The Auctioned Duke (Dukes of Comfort #3)
Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
“Ladies and gentlemen, please gather in the ballroom for the grand surprise!” the footman called out, corralling nobility as if they were cattle along the grand hallways of the London manor.
Not that they needed much encouragement. The Duchess of Alderwick’s balls and gatherings, whether in the country or the city, had become renowned for their splendor and thrilling twists.
“What is Frances up to this time?” Hugo St. Vincent, the Duke of Ravenvale, asked his maternal cousin, and husband to said duchess, Dominic Everhart, the Duke of Alderwick.
Dominic shrugged. “I have not the faintest notion.”
“Come now, you must know something,” Hugo urged, grinning at his cousin’s discomfort.
There was no man in the world who hated balls and gatherings and parties as much as Dominic, and there was no man in the world who would endure such things with more determination, purely to please the wife he loved.
“I believe the point of a surprise is for it to be a surprise,” Dominic remarked as he downed what was left in his glass of punch and joined the stream of merrymakers heading for the ballroom.
Hugo hurried to catch up, for he rather wanted a front row seat to whatever magic Frances had decided to conjure for the evening’s entertainment.
Last month, there had been fire-eaters, contortionists, and actual magicians.
The month before, there had been a jousting display, the manor transformed into something from the 16th century, filled with performers playing the roles of knights and squires and fair maidens.
Even her dinner parties and lesser events always had some unexpected treat or excitement.
And all in the name of charity, to get the very wealthy to part with their money for noble causes, which was somewhat easier to do when they were in high spirits and considerably more malleable.
“Forgive me… Excuse me… If I could just… Thank you…” Hugo remarked on his way through the crowd, weaving around eagerly chattering ladies and curious gentlemen, for there was another reason he wished to be as close to the front as possible: he would not be able to see much if he found himself relegated to the rear of the ballroom.
It was not common knowledge that he was practically blind in one eye, but when it came to viewing things at a long distance or a very short distance, his good eye struggled to compensate.
Frances spotted him from the small dais that had been constructed at the farthest end of the ballroom, her face lighting up as she beckoned him over.
“Where have you been?” she asked, stooping to speak to him.
“With your charming social butterfly of a husband,” Hugo replied with a smirk. “I simply could not drag him away from all of the lively conversations he was indulging in. He really does love these occasions. You should have more of them. Weekly events.”
Frances hid a chuckle behind her hand, just as Dominic himself walked up.
“Please do not,” he said with a sigh, as he reached for his wife’s hand and kissed it. “I love you, my darling, I love you more than I can put into words, but I cannot be social quite so often.”
Frances smiled adoringly at him. “Have no fear, my love, for this is the last ball we shall have here for at least a month or two.” She cast a strange look at Hugo. “Although I have a feeling that society might be talking about this one for quite some time.”
Hugo raised a curious eyebrow at her, a funny prickle of unease catching him unawares.
He was not someone easily unnerved, and he was a great champion of Frances’ respected position as society’s most exciting host, who had people falling over themselves to gain an invitation, but he was not sure he trusted the slight glint in her eyes.
With that, she drew back from Dominic and Hugo and moved into the center of the little stage, holding out her arms to command the room.
Everyone fell silent at once.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you kindly for your attendance this evening,” she began, her voice ringing out across the ballroom.
“As you all know, this ball is in honor of my foundation for the impoverished children of London, and to improve the presence of schools for all in our villages and towns. So, please, bid generously.”
Oh, it is the auction!
It all made sense, Hugo nodding his head as he put his hands together in applause along with everyone else. He had owed Dominic a favor and Dominic had asked that he put something forward for an auction that Frances planned to put to the crowd.
Of course, he had forgotten all about it, but he was certain he could come up with something of suitable value when he was called upon to do so.
He had jewelry of his grandmother’s that he did not mind parting with, and a thoroughbred that he had no use for, along with many paintings of value that he would gladly dispense with.
“So without further ado, let us get to the first auction of the evening!” Frances declared, gesturing to Hugo. “Please, give your most welcoming applause to His Grace, the Duke of Ravenvale.”
The ballroom exploded with cheers from the gentlemen and giddy clapping and fan-flapping from the ladies, as Hugo put on a smile and stepped up onto the stage. His mind was racing, struggling to come up with something he could auction off, wishing he had been more diligent with his memory.
“Now, dear Ladies, here we have the most eligible gentleman in England, so I expect your mothers and fathers to be very forthcoming with the bids… though that is not to say that the mothers here tonight cannot bid for their own enjoyment,” Frances said to the great amusement of the crowd.
Puzzled, Hugo cast a sideways glance at Frances, but she was too busy putting on a show for the guests.
“The prize is five outings with the Duke of Ravenvale. Let us start the bidding at ten pounds,” she said, as Hugo’s stomach plummeted.
“What are you doing?” he hissed out of the corner of his mouth, his mouth straining in a smile he did not at all feel.
But he did not want to ruin things for Frances, not when she had done so much for his cousin and, indeed, for countless charities in London and the countryside.
“I asked you to donate something,” Frances whispered back. “I asked you again and again, and you did not respond, or promised you would but never did. As such, you left me no choice but to put you to auction.”
Hugo stared at her. “You cannot be serious.”
“Fifty pounds?” She glanced back at him, lowering her voice. “I am entirely serious. Besides, you might actually meet a lovely young lady you are interested in by participating. Do I hear sixty pounds?”
Turning his blurry gaze outward, he could not believe the sight that met his eyes: hands were shooting up everywhere, desperate mothers bidding with an eagerness and pace that left him chilled to the bone.
“It is only five outings,” Frances whispered in between calling out increasingly insane numbers. “You just have to be present for them. It is not like you have to marry the winner. And you did promise me that you would help.”
If it were anyone else making this request of him, ambushing him really, he would have walked off the stage by now. But since Frances had come into Dominic’s life, a man that Hugo thought of as a brother, he had become close to her too, thinking of her like a sister.
And I did forget to give her something for the auction…
“You might have told me beforehand,” he argued, though he knew it was futile.
He was already on the stage. People were already bidding, higher and higher. There was no way out of this, not without breaking a promise to Frances, and not without inciting the wrath of his cousin, who would not be happy to witness Hugo destroying his wife’s charitable plans.
“I did mention the auction when you arrived this afternoon,” Frances pointed out. “I just neglected to mention that you were one of the prizes. Indeed, that was your last chance to offer something else, but you did not.”
He cringed inwardly, trying to come up with an excuse, but he had none; he only had himself to blame for this.
Frances had bothered him about a donation for weeks, to the point where he could picture where the letters were on his desk at home, asking what he was going to donate.
He had continued to set them to one side, telling himself that he would get to them later.
Well, later had arrived, and now he had nothing to offer but himself.
“Do I hear two hundred and fifty pounds?” Frances asked, the bidding less eager than before.
Indeed, it was an extraordinary sum. It puffed Hugo’s pride somewhat to realize that he had drawn the offer of such a large amount of money, though he could not see who had made the preceding bid.
It does not matter what they look like, he told himself.
I should be polite and charming, regardless.
After all, this was for charity and, as Frances had said, it was not as if he had to marry the winner.
He just had to make sure that whoever won had a suitably pleasant time in his company until the five excursions were over.
The bidding slowed, seemingly a battle between two parties.
“Dare I ask for three hundred pounds?” Frances asked, her eyes wide, as if she could not believe it either.
From among the sea of rapt people, a hand shot up, not belonging to either of the parties who had been bidding fervently.
“Three hundred pounds!” a sweet voice called out, to the astonishment of the rest of the crowd.
Hugo’s eyes darted toward the commotion and closed the one that did not see much at all, so he might focus upon the woman.
His eyebrows raised in surprise, for she was exceedingly pretty.
Not at all the sort of lady who should need the help of an auction to gain the attention of a man.
Yet, there was something strange in her expression, almost panicked.
A look that he could not quite put his finger on.
“Oh, this is excellent,” Frances whispered, snapping Hugo’s attention away from the woman.
“Why is that?”
Frances grinned. “Well, my dear Hugo, you have just been bought by the diamond of the Season.”
The diamond? He looked back at the woman, even more confused, for why on earth would she bid on him? If she had been chosen as the diamond, she could have had any gentlemen she liked without paying a single penny.
Something was amiss here… and he was more than a little curious to find out what. Perhaps this auction might be more exciting than he had first thought.