Edward?”

He took her arm.  “You’ll see,” he croaked and led them back to their seat on the front pew.  Then he removed a handkerchief and mopped the sweat from his forehead.

A rumble of confusion rippled through the church when the vicar came out and joined her family a moment later.  Silver looked to Garrett for some answers.  She really wanted to know what was going on.  Why had Daniel come?  Had he somehow managed to dissuade her uncle from making her marry Victor?  Was she free to leave now? 

Garrett only winked at her silent questions and moved to sit beside Prudence on the other side of the church.  This only brought more questions to Silver’s mind.  What was happening?  Why wouldn’t someone tell her what was going on? 

A movement caught her attention and she found one of Daniel’s men coming out of the small room beyond the altar.  He joined Garrett and Prudence on the wooden pew, stuffing some folded documents into his coat.  Should she go and join them?  She bit her lip, trying to decide what to do.  Where was Daniel?  Perhaps she should go and ask him what was happening.

Turning back to the doorway beyond the altar, Silver found Daniel speaking softly to the third man he’d brought.  Her heart lurched at the sight of the ceremonial robes.  What was this about?  She held her breath as they turned and moved in her direction.  The clergyman halted behind the lectern, and Daniel came around to stand beside her.

Silver wondered if Victor would appear next and took a quick peek at the closed door.  She shivered at the thought, sending up a prayer the man had left and wouldn’t return.  Ever.  Inhaling a nervous breath, she turned to Daniel and searched his handsome face for some sort of understanding.  His steady emerald gaze revealed nothing.  She opened her mouth to ask him what was happening, but stopped when he raised his hands and removed the hair pins that secured the tight knot at the back of her head.

Whispers of shock sounded from behind Silver as her thick, red tresses poured over her shoulders and down her back.  She gasped and tried to turn and measure Aunt Caroline’s reaction, but Daniel cupped her cheek with his palm and brought her head back around.  “I prefer this.”

Her mind reeled.  “I-I don’t understand,” she whispered.

The pad of his thumb swept across her lips, making them tremble, and he smiled.  “Trust me.”

Mesmerized by his compelling voice and piercing gaze, Silver nodded.

No one stirred within the church as the holy man opened his Bible.  A tree limb scratching against a window and a horse’s nicker outside were the only sounds to breach the thick silence.  Silver chewed on her bottom lip as the elderly man searched for the right page.  Would he give a sermon?  Why didn’t Daniel escort her to a pew?

When the clergyman finally found the right page and began speaking, Silver blinked, hardly able to believe her ears.  The man was performing a wedding ceremony.  Hers to Daniel Thomas Gabriel William.  Was this truly happening?

Silver bit down harder on her lip to see if she were really awake.  The sharp nip of pain told her this was no dream.  Good grief, she would be a duchess!  She gave the poor flowers another twist.  What did duchesses do?  She had no idea.  How were duchesses supposed to act?  She thought of the baroness and frowned.  Absolutely not!  She would never act like that.