Undressed to Impress the Duke : A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel

by Scarlett Osborne

  “Of course, Your Grace,” she said, curtsying.

  He smiled, his heart breaking as she called him that. He wasn’t sure that he believed that she didn’t love him. It confused him. That would all have to wait.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” he assured her. The Duke and Duchess of Edgeriver were watching them, curiously. They both smiled, then bid him goodbye.

  “The Constable might come your way,” he said, “about…the kidnapping.”

  He glanced over at Louisa. That was the one thing that didn’t have an answer—why? It had been before she had wed his father. It had been before his own mother’s death.

  Louisa wasn’t looking at him. She was staring out the window.

  Eleanor and her family left the room, and Aaron ran his fingers through his hair. So much had happened in the past hour. When he glanced at the clock over the mantel, he was surprised to find that it was barely past noon.

  After Eleanor had changed out of her torn dress and packed her trunk, she found herself standing in the drive with Lady Julia. The Constable had arrived, and was speaking with the others. The footmen were bringing out all of the trunks, including Eleanor’s small one.

  Eleanor and Julia smiled at each other. She felt like she had so much to tell Julia, but didn’t know where to start. Her heart felt so full.

  “I suppose you’ll be staying here, with your parents?” Lady Julia asked her.

  “Yes, My Lady—”

  “Julia.” She took Eleanor’s hand and pressed it. “You must call me Julia. When next we meet, let’s meet as friends and equals.”

  Eleanor smiled at her. In the space of an hour, her whole world had been upended.

  “Agreed.” She frowned. “Will you be all right?” She meant about Lord Jack, but didn’t dare say his name.

  “I will get over Lord Ayles,” Julia assured Eleanor. Her face was grim as she spoke. “He was a bad gentleman, who played me for a fool. I have learned a valuable lesson.”

  “Indeed,” Eleanor agreed.

  “No longer will I believe all the things that a gentleman says,” Julia said, sternly. “I will know an honest gentleman when I see him. The Duke of Durnsott is such a one.” She turned to Eleanor with the hint of a smile on her lips. “If I were you, I wouldn’t let him get away.”

  Eleanor smiled. Lord and Lady Whitecier and Eleanor’s parents were walking their way. The two ladies said goodbye, climbing into their carriages with their respective parents.

  Eleanor watched out the window as Myrtlegrove Manor grew smaller in the distance. She did not see Aaron. She knew that she would see him again. Their two families had always been friends.

  “Eleanor,” her mother said, “that’s your name?”

  “Yes, although, I suppose it’s not,” Eleanor said, suddenly finding herself with her parents. “I can hardly believe this.”

  “Nor can we,” her father agreed, beaming. “We shall certainly celebrate this miracle. Our cook makes a fine chocolate cake.”

  “It’s your father’s favorite,” her mother whispered with a wink.

  Eleanor was helped up into the carriage with her parents. As the carriage moved out of the drive, she looked back at Myrtlegrove Manor. She recalled the day that she had arrived. She hadn’t thought that anything interesting would happen to her.

  Now, she was leaving, a Lady, with her two parents. So much had happened—falling in love with Aaron. Trying to save him, first from making a mistake and marrying a maid. And then, trying to save his life.

  Now, she wondered, when we meet as equals tomorrow morning, what will happen then? Does he still love me?

  Aaron and Arthur sat in the library. Myrtlegrove Manor had emptied out quickly. First, the Edgerivers had left with Eleanor. Then, the Constable had come to take Louisa and Jack to the jail in the village. Then, Lord and Lady Whitecier and Lady Julia had gone, dissolving any entanglement in the engagement entirely, and taking their daughter home.

  It was, in many ways, a relief. The house was very quiet. Aaron poured Arthur a drink and handed it to him.

  “Thanks, Old Boy,” Arthur said.

  “I don’t know what I would have done without you here,” Aaron replied.

  “Fortunately, I was here,” Arthur said.

  “With your pistol,” Aaron added.

  Arthur smiled. “Cheers,” he replied, and they both clinked glasses.

  Mr. Stanley opened the door. “Mr. Brownleaf is here, Your Grace,” he said.

  “Send him in,” Aaron replied.

  “Now, we shall get the rest of the answers,” Arthur said, eagerly.

  After Louisa’s initial outburst, she had remained forbiddingly silent. It was clear that she had said far more than she had meant to.

  “At last,” Aaron mused as he fetched a fresh glass for the Constable, who was shown in. “Welcome, Mr. Brownleaf. Have a drink.”

  “Thank you, Your Grace,” he said, taking a liberal sip as he sat down. “It has been a day of revelations.” He raised both eyebrows.

  “So? What else have you found out? Lord Mallen and I are eager to know everything.” Aaron settled back in his chair, the leather creaking beneath his weight.

  “I’ve located both Mr. Ponsby and Mr. Bradshaw. Apparently, Ponsby was threatened by the Dowager Duchess. The poor man was scared out of his wits. He’s been in hiding in barns for weeks.”

  “What does Bradshaw say?” Aaron asked.

  “Bradshaw was attempting to catch the next coach into London,” Mr. Brownleaf said. “He says that the Dowager Duchess paid him a generous fee for collecting secrets. He was her eyes and ears. He was to collect information on you, after they had frightened Ponsby away.”

  “Are you charging Bradshaw?” Arthur asked.

  “With murder,” Brownleaf replied. “It appears that he was the one to compromise the carriage axle.” Aaron swallowed. What was surprising was that Bradshaw had been in the carriage! He would never have suspected him!

  He thought back to that day—Bradshaw had been very quiet, as the carriage had pulled away. He had sat on the opposite side from the axle, though. Before Aaron had taken a seat at all, so that he might survive the accident.

  “What about the kidnapping?” Arthur wondered.

  “Why did the Dowager Duchess take Lady Elizabeth in the first place?” Aaron asked, for he, too, was curious. “Did she tell you?”

  “By her own admission, she wanted to marry a Duke,” the Constable replied. “Her first object was the Duke of Edgeriver. She was livid that he had chosen the current Duchess. She had hoped to drive her to madness, and then, worse.”

  “But then my own mother died,” Aaron mused. She had died of fever, when Aaron was nine years old.

  “Yes. And she wed your father,” the Constable said.

  “He was ill for so long,” Aaron added, a thought occurring to him. “Do you think that she might have had a hand in it?”

  “She hasn’t said anything about that,” the Constable replied. “Though, in light of recent developments, that certainly bears looking into.”

  “If I hadn’t heard her say it with my own ears, I don’t think I would have believed it,” Aaron said. The whole of that morning seemed impossible. In another version of events, Aaron himself would have been on a slab at the local mortuary. Poisoned by his own step-mother!

  “Nor I,” Arthur agreed, shaking his head.

  “She’s admitted to everything,” the Constable said. “I have her signed statement, but I will certainly see if she’s got any confession as to your Father’s death. Well. If there’s nothing further, Your Grace, I have to go and collect statements from the Duke and Duchess of Edgeriver, as well as their daughter. Thank you for the drink, Your Grace.”

  “Of course. Stanley will show you out.” The Constable left Aaron and Arthur, who both poured themselves another few fingers of brandy. If ever there had been a time to drink, it was this. Aaron didn’t know which was more shocking—that his step-mother and valet had tried to
kill him, or that he had trusted them both implicitly. Particularly Bradshaw! Who had known all about Eleanor and Aaron’s romantic trysts.

  “How could I have been so wrong about so many people and their intentions?” he wondered aloud, sipping his brandy.

  “They hid their true selves very well,” Arthur pointed out. “We were all taken in.”

  “At least I have you, Arthur,” he said, the brandy making him feel wistful and maudlin. He had a light buzz, wending its way through his veins, relaxing his limbs and making the room muzzy.

  “And Eleanor,” Arthur added with a smile. Her name was an arrow to his heart.

  “Maybe.” Aaron felt a sharp pain in his chest when he recalled what Eleanor had said, early that morning. Amid the shocking revelations of the morning, he had almost forgotten. But not quite.

  “What do you mean?” Arthur asked, his brow furrowing.

  “She said that she never loved me,” Aaron told him. Saying it aloud, he couldn’t believe it.

  “When?”

  “Late last night, early this morning,” he replied. “I thought that we were progressing toward elopement, and then, she just…she said that she’s never loved me.”

  “Do you really believe that?”

  “No, but what if she wants to live with her parents?”

  “I’ve seen the way that you look at each other. Go and ask her to marry you.” Arthur gave him a significant look over the rim of his glass. “When will you see her next?”

  “Tomorrow morning,” Aaron replied.

  “Good. Good,” Arthur said.

  “Yes.” Nothing pleased him more than the thought of asking Eleanor to marry him. His heart told him that she would say yes. He hoped that the Edgerivers would agree to allow him to marry their daughter, so soon after finding her again.

  Chapter 39

  “Need anything else, My Lady?” the lady’s maid asked Eleanor.

  “No, thank you, Jane,” Eleanor replied. “And you don’t need to call me that.”

  “Call you what?”

  “My Lady. Eleanor is just fine. After all, only just this morning, I myself was a lady’s maid.”

  “Well, you look very pretty, Eleanor,” Jane said, curtsying to her.

  “Thank you.” Eleanor looked at herself in the mirror as Jane slipped out of the room. The Duchess of Edgeriver had provided Eleanor with one of her own gowns, until the seamstress could make up new ones specifically for her. She had never worn anything as fine as this borrowed gown. It was modish—bell-sleeved, with an empire waist. Delicate lace at the hems. The soft fabric swished luxuriously around her legs. She was wearing a corset for the very first time. It felt almost as if she was someone else.

  She had done her hair herself, pinning it up in her usual, sober style. At her neck, she wore the gold locket, its familiar weight comforting. She let out a sigh, then left her bed chamber.

  As she moved through the cool quiet hallways of Edgeriver Hall, she looked around her. Beneath her feet, the carpets were thick, muffling her footsteps. On the walls, there were portraits of Eleanor’s own family. She could detect hints of herself here and there—in the green eyes, the brunette hair. The shape of one lady’s face.

  She paused. It was like looking in a mirror. She gasped when she saw that the lady in the portrait wore her locket. The lady smiled back at Eleanor mysteriously. She seemed to have a secret. Eleanor wondered what it was.

  “That’s your grandmother, Catherine, the Countess of Grier,” the Duchess of Edgeriver said from behind her. She was smiling at Eleanor, as she came to stand beside her. Together, they looked at the painting, while the Duchess tucked her arm in Eleanor’s.

  “The one who had the locket made?” Eleanor asked, her hand going to where it sat at her neck.

  “Yes. My Mother,” the Duchess said, smiling. “She would have been so pleased to hear that you came back to us. As it was, she told me that someday, you would come home.”

  “You’ll have to tell me all about her,” Eleanor said.

  “Of course,” she replied. “You would have loved her. I have so much to tell you.”

  “And I you.”

  “Come. We shall go to the gentlemen, and then your Father and I have ordered a celebratory feast for everyone at Edgeriver Hall, the servants included.”

  “Sounds wonderful.”

  Together, they walked down to the drawing room, where her father waited for them. Eleanor was surprised to find Lord Sommerset there, as well. She had quite forgotten about him.

  “Well! This is a surprising turn of events,” he said, smiling too widely.

  “Indeed,” the Duke replied. “It’s an absolute miracle!”

  “Shall we have some champagne to celebrate?” the Duchess asked.

  “Let’s do,” the Duke suggested.

  The Duke and the Duchess went to the doorway to call for the champagne, leaving Eleanor to stand waiting with Lord Sommerset. Eleanor was looking around her. It would take some getting used to, being a lady.

  Well, being anyone else other than who I had been, she thought.

  “Well, this is interesting news,” the Earl of Sommerset said.

  “I hardly know what to think,” she admitted, glancing over to where her parents were speaking with the butler. Her heart rose at the sight of them. They were both overjoyed.

  “To find out that, in truth, you are a lady!” the Earl said, drawing her out of her thoughts. “It must feel like a miracle.”

  “I’m only happy to finally get to know my parents,” Eleanor replied, glancing over to the Duke and Duchess again. The butler had vanished. They were both deep in conversation. She wished that they would come back. Lord Sommerset made her uneasy.

  “I suppose that I should ask your Father for your hand in marriage.”

  “What?” Eleanor asked, horrified.

  “Well, it only stands to reason, I am their heir,” he said, smiling vacuously.

  “No—I can’t. I’m sorry.” Eleanor hoped that Aaron would be able to understand and forgive her. After all, she still loved him, very much. She had only said what she had, in order to protect him.

  “What?” Now it was the Earl’s turn to be surprised. Clearly, he had expected her to agree immediately.

  “I can’t marry you,” Eleanor said, completely baffled. “I can’t.”

  “Perhaps, you need some time to—”

  “No. Thank you.” Eleanor turned to walk away from him. Was this what being a lady was all about? Your marriageability status? She knew it from chaperoning Lady Julia. She just hadn’t yet had time to realize it herself.

  After all, when I woke up this morning, I was a lady’s maid. She was still reeling. It didn’t seem real yet. She felt as though she might wake up at any moment, to find that it had all been a wild dream.

  “You don’t need to get so testy,” the Earl said. “I was only—”

  “I can see what you’re trying to do,” Eleanor told him, keeping as calm as she could. “But I cannot.” Particularly since he was trying to solidify his rather tenuous hold on the Duchy of Edgeriver.

  The Earl’s smile fell. He cleared his throat. “Well, I suppose then, that there is no reason for me to be here,” he snapped. “Clearly, you think that you will receive a better proposal elsewhere!”

  Eleanor could only stare at him in shock.

  “Why are you raising your voice?” the Duke was coming over. “There’s no reason for that, certainly.” He was frowning.

  “I was only saying,” the Earl declared. “That Lady Elizabeth and I should marry. It’s the only recourse.”

  “My name is Eleanor,” she murmured softly. Though she was pleased to have found her parents, she wanted to hold on to the parts of herself that she loved. Her name was one of them.

  “We only just got her back, and now you want to haul her off to Sommerset County?” the Duke said, incredulously. “Absolutely not.”

  “What?” the Earl demanded, clearly having thought that the Duke was goin
g to just agree with him as well. His eyes widened, and he blinked, sputtering.

  “I do not give my permission for you to marry my Daughter,” the Duke replied concisely. Eleanor relaxed inwardly.

  “I have never been thus treated in all my life!” the Earl yelled. Eleanor supposed that he had first been turned down by Lady Julia, and now by her.

  “What? Being told no?” the Duchess asked. “You ought to get used to it. Nothing in this life is a given. Particularly not a lady’s hand in marriage.”