Duke of Lust (Sinful Dukes #3)

Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

“ Y es, Stephen, before you ask I have greeted all three of our aged aunts and great aunts, including the two I have already called on personally with my news. I have also spoken with Lady Burroughs, Mother’s old schoolfriend and found her a seat in the far gazebo with Lord and Lady Trent. There is no need to follow me about and check on these things.”

Annabelle spoke with a light laugh in her voice rather than any irritation today but Stephen still looked puzzled by her words. Was she insufficiently convincing at playing the happy bride-to-be at this garden party? She was trying as hard as she could but could feel her mask slipping, especially with Stephen’s frequent interference.

“I would expect no less from my sister who will soon be Lady Darrington,” Lord Emberly said after a short pause, choosing his words carefully. “I suppose I am not yet used to seeing you as a hostess in your own right rather than my little sister. I must accustom myself to that. Where is Lord Darrington, incidentally? It is important that you are seen together.”

“He is just looking for his friend, Captain Rawlings, who was due to arrive a little while ago. I shall make sure to take him to meet Lady Burroughs so that she might write her own impressions to Mother. Is there anything else, Stephen?”

“Well, as you know, I shall be giving a short speech at three o’clock and I would like to pass my remarks by Lord Darrington before…”

“Annabelle,” called out Victoria nearby, giving her opportunity to turn from her brother before he could get any deeper into the detail of what was only a collection of the usual well-intended remarks that someone might give at an engagement party. “I think Oswald is looking for you. He has found his friend. They’re over by the large fountain.”

“Oh, are they? I will go straight away. Do excuse me, Stephen. Why don’t you consult Victoria on your speech? She is quite accustomed to public speaking herself, if more in scientific gatherings than social ones.”

Stephen looked confounded by this suggestion, although he could hardly object to Annabelle going to find her fiancé given his own observation that they ought to be seen together. Turning slightly pink and coughing as he tried to cover his discomfiture, he turned to Victoria with a polite bow, which Victoria used as cover to wink at Annabelle.

With a grateful smile in return, Annabelle hastened towards the fountain in the western part of the upper gardens. Victoria had offered to distract Stephen whenever he became overbearing and Annabelle was glad to have agreed to this tactic. Whether Oswald had really wanted to see her or not was immaterial.

She found the two men there, standing together on the far side of the tinkling fountain with its carved dolphins and water nymphs of both sexes. Oswald’s hand lay beside Jacob’s on the rim of the fountain’s basin, touching as much as they dared in company but their faces both contented in their simple companionship.

Annabelle stopped for a moment and smiled to see the pair looking so happy on this supposedly joyous summer day. It seemed a shame to intrude on their privacy, especially knowing of their relationship and the fact that Jacob must soon leave town. Then Oswald spotted her and grinned, waving in welcome and beckoning her over.

“Annabelle, come and join us,” Captain Rawlings echoed, looking equally pleased at her appearance rather than disappointed. “I was about to throw a coin in the fountain and make a wish.”

“I don’t think it’s that kind of fountain,” she told him with a smile as she joined them beside it. “Or at least none of the wishes I made as a child came true. All I ever got was a lecture from Stephen on wasting money that could be better put into the poor box at church.”

“Oh dear,” laughed Oswald. “He’s not going to spring out and give us the same lecture, is he? That really would take the fun out of things.”

“No, my friend Victoria Crawford is kindly handling him this afternoon. She is a scientist and a rather vocal advocate for women’s rights. Poor Stephen never knows what to make of her. I must, however, give her some gift for her trouble later as I know he vexes her just as much as me.”

“Three cheers for Victoria Crawford,” remarked Jacob Rawlings, selecting three silver sixpences from among the loose change in the pocket of his uniform jacket. “Now, I have one for each of us. Are you both ready?”

Oswald and Annabelle each took their coin and smiled at one another.

“Altogether, after three. One, two, three…”

The three silver sixpences rose into the air and fell into the water with faint splashes.

“I wished that Uncle Murgatroyd would not buy me another of those ugly vases as a wedding present,” Oswald claimed. “I made the mistake of being too polite about the one he bought for my twenty-first birthday and now I have a whole collection of the infernal things. What did you both wish for?”

“Liar!” laughed Captain Rawlings. “I don’t believe that is what you wished for at all, and if you did, it was a waste of a good wish. I wished that the time might pass quickly until I am next home on leave and back at Darrington Hall.”

Oswald Quince smiled at the man he loved.

“I am a liar, you’re right. I wished that all three of us standing here might be happy, come what may. How about you Annabelle?”

“Oh, I wished that we might not be unhappy,” she admitted shyly.

“What a poor ambition!” said Oswald with sympathy. “You are too young yet to give up all hope of happiness, Annabelle.”

“We will teach her how to be happy, won’t we, Oswald?”

“Indeed. I won’t rest until you’re as happy as we are,” Lord Darrington declared. “It can be done, Annabelle, even in the most trying of circumstances.”

Annabelle let both men put an arm about her shoulders, touched and comforted by their kindness.

“You’re right. I don’t think I do know how to be happy yet, but I should like to learn.”

“That’s the right attitude. Now, let’s go back to the party and find someone you really want to talk to. That’s a good start in learning to be happy. So, not your aged relatives, or your mother’s school friend, or your brother, or that very dull and worthy bishop. Someone else.”

“Your handsome blond friend, for example,” Jacob suggested, coming to her other side as Oswald took Annabelle’s arm. “I’ve seen you look very happy when dancing with him.”

“Ah, Duke Frederick,” said Oswald with a glance to Jacob over Annabelle’s head, too high and fast for her to catch his expression. “Yes, he is a good friend, but do not get Annabelle’s hopes up, Jacob. He may not attend.”

Annabelle said nothing, thinking only that Frederick had not even replied to the invitation. Stephen had barely remarked on the fact, likely only having invited him out of respect for the friendship of their families.

“With Duchess Sarah away, I daresay he has no one to mind his social calendar properly. He is not the kind of man who understands propriety.”

Annabelle had ignored this statement from her brother at the time, just as she ignored Jacob’s teasing remark now. She did not expect to see Frederick this afternoon, or perhaps ever again except in the background at family events. They would likely never even dance together again.

“May not attend, my foot!” murmured Captain Rawlings as they re-entered the main gardens where the party was taking place. “Oh, I don’t think attention is an issue for Duke Frederick, do you?”

“Be good, Jacob,” Oswald remonstrated but with his ever-present laughter. “Too much attention can be as bad as too little, you know.”

It took Annabelle several moments to catch up with what her two companions had already noticed and were remarking upon. The Duke of Heartwick had already arrived. From their vantage point at the western end of the top lawn, they could see that he was already very much the center of attention for several ladies, with others watching him and whispering behind fans to one another.

Annabelle took a long, slow breath to compose herself. Why did he have to look so very handsome in the sunlight? He really did almost glow, and she was not the only woman there who could see it. She did not feel jealous, only rather defeated, and then panicked when his eyes settled on her and he set himself on the path they were about to take.

“Annabelle, Oswald, I have not yet offered you my congratulations as a couple. I do wish you every happiness,” he declared with apparently effortless charm, his smile warming Annabelle as much as the sun although she was determined not to react.

Why did this approach infuriate her so much? Was it because their intimacy had felt so great beside that small campfire, at least until she told him of Oswald’s offer, and now they had none? Was it because she wanted him to be left in the same ferment of confusion and desire as her, rather than calm and collected as ever?

As though she were looking down from somewhere a great distance away, Annabelle fixed her smile on her face and watched Oswald accept Frederick’s congratulations, shaking him by the hand and assuring him that he would always be welcome at Darrington Hall after their marriage.

Frederick conversed easily with Oswald for a few moments more as Annabelle and Jacob looked on. Then she could bear it no more.

“Do excuse us, but I have promised to introduce Oswald to an old friend of my mother’s. Enjoy yourself, Frederick.”

“I shall go and escort your sister, Oswald,” Captain Rawlings announced. “Lady Meredith has arrived and is over there. We shall see you later.”

Their group split up and Annabelle and Oswald did their duty with the rather deaf but also garrulous Lady Burroughs. After making their escape from that formidable lady, Annabelle let out a long sigh.

“Would it be very bad if I sneaked off for a few minutes alone, Oswald? I feel like my head will explode with all these people. It is far more than I wanted for an engagement party but Stephen was so determined to do things properly.”

“I shall cover for you, Annabelle,” Oswald agreed with compassion in his merry eyes. “Go and hide at the bottom of the garden or wherever you normally go. Come back when you’re ready. I shall tell Lord Emberly that you are in the retiring room, the refreshment tent or still speaking to Lady Burroughs, depending on which direction he is facing at the time.”

“Will you be well, though? All these people want to talk to you too. Perhaps Lady Meredith and Captain Rawlings can help fend them off if I’m not there.”

“It doesn’t bother me as much as you, dear girl,” he shrugged. “Anyway, I doubt anyone wants to talk to me quite as much they want to talk to your friend the Duke of Heartwick, at least the ladies.”

“Indeed,” said Annabelle acidly, not trusting herself to say anything more. “Anyway, I’ll try not to be too long. I just need a little peace.”

Oswald patted her on the back and with a slightly guilty glance at the busy party up and down the garden, Annabelle slipped through a small gap in the hedge and took a rougher path down to the old pond, one of the places where she and Penelope used to play.

They would pretend that the pond was a lake or sea and their dolls in old boxes were boating or crossing the ocean to strange lands. A gardener had set out some sections of tree stumps as tables and chairs for tea parties with milk and water. A weatherworn canvas hammock had been strung between two trees nearby, sometimes occupied by one or another of their annoying older brothers.

As she drew closer to this calm and familiar spot, Annabelle smiled at these childish recollections from a simpler time. Yes, this was the perfect place to be alone for a few minutes and gather her thoughts.

Then she stopped dead in her approach, seeing the hammock swinging slightly, a man’s leg over one side with a foot on the floor, rocking himself lightly. The leg, the golden hair on a head presently turned away from her, and the man himself were all too familiar to her.

“You! What are you doing here, Frederick?” she almost wailed, her heart simultaneously leaping in pleasure and sinking in dismay at his sudden appearance.

The rocking stopped and Frederick sat up, swinging both legs over the side of the hammock and looking at her.

“What am I doing at the old pond or what am I doing at the garden party?” he asked, his face looking both tired and confused, not at all as nonchalant and assured as he had seemed a short while earlier among the other guests.

“Either! Both! Oh, Frederick, why did you have to be here? How can I get on with my life when you’re always there. Always in front of my eyes, in my head, in my dreams?”

So vexed was she at Frederick and at herself for being so upset that she stamped her foot.

Now he stood and folded his arms defensively.

“How can you get on with your life? You seem to be making a good job of that, I must say. My life, however, has been turned upside down by you Annabelle. I was perfectly content until you barged your way into Heartwick Hall at the start of the season. Now, I cannot have you and everything seems empty, meaningless, pointless. Why did you do this to me?”

“What are you talking about, Frederick?” she threw back him with distress equal to his own, her voice then dropping to a whisper. “You could have had me any time you wanted. You know you could.”

“Not the way I want you, Annabelle. I want you completely, honorably, without reservation. It’s all impossible, isn’t it? God, I’m such a coward, as well as a damned rake!”

“Frederick, stop!” Annabelle insisted, marching up to him now, hating to hear him berating himself even though she herself would have done it. “Don’t do this. I won’t hear such things. You’re a good man and the only man I have ever…desired, but you are different, I know. Just let me remember how wonderful it felt to be with you, even for a short time this summer.”

“That sounds like goodbye to me,” Frederick said sadly and tentatively reached down to stroke Annabelle’s cheek.

She leaned into his touch with a gasping sigh and then held him close once more as his lips took hers in a prolonged kiss that was sweet and sorrowful in its intensity. When it was over her eyes were filled with tears.

“Annabelle,” Frederick breathed her name as he raised his head and dropped one final kiss into her thick pile of red-gold curls. “I have never met a woman like you and I doubt I ever will again.”

Turning, he walked away, back towards the house and out of her life. Annabelle watched him go with desolate eyes.

“Goodbye, Lady Burroughs. Yes, we will see you at the church for the wedding on the 20 th of this month. AT THE CHURCH, yes. For the WEDDING.”

Stephen spoke with measured patience and loud emphasis on the important words as he put Lady Burroughs into her carriage. The ear trumpet she carried in her bag was little use when she never used it, Annabelle reflected, standing back and waving politely. Her own patience with the final slow-to-depart guests was long spent.

“Well, as that was the last guest, we shall go now too,” Oswald announced, Captain Rawlings and Lady Meredith flanking him. “You must both be very tired. Thank you again for holding our engagement party here, Lord Emberly. You and Annabelle were the perfect host and hostess today. I look forward to returning your hospitality at Darrington Hall in the near future.”

“It did go well, didn’t it?” Stephen observed, pleased with this compliment. “I’ll admit I’m a little out of practice as a host, given my father’s ill-health, but I did my best and it seems to have been enough. Even Miss Crawford seemed in unusually good humor with me today.”

“You were both wonderful,” Lady Meredith concurred with her brother, Jacob nodding agreement beside her, before helping her into Lord Darrington’s carriage.

“I shall call to take Annabelle for a walk at your mutual convenience,” Oswald Quince added before joining his companions in the carriage.

His quick smile to Annabelle told her that this was a lifeline, extended for her escape whenever Stephen’s company became too much before the wedding. She returned his smile as well as she could although the heaviness of her heart seemed to deaden even pretended happiness now.

Annabelle hoped it was true that Oswald and Jacob could teach her how to be happy because right now it felt that she could never feel joy again. Wearily, she followed Stephen back into the house and took a seat in the drawing room, wondering whether seven o’ clock was too early to take to her bed without exciting his alarm and sparking calls for the physician.

Having taken up station at the mantelpiece, Stephen regarded her with a frown for some moments, something evidently playing on his mind. Annabelle played with one of the curls framing her face and kept her expression blank. Whatever tiresome thought might be now in his head, she hoped he would come out with it quickly and leave her alone with her own thoughts for the rest of the evening.

“Where did you go before my speech?” Stephen suddenly asked her and Annabelle froze, not having anticipated this line of questioning and knowing where it could easily lead.

“Your speech? I’m sorry I delayed you Stephen, I lost track of time. Still, I don’t think anyone minded waiting another ten minutes. The party was a great success, as you said yourself.”

“That isn’t the point, Annabelle. You vanished completely. Where were you? Oswald seemed to think you were in the retiring rooms but no one else had seen you go there. Myrtle was sent to search for you without any result. Nor were you in the refreshment tent or with Lady Burroughs as he helpfully suggested.”

“I see,” Annabelle said, finding herself backed up against a metaphorical wall.

Oswald had likely done his best but her brother was like a bloodhound once he had the scent of any impropriety.

“Frederick was nowhere to be found either,” Stephen added with surprising calm. “Am I to conclude that the two of you were together, alone, secluded somewhere in the grounds of Colborne House? Was that why you lost track of time?”

Annabelle said nothing. Her final kiss with Frederick was something precious and belonged to her alone. No, she would not haul it out for her prim and proper brother’s humiliating inspection. She stood up and looked back at him now with silent but defiant expression.

“I don’t know what’s been going on with you and Frederick, Annabelle,” Stephen continued, shaking his head. “You both seem determined to hold your tongues on the matter, for better or worse, and I am afraid to guess at the truth. I do know that it has to end, however. You’re getting married ”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” she burst out angrily. “Stop asking me questions about things that are none of your business, Stephen. My only duty in this family is to marry well and get out of it. I’m doing that duty, so leave me be!”

“Annabelle!” he said her name with dismay and concern. “I only have your best interests at heart.”

“That’s what you always say. You probably even believe it, but you have no idea what my best interests are, Stephen. You don’t even know me. You’ve never even tried to know who I am. At least Frederick pays me that much respect.”

Fearing that she had said too much, Annabelle marched from the room, her brother calling after her.