A Duke By Any Other Name

Chapter Four

O ne day passed. Then a second. When a third day came and she did not hear a word from Adonis, Venus began to be upset. She had believed Adonis had felt the same connection to her that she felt to him. After she returned the other day from Tilford, she had carefully performed each day’s toilette, instructing her maid to dress her hair specially, and each day she’d worn the same dress, a snow-white muslin that she knew showed her to great advantage. She had sat around every day, looking as elegant as possible, convinced her Adonis would be coming to pay her a call.

Now, it was the fourth day, and she had not heard a single word from him. Surely, she couldn’t have misread what he’d put into The Kiss. She was certainly no authority on kissing—having no experience at kissing gentlemen on the mouth—but she had felt in her bones that he was enjoying their kiss. More than that, he was physically affected. That she knew from his manly groans during the act. If he were enjoying the kiss as much as he seemed to be doing, she was convinced he had to have felt an emotional response.

She knew enough about kissing to know that one did not pursue kissing with one who repulsed. Nothing short of saving a loved one’s life could ever induce her to kiss a man to whom she was not attracted.

During these past three days, the weather had been indecisive. The first day it snowed almost all day. The second day, the snow melted beneath sunny skies. Then yesterday, it snowed again, but not heavily. Today, there was neither snow nor sun.

Perhaps he would come today.

It was so beastly cold today, this was the first day she had not worn her white muslin. Today, she donned blue flannel that was trimmed with white lace. Even her papa had once commented on how lovely she looked in it because it matched her eyes. It was a rare occasion when her father ever took notice of her or her mother, so the dress must be especially becoming.

As she sat in the salon attempting embroidery, the sound of horse hooves sent her racing to the window. Her hopes of seeing Adonis ride up on a horse, his greatcoat flapping behind him, were dashed. It was a carriage.

Perhaps it was the Beresford carriage. After all, who would want to ride the three miles upon a horse that might subject one to potential snow flurries? Her pulse accelerating, she eyed the coach as it came to a stop near the portico of their house.

Her heart sank when she saw the Duke of Bentley’s crest on its door. Emily .

Nevertheless, before the Jones butler could show her in, Venus rushed to greet her. “Your Grace,” Venus said, “what a wonderful surprise to see you on this dreary day. Won’t you come and sit by the fire with me? We can get tea—”

The duchess shook her head. “I can’t stay. The reason I’m here is because of James. Sort of. My brother has not stopped pumping me for information about you since you left Tilford.”

Venus felt as if she’d just swallowed a whole vat of champagne.

“But, then, that’s not exactly why I’ve come,” Emily went on. “James and Bentley are having a grand old time in this dreadful weather, but I’m not. I’ve come to beg you to come stay a few days with us. Besides wanting you for my own companion, I think it will be good for James to have a pretty little thing like you around. I declare, he has invoked your name incessantly ever since you left.”

What stupendous good fortune! Emily’s words and visit transformed Venus from gloominess to spectacular happiness. Even seeing Adonis in the flesh could not have pleased her more. “There is nowhere I’d rather be!” Venus turned and began to race up the staircase. “Allow me to fetch my things!”

*

It might not be snowing today, but it was frightfully cold. Even though she wore heavily lined kid gloves and stuffed those hands into her ermine muff, her hands still felt like blocks of ice. Her pelisse covered a warming shawl that covered her flannel dress and was itself covered with a velvet cape, but nothing could calm her shivers once she was inside the luxurious Bentley coach. “What a good friend you are to come out to fetch me on such a wretched day,” Venus said.

Emily pulled up the rug and covered both their laps. “I will own, because it wasn’t snowing, I didn’t know it would be this cold. I’ll be glad for us to get in front of a roaring fire.”

“Me, too.”

Within ten minutes, they were on the lane that connected the two families’ properties. A few minutes later, there was a loud commotion outside their coach. It sounded like a swiftly moving coach was closing in on them. No, it had passed them. She lifted her curtain to peer from the window. The other coach whipped around to force the Bentley coach to jerk to a stop.

Then Mr. Donald Shuttlebotham emerged from his coach and slung open her coach door. “Ah, Miss Jones! I thought I’d find you here.” He had the audacity to reach into Emily’s carriage and sweep Venus into his arms.

She yelled. She kicked. “What are you doing? Put me down!”

He ignored her and continued back to his coach.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.

“I’m taking you to Gretna Green. I mean to make you my wife.”