The Duke's Bride (3 page)

Never again, he thought with a scowl. The guilt was too much
to bear. He would die before he let anything happen to someone he loved. If he
had the power to keep them safe, he would.

After his father had died, the dukedom had given him the authority
to influence most things in his life. So, it would be with his wife and the
rest of his family. That was why his sister would marry the man he had chosen
for her. And that was why Jane would eventually marry him. He was a fair man,
but once he made a decision, he never backed away. Miss Jane Greenwell would eventually
understand that in time.

Five years later

T
here was a slight chill in the air, and it had
nothing to do with Mother Nature.

Jane, the Duchess of Elbourne, had a niggling suspicion the
whispers bouncing off the walls of the illustrious Pump Room in Bath were about
her and the duke. A Mozart concerto drifted to her ears while the fragrance of
sandalwood and rosewater teased her nostrils. But the refinement of her senses
only increased her awareness of the suffocating crowd and the pitying looks
directed her way.

“Poor thing,” a voice echoed softly behind her.

“Poor man, if you ask me.”

“Married the girl, but never loved her.”

“He may want another wife. Would have grounds to divorce
her, don’t you think?”

“No heir. No spare. Not even a girl-child to console the
man.”

Jane’s chest tightened with grief. She wanted to weep. She had
thought Roderick had loved her. What had happened to them?

She could not give him an heir, that’s what had happened. At
least, that’s what Society was saying. But she had vowed not to let Society upset
her again. Yet she could not deny the pain that lodged in her soul.

Her heart sped with unease as she searched for her
sister-in-law Emily. They had been separated from one another almost
immediately after they had entered the Pump Room.

As Jane moved about the crowd, memories of her parents’
death kept running through her brain. Her world had been turned upside when they
had died. Her father’s passing had soon been followed by his wife’s suspicious
drowning in the Thames. There had been rumors of infidelity on both accounts.
Lovers, fights, and jealously too. And possibly even murder.

Had her parents ever loved each other? She didn’t know. They
had been in a marriage of convenience, after all. But as a child, the hushed
whispers, the darted glances, the snide remarks, had changed her life.

For years, she had buried the painful feelings to the back
of her mind.

She had told herself she would never have a marriage of
convenience, or anything that ever resembled it. But now, doubt and doom played
havoc with her heart.

When she had married Roderick over four years ago, almost
immediately after Emily and Jared had wed, she had been so much in love with
Roderick and he with her, their faults had become nothing but a nuisance. Or so
she thought.

Hot tears pricked the back of her lids. The fact was, she
was human, and the rumors were starting to destroy her self-confidence. Her
babies had been lost to her before they had ever been born. And now, Roderick
seemed lost to her as well.

Did he still love her? Was he seeing someone else? Or was he
sorry he had ever married her?

Her stomach churned at the very idea of living like her
parents. Was Roderick comfortable with a convenient marriage since his parents
had experienced the same? The horror of such an absence of love made her ill. A
marriage of convenience would slowly chip away at her soul until there was
nothing left.

The sound of a sweet concerto brought her back to the present.
She observed the string quartet in the corner of the room. Her heart pinched
when a group of young ladies grinned back at her. Fake smiles, she thought
sadly. Smiles that hoped she would fall flat on her face.

Jane lifted her chin and smiled back, as if she had not a
care in the world. She thought she saw Emily at the other end of the room, and
her heart gave a little skip.

She started moving in her friend’s direction, but the cruel conversation
seemed to follow her. Lady Horatio and Lady Philomena were directly behind her.
She had seen them out of the corner of her eye. Their unkind words speared her
heart. But she would not give them the satisfaction of knowing it.

“Dreadful thing about the duke’s loss.”

“Have you seen the way he treats her now?”

“Yes, yes, as if she has a disease.”

“Poor man. What else can he do?”

“She is no longer a beauty with those extra pounds.”

“Hear the king is asking about an heir to the dukedom as
well.”

Jane’s breath caught in her throat. She was fooling herself.
She was not immune to Society’s gossip. When she had walked out the door this
morning, she had no idea her misfortune of losing another baby would be
mentioned publicly. She was wrong.

No doubt, these ladies were spreading the news all over Bath
and London. Jane wanted to turn around and confront them. But how could she?
What they were saying was true. Mean, cruel, and even heartbreaking, but true.

She smiled to no one in particular and patted the blond
ringlets framing her face. Her blue eyes sparkled with tears, but she would not
give Society the pleasure of watching her cry. It’s what they lived for. Oh,
they said they came to drink the healing waters, but what they really wanted
was the juicy gossip, and Lady Horatio and Lady Philomena made certain there
was plenty of that.

The older ladies were hard to miss, even in the mass of
people. Lady Horatio was short and plump with an orange turban on her head.
Lady Philomena was tall and thin with a flock of blue feathers arranged in her
black-gray hair.

“Yes, the poor, poor thing, and the duke such a handsome
specimen too.”

Jane looked over her shoulder. Her resolve not to speak
suddenly vanished. Anger bubbled inside her. She glared at the women, waiting for
them to acknowledge her.

But the two ladies never made eye contact. They had no idea
she was standing before them! They were too wrapped up in their own little
world. They were spreading news about everything, including a magnificent story
about the king appearing at the Pump Room today. Whether it was true or not, Jane
guessed that was why everyone was here.

Her hands curled at her sides, and she spun back around,
trying to count to ten and continue toward Emily. Her sister-in-law had come
with her today, thinking the waters would help Jane out of her doldrums.

However, Jane suspected Emily knew all about her marital
troubles and had been ashamed how her brother Roderick had been treating his
wife.

Oh, Jane thought, Roderick never beat her. He had never hit
a female in his entire life. He wasn’t that kind of man. But he never touched
her anymore like a husband should either. His aloofness hurt her most of all. She
wondered if love could be that fleeting. She loved the man, but sometimes he
acted like a pompous, arrogant peer of the realm!

She clenched her teeth as she moved about the Pump Room. There
would be no marriage of convenience for her, no matter what Roderick wanted or
what his reasons were. She had seen the ramifications of what that kind of
marriage did to people, and she would not be part of it. Not now. Not ever.

“Dreadful.”

“Poor thing.”

“Makes one wonder if she has a curse.”

“Lost five babies in the last two years, she did. Perhaps
Lord Marcus will have a son. He is next in line. That’s why he married so
quickly, you know. Second oldest. Some thought he would never marry.”

Jane cringed as she stepped further away from the women. She
thought the gossip had died down, but the latest Clearbrook wedding had stirred
a hornet’s nest. Many thought Lord Marcus Clearbrook had married to provide an
heir. But Jane knew that wasn’t true. The man was head over heels in love with
his young bride, the former Millicent Shelby.

The grand wedding ceremony had been held at Bath Abbey only
a week ago. In fact, right now, the loving couple was in Italy enjoying wedded
bliss.

Wedded bliss, Jane thought, feeling her heart crack. What
was that anymore?

She had once thought her marriage invincible. But now, it
was pure chaos. Nevertheless, she was delighted that Roderick’s three brothers
and only sister were happily married. There had been challenging obstacles to
those unions, but love had prevailed.

She let out a bittersweet smile, recalling how Lord Clayton Clearbrook
had thought a marriage of convenience would suit him well. Yet Miss Briana Garland,
now his wife, who had loved him forever, seemed to have had other things in
mind.

 And when Roderick’s youngest brother, Lord Stephen,
married Miss Elizabeth Shelby, Millicent’s older sister, Jane recalled their
acquaintance had originated with a wager on a card game.

There were of course the star-crossed lovers, Emily and
Jared, the Earl of Stonebridge. Their hurdles had been quite lively indeed.

The siblings were all so dreadfully in love with their
spouses that Jane felt her heart squeeze. She had once thought she and Roderick
had that same kind of love. But now, she wondered.

She swallowed against the bile rising in her throat. Perhaps
Lady Horatio and Lady Philomena were right. She was cursed. Her marriage was
crumbling just like her parents’, and whether she wanted to face it or not, by
Society’s measure, she now had a marriage of convenience

Not one of the Clearbrook brothers had a son, and that
included Roderick. Although Emily had six-year-old Gabrielle from Jared’s first
marriage, and four-year-old Richard with Jared, they were not heirs to the
dukedom.
Clayton and Briana had little
Victoria, but they had no son.
And as the duchess, it was Jane’s duty to
produce an heir.

Jane stiffened as the ladies’ cruel words continued to bang
against her ears. Roderick had always protected her, yet now he kept his
distance. He was polite and cordial, but anything intimate between them was
gone. However, to be fair, he probably had no idea how Society’s vicious gossip
was affecting her now. But without her husband by her side, her stance in
Society had seemed to crumble.

It was not as if she didn’t have a backbone to fight. But
what good would it do? Though she had the crazy urge to slap the women silly,
she immediately felt guilty for even thinking about it. She would never do
that. Besides, what kind of gossip would that spread, she thought sadly.

Despair welled up inside her as she looked about the room,
searching for an escape. She caught sight of the crowd’s wide-eyed looks and
wanted to sink into the floor. Many seemed both horrified and intrigued as Lady
Horatio and Lady Philomena’s conversation increased in volume. It seemed the
ladies were struggling to be heard over the music.

A fiery heat coursed through Jane’s veins as she desperately
tried to hold herself together. She forced another smile and picked up a glass
of the famous waters, letting the metallic-tasting liquid slip past the
tightness in her throat.

She took in a fortifying breath, lifted her chin, and inched
her way through the crowd, trying to distance herself from the two
gossipmongers and anyone who had heard their hateful words.

Her heart sank when she could not find a friendly face in
the crowd. Even Emily was nowhere to be seen.
Oh,
Em, please, where
are you?

With a family as large as the duke’s, she was certain she
would have seen one of her sisters-in-law today. The entire Clearbrook family
had been staying at the mansion they had rented in Bath, all except for Roderick’s
mother and her new husband, Lord Bringston. At breakfast, Briana and Elizabeth
had mentioned they would be setting out for the Pump Room later in the day, but
they were nowhere to be seen.

“Broad shoulders,” came the high-pitched squeak from Lady
Philomena. “Tall muscular build. And I daresay, those gray eyes look like
liquid silver.”

Jane flinched. Were the ladies following her on purpose?

A musty odor drifted toward her as she brushed against an older
gentleman. Suddenly, a wave of dizziness consumed her. The noisy crowd seemed
to be closing in on her. She wanted to run. But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. She
was the wife of one of the most powerful dukes in the land. If she retreated
now, the gossips would never stop hounding her.

 “Women flocked to his side. Before he married
her
,
that is,” Lady Horatio said, raising her voice again.

“Ah, but dearest, I hear he still draws the women.”

The offensive snicker set the hairs on the back of Jane’s
neck on end. She closed her eyes, trying to gain her balance. Indeed, there was
no other poor creature they were talking about.

Her emotions seemed quite unpredictable these days. But it
was just as well, because her self-pity had suddenly turned into red-hot anger.
But she could not let fury get the best of her when she approached the ladies.

She started counting inside her head.
One, two, three…

“Ooooh, you know, Philomena, that black hair makes him look
all the more powerful, don’t you think? A regular pirate on the high seas.”

Another giggling sigh. “Lady Trayton used to think so. Was called
Miss Susan Wimble then. She almost married the man, don’t you know?”

“Ah, no, tell me more…”

Jane gritted her teeth.
Seven, eight…

“Hear the duchess sees too much of that Captain Argyle, if
you ask me. The man has some Scottish blood, don’t you know. Quite handsome,
but heard he killed someone with that knife of his.”

Lady Horatio let out a dramatic sigh. “Ooooh, a dangerous gentleman,
to be sure. Heard she and her sister-in-law mix with those loose women too.
Disgusting thought. Having babies out of wedlock. Not the thing at all.”

Philomena agreed. “Girls should be whipped, having babies
outside of marriage. Terrible sin.”

 Jane’s brows rose in anger. That was the outside of
enough. Talking about women who were in delicate positions and who had no other
help! Who did these ladies think they were?

Jane spun around, glaring at them. Waiting.

“Well, my goodness,” Lady Horatio’s orange turban bobbed as
she continued her little speech. “If a husband won’t treat her like a wife,
what’s a—”

Lady Philomena squeaked in dismay. “Shhh. She’s right here.”