A Temporary Bride for the Duke (Ton’s Single Fathers #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

“What is that noise?” Lydia asked whilst peering down the hall curiously.

Daisy whipped her head around, her pulse accelerating. She recognized one of the raised voices. Her heart sank as she realized it was her father.

“Fiddlesticks,” she hissed to herself as she hurried down the hall. She walked faster and faster as the voices grew louder until she was flat out running. She could hear her father’s voice get more and more belligerent.

“No, no, no, Father,” she whispered as she turned the corner. “Please…”

She skidded to a halt as she saw her father, the Earl of Claymore, grappling with another gentleman in the foyer. The other gentleman was laughing mockingly, pushing her father away.

He stumbled, clearly inebriated, and almost fell.

“Bastard!” he slurred and then stumbled forward, towards the other gentleman. Daisy realized that it was Lord Chambers, one of the men her father played cards with occasionally.

“I’m a bastard? You dare say such a thing to me when you’re nothing less than a card sharp and a scoundrel? Everything you touch fails. You are a complete wretch, and I shall not waste another single minute on you.”

“Villain!” Her father lunged at Lord Chambers with an incoherent cry.

Before she knew it, they were grappling viciously, the Earl’s face a rictus of effort.

Daisy’s face heated with embarrassment. Her father was constantly getting into a spot of bother, and it always started with him losing a wager or some other gambling kerfuffle. She was quite sick of it.

It was times like this when she really missed her mother. The Earl had been quite a different man when his Countess was alive. Daisy remembered those first years of her life with nostalgic fondness and quite a bit of pain, knowing she would never be able to go back there again.

Her father had been quite a different man then. He barely indulged in either wagering or drinking as he was too absorbed in Daisy’s mother and the life they were building to have time for such meaningless trifles.

Since then, Daisy often wondered if the Earl had only loved her because her mother did, and when she died, he lost all interest in his daughter’s well-being. He often seemed to forget that he was not the only one who had lost someone.

Strands of her straw-colored hair escaped from the severe bun she’d pulled it into and fell into her eyes. She tossed her head, blowing irritably at the wisps of hair obscuring her vision.

Her moss green eyes narrowed as she watched her father flail about, causing minor damage but a lot of embarrassment to himself and her.

She would give anything to jump on him and box his ears and somehow get him to behave, but ever since he’d descended into a cycle of dissolution and gambling, she had lost the ability to get through to him.

“Father!” she shouted as Lord Chambers flung the Earl against the wall. He hit it hard enough to create an audible thump.

The Earl ignored her, his reddened eyes so similar yet completely different from her own, glaring at Lord Chambers. She stumbled forward, hands outstretched, wanting to check the back of his head, but he jerked away from her.

“Leave it, girl!” he snapped while lurching at the other man.

Lord Chambers nimbly stepped aside, causing the Earl to stumble and fall. Daisy hastened to his side, reaching for his hand to help him up.

Just then, the Viscount Kerwood, who was hosting them all for dinner, stepped into the room, his face like thunder. His eyes fell on the Earl, who was swaying drunkenly, as Daisy tried to steady him, while Lord Chambers looked on with contempt.

“I do not know what you think you’re about.

” Lord Kerwood swung a sharp glance around the room, granting all those in attendance a look of disdain and displeasure.

Then, he growled, “But I will not tolerate such inebriated, brutish behavior in front of the ladies and in my home. What has come over you, Claymore, to behave in such a manner in front of your daughter?”

A frown furrowed the Viscount’s brow, and the Earl had the grace to seem ashamed, though Daisy doubted he truly was.

Her father had no care for anything except his debauchery.

Another man stepped into the room, and to Daisy’s eye, the place seemed to darken perceptibly.

It was Baron Dulforth, a particular acquaintance of her father’s, and the bane of her existence.

Every time she spoke to him, she had the urge to take a bath afterward as if his smarmy avarice might have rubbed off on her and infected her spirit.

She stretched her lips into a feeble smile as he helped her set her father on his feet.

He peered at the back of Lord Claymore’s head and frowned. “We will need bandages here.” Baron Dulforth looked at the Viscount first, but when the host made no offer to move, Dulforth gestured to the gentleman’s butler to come forward and assist.

The butler led Daisy, her father, and the Baron to a private room adjacent to the foyer and bade them sit.

“I’m quite all right.” The Earl said, “No need for all this fuss.”

Daisy touched the back of his head. “You are bleeding!” she hissed, showing him the blood that had transferred to her fingers. “Why must you behave in this way?”

“Do not speak to me like that!” Claymore snapped. “I am still your father.”

“Do you even know what that means?”

“All right, that’s enough,” Dulforth said, sounding both amused and contemptuous. “Now is not the time.”

The butler returned carrying a tray filled with bandages, a jug of water, some tinctures in opaque glass bottles and a pair of scissors. He placed the tray on a table in front of the Earl, who promptly passed out at the sight.

Daisy sighed tiredly while turning to the butler. “If you would be so kind as to fetch a physician, I would be most grateful.”

The butler bowed and exited the room, leaving Daisy alone with the Baron and her father once more. She felt a moment’s regret for not having traveled with a lady’s maid. Having another lady by her side at this moment would have been most comforting.

She took a step away from her father and then instantly regretted it when the Baron raised his head to look at her.

His thick dark brows grew together. “What’s the matter, my dear?” he asked.

She shook her head at once. “Nothing. Aside from father, of course—”

“Then why are you sidling away from me?” he interrupted, still piercing her with an inquiring gaze.

“I’m not sidling…” Her voice faded as he looked increasingly skeptical. She rubbed her hands nervously on the skirt of her gown. “I was just…” She cast around for something to say but couldn’t think of a thing.

He straightened up, his beady eyes trained on her as he took a step towards her. “You were just…what?” he breathed, his voice low and terrifying.

Daisy swallowed loudly. “Nothing. I was doing nothing. We should attend to my father—”

“Claymore is fine. He’s received worse injuries and survived. He’s like a cockroach; he simply cannot be squashed or exterminated.”

It was Daisy’s turn to scowl. “You need not speak of him in such a manner.”

Dulforth sneered, “I can speak of him however I please, especially considering how much he owes me.”

“Owes you?” Daisy could feel the pulse in her throat flutter as her heart rate increased.

She had long ago wished to better understand why the Baron spent so much time in her presence. Suddenly, she comprehended the situation with clarity.

He is protecting his investment. He cannot leave Father alone…He cannot step away from my side…until he gets what he thinks he has coming to him.

“Oh yes. Of all the money your father owes, to Chambers and others, he owes me a great deal.”

“Why…er, why would you lend him the money knowing…”

“Knowing what a degenerate he is?” Dulforth’s voice deepened. He tilted his head to the side as if weighing his next words carefully. “He is very persuasive and…” His eyes raked her frame. “Perhaps I had an ulterior motive of my own.”

She took a stumbling step back. “W-what do you mean?”

“Oh, come now, Lady Daisy, you know what I mean.”

Daisy swallowed hard. She knew perfectly well what the Baron wanted and was aggrieved that she failed to see where his intentions lay before.

He means to make me his wife.

Her stomach twisted into a knot.

The Baron does not care about me or what I want. He only wishes to see me become his wife.

Fear and revulsion roiled through her as Daisy replied, “I do not.”

She prayed that by feigning ignorance and bargaining for time, her father might recover some of his wits and surge to her rescue.

“Can you be so naive?” His eyes trekked a slow trail from her feet to her hair. “Do you really not know what I want from you?”

Daisy just stared at him, wondering how she’d landed in this nightmare. She rushed forward and gripped her father’s shoulder. The Earl had slumped in his chair.

“Papa!” She shook his shoulder gently.

The Earl turned slowly and gave her a befuddled look. “Hmm…?” He hummed.

Daisy fixed her eyes on his expression. The Earl was clearly discombobulated.

His bushy eyebrows were lowered, and his lips were pursed.

She did not know if her father was confounded because of his head injury, the amount of alcohol he had imbibed, or simply because he had lost the thread of the conversation.

Agitated, Daisy crouched so she could look her father straight in the eyes.

“Papa,” she said in a demanding tone, urging him to look at her and pay attention. “What does Baron Dulforth mean? What does he want from you? From me?”

Her voice broke on that last word, and the Baron laughed wryly.

“Baron Dulforth?” Her father’s voice was soft and bewildered. “Is he here?”

This show of bafflement caused the Baron to chortle loudly.