The Duke’s Mad Proposal (Duchesses of Ice #3)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

“The carriage is here!”

Helena Ayles looked at the clock on the mantle.

“Five minutes if you please, Chastity!”

That was all they had to spare until they had to leave for Lady Chapman’s Ball, the first ball of the London Season—and her younger sister Chastity’s first ball since she came out into society.

When no reply came from her sister, Helena pushed the already open door to Chastity’s chambers wider. She found her standing before the full-length mirror, her brows knitted, her shoulders stiff.

“You have forgotten your gloves, Chastity.”

“Sally has gone to press them; they were wrinkled.”

Helena’s blue eyes clouded at Chastity’s expression. She knew at once that something was amiss., Gone was the excited, exuberant young lady of just an hour ago.

She went to stand next to her sister. Their reflections looked back at them. Helena, with her blonde hair done up for the ball, was a contrast to Chastity, whose dark locks bore the signs of a halfhearted toilette. Both, however, had their mother’s cornflower blue eyes.

“And pray tell, how long have I been gone? I can hardly believe that in the time it took for me to get dressed and ready, someone has replaced my sister with this forlorn-looking thing.”

Chastity leaned her head on Helena’s shoulder.

“What if no one asks me to dance?” she said as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. “What if everyone finds me completely dull and unattractive?”

“Everyone?” Helena lifted an eyebrow, smiling teasingly.

“Oh, you know what I mean, Helena.” She wrung her hands, making Helena understand the reason behind the wrinkled gloves. “I shall be an utter failure and at only the first ball of the season!”

Helena stopped her sister’s movements. Tilting Chastity’s face to look at herself again in the mirror, she spoke confidently.

“How could you say such a thing? Just look at this young lady in front of you. I see intelligent eyes, I see a beautiful face, I see an amiable character.” She kissed her sister’s cheek. “You must not worry yourself, Chastity. Enjoy the night. I am sure you will have the most wonderful time!”

Chastity let out a breath, then smiled bravely, looking at her older sister in the mirror. She nodded as if also giving herself encouragement.

“Perhaps I shall fall in love tonight.” Her eyes brightened at the idea. “Or someone will fall in love with me!”

“Let us not be too hasty.”

“But it could happen!”

“It could, you are right. But we must make certain that you fall in love with the right kind of gentleman. Or that the right kind will fall in love with you.”

“With you beside me, Helena, I am sure that I will meet only the right kind of gentlemen.”

I shall certainly stand sentry. The ton is full of rakes. And as we all know, debutantes and rakes do not make a good combination.

“Here are your gloves, m’lady.” Sally, the sisters’ lady’s maid rushed into the room.

“Just in time, Sally.” Helena nodded approvingly. “Thank you.”

When the last of their preparations were in order, Helena ushered her sister out the door. As they descended the staircase, they saw their younger sisters—Faith, eighteen, and Grace, seventeen—waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs.

“Chastity, you look beautiful!” Grace exclaimed. She had constantly observed and studied Chastity’s preparations for the season, looking forward to the day she, herself, would also enter society. “I am sure you will have at least five dance partners at the ball!”

“And where did you get that number?” Faith asked her younger sister. “Lady Chapman’s guest list numbers in the hundreds, I believe. Assuming that less than half of the attendees are male, I would think Chastity shall still have more than merely five dance partners.”

“Really, Faith, must you be so literal?” Grace rolled her eyes. “I only meant that I am sure she will be dancing quite often.”

“I promise to tell you all about it in the morning.” Chastity placed a kiss on her younger sister’s cheeks.

“Faith, Grace, no troublemaking tonight if you please.” Helena also leaned over to kiss them. “I shall expect the best behavior from both of you. Papa and Mama will be back home very late as well. Their journey will have fatigued them, so mind that you do not disturb them tonight.”

“Yes, Helena,” they replied in a monotone.

“Come, Chastity, we must make haste, we no longer have time to spare.”

“Have a marvelous time at your first ball, Chastity!” Grace called out from the front door of Huntington House as the two older siblings climbed inside their carriage. “And do not let any gentlemen kiss you yet! You must wait until after you are married!”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake! Grace!” Helena’s scowl did not quite give off the censure she wanted to project, for it was marred by a chuckle. It was very hard to be angry at Grace, for she had a winsome and affectionate character that Helena found endearing.

Once inside the carriage, they were silent. Chastity looked out the window at the passing London streets, her eyes once again alight with dreams of her first society ball.

It was, indeed, very possible for Chastity to actually meet the gentleman who would become her husband at Lady Chapman’s Ball tonight.

She had grown into a cheerful and gentle young lady after a certain amount of turbulence in her early years.

Helena felt such relief when Chastity had finally outgrown her troublesome stage.

In its place, she had become a romantic, always dreaming about falling in love and happy endings.

I want what is best for Chastity, of course. I want her to find a husband deserving of her. And when she has, it shall be Faith’s turn. And then Grace. God help her husband to be.

Helena’s hand went to her chest. Her breathing deepened.

A few more years and I shall be free. When all three of my sisters have married, then I shall only have myself to think of.

The idea both comforted and frightened her. Her life would finally be hers and hers alone, as she had always dreamed of. Alone, though, and this was a little frightening.

Helena was fifteen, together with her three younger sisters, when they were left unsupervised in Beecham Park, the Earl of Huntington’s country estate.

That was when her parents began spending the better part of the year in London.

She had hoped that it would not be a recurrent incident, but alas, it seemed that her parents deemed them old enough to handle themselves so long as they had a governess to tend to their education.

At sixteen, Helena had become mistress of Beecham Park in all but name, and more significantly, she had become guardian to her younger sisters.

She learned to manage the household, interviewed and hired governesses, tutors, and masters for her sisters.

She was the steady hand that calmed tantrums and smoothed over fights and disagreements. She became all that her sisters needed.

Her friends in the country, young ladies from their family’s sphere, called on her and talked of dances, social calls, and dreamed of falling in love. Helena listened, her heart wistful and hopeful, but she knew her reality was the Huntington household and sisters who were barely her juniors.

“It is of no matter. Someone must do it. I must, for it is my duty as a daughter and an older sister,” she had whispered to herself.

When she was finally told that she would have her first Season, be introduced to London society, Helena felt that she had lived a whole lifetime already. Perhaps that was why she had never found a match; she felt that her time had passed before it had even begun.

The drive was not long, though, they discovered that it was the line of carriages outside Chapman House that was. Chastity, now as excited as she had been earlier that evening, leaned closer to the carriage window to watch the various ladies and gentlemen as they exited their carriages.

“Helena, it is really happening, I am here!”

“Indeed, Chastity.” Helena smiled at her sister. “Lady Chapman will be looking for us. I have already informed her in my reply that Mama will not be able to accompany us, and that I shall stand in her stead.”

She framed Chastity’s cheek with her hand. Helena felt herself blink back tears as she looked at her sister. Now a young woman, Chastity was ready—indeed, eager—for what lay before her. Many a night did she whisper her hopes, her dreams of finding love, to Helena.

“To make a good match would be lovely of course, but to make a love match, oh, Helena, that is my heart’s desire! To fall in love and live happily with my husband!”

Helena had smiled at that, blessing her sister’s romantic soul. But with that she had vowed as well to watch over her. The ton was full of gentlemen who would take advantage of young ladies such as her sister, trusting and innocent.

This would be her sixth season, and although Helena had seen genuine love matches, her two best friends, the foremost examples, she also knew that there were more dangers.

One did not last six seasons in London society without seeing heartbreak, scandals, and ruined reputations.

She was determined that Chastity would not fall prey to any of that.

“Oh, you mustn’t cry, Helena! You will make me cry, too! It is only a ball; it isn’t like I shall go in unmarried and come out of the ball a married woman!”

“Of course not,” Helena dabbed at her eyes. “I just cannot quite believe that you are of the marrying age now.”

“I have been, for a year or two now, actually!” Chastity teased her.

“Yes, well, you were not quite ready then.” Smoothing an errant strand of hair from her coiffure, Helena smiled at her sister. “But you are now. And I am so proud of the young lady that you have become.”

“Helena, you are the worst sister for making me cry right before I enter my first-ever ball!”

“I am sorry!” Laughing now, they tried to compose themselves.

“Helena.”

“Yes, dearest?”

“Thank you.”

“Whatever for?”