by Laura Martin
* * *
As they walked through the streets Alice gripped his hand excitedly and pulled him to one side, leading him to the small bookshop that had opened about a year ago. In the window, with a very fetching green and yellow cover, was The Native Flora and Fauna of Eastern Australia. It had taken George a year to compile his notes, which he’d sent to England, thinking he would never find a publisher, but interest in Australia was growing and his snippets of local flavour and anecdotes from his life growing up near Sydney, interspersed between the pictures and information about the plants and animals, had proved to be a winning combination. It had been published in England a year ago, the first copies finding their way to Sydney about nine months later.
They entered the cool building of the church, their eyes taking a moment to adjust to the darkness. At the very front, sitting in the pews waiting were the Crawfords and the Robertsons, both families swelled in numbers by more new arrivals, two little babies that were still so small they spent most of their time sleeping and feeding. Then, sitting next to Francesca, her brilliant blue eyes shining, her hair the same golden red as her mother’s, was his and Alice’s little girl, Elizabeth. She was two years old, although sometimes George felt she spoke with the wisdom and solemnity of an adult.
‘Mummy,’ she screeched, bolting out of Francesca’s arms and throwing herself at Alice. Alice bent and picked her up, planting kisses all over her soft rosy cheeks. Then Elizabeth grinned at her father and catapulted herself into George’s arms. George had once thought he could never be happier than when Alice had agreed to marry him, but he’d been wrong. When their partnership of two had become a family of three his heart had swelled even further.
Together the three of them approached the vicar, a small, jolly man who was standing waiting for them.
The ceremony passed in a blur, the vows, the blessing, the placing of the wedding ring on Alice’s finger to join the sapphire and diamond one she never took off. Then finally, after three long years, Alice was his wife.
‘Congratulations,’ Crawford said and everyone crowded round Alice and George as they made their way out of the church.
‘I don’t know what took you so long,’ Robertson murmured.
‘Three years is a very long engagement,’ Alice said, looking down happily at the ring on her finger.
‘You, my darling, are worth the wait.’
* * *
If you enjoyed this story
check out the other books in the
Scandalous Australian Bachelors miniseries
Courting the Forbidden Debutante
Reunited with His Long-Lost Cinderella
And check out these other great reads
by Laura Martin
An Earl to Save Her Reputation
The Viscount’s Runaway Wife
Keep reading for an excerpt from How to Tempt a Duke by Madeline Martin.
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How to Tempt a Duke
by Madeline Martin
Prologue
As reported in the Lady Observer, from the evening of April the fifth, 1814, the below on-dits—following a very detailed account of lobster patties, chilled oysters and a decadent lemon syllabub.
What is a sumptuous affair without a bit of scandal?
It all began when a certain Belle of the Season danced not only a second set with a blue-eyed earl with whom we are all acquainted, but a third. As if that were not enough for the rapacious attendees to feast upon, the Earl then took the lady’s face in his hands and kissed her.
Mercy me!
Following this salacious display of affection came their official announcement of engagement, which produced a collective look of relief from the attendees. And disappointment from some, I’d wager, as there are always those who love a taste of scandal to season their tongues.
Suffice it to say the entire scene was quite riveting. Some might even say romantic.
And perhaps this Lady Observer might agree, were it not for the other person in this tale who warrants consideration. After all, before the Belle of the Season emerged in mid-March and blossomed with the enviable beauty of a summer bloom, there was another who caught the cerulean gaze of the Earl.
There was no mention of an engagement, this is true, but all believed there would be in time. Including the lady, no doubt.
While one cannot blame the Belle of the Season, to whom the burgeoning relationship was unknown, neither can one blame love, which strikes fast and without warning.
Regardless of where the blame lies, the tale has not ended happily for a lady who masks it so well she’s earned the unfortunate moniker of Ice Queen.
She has watched the entire heartbreaking scene unfold before her dry eyes with a composure tightly reined, as if she were bored. While this only perpetuates rumors of her cold nature, one cannot help but wonder at her ability to maintain such stoicism after everything she’s been through in recent years.
If her heart is truly ice, as some claim, it stands to reason that it would shatter more easily when broken...
In other observations, Lady Norrick’s gown was quite the thing. So many beads adorned her dress she had to keep sitting to alleviate its pressing weight...
And on went the article, further educating those who had been unable to attend on how very fine Lady Norrick’s gown was...
Chapter One
April 1814
There it was—between a cataloged detail of the lobster patties and a thorough description of Lady Norrick’s ball gown lay the entire tale of Lady Eleanor Murray’s most humiliating moment.
And a perpetual reminder of that blasted moniker.
Ice Queen, indeed.
Inside she was anything but ice, with untethered emotion lashing and writhing until an aching knot settled in the back of her throat.
But ladies were not to show emotion—and she was, after all, a Murray. Murrays were strong. They did not show fear. And they certainly did not concede to hurt, no matter how it twisted within one’s soul.
She stared down at the crinkled page in her hands. The corners of the paper fluttered and called to attention the way she trembled.
She wanted to read the story again and wished for the usual: a detailed account of dinner, as always very thorough, told through the eyes of the Lady Observer, and trifling little on-dits that did not include her. Simple, ineffectual tales—like pointing out someone who had had two glasses of champagne instead of one, or whose reticule might have been left behind after the guests departed, followed by speculation as to why it had been left with such haste.
But the words of the story had not changed. Lady Alice had swept late into the Season, bright and beautiful and devoid of the desperation clawing at Eleanor. Every man had been drawn to her—including Hugh.
Eleanor’s heart gave an ugly twinge.
Not Hugh. Lord Ledsey. She no longer held the right to address him or even think of him so informally. That right belonged to Lady Alice now. To make matters worse, Lady Alice was such a kind soul, and so lovely a person, it rendered her impossible to dislike. How very vexing.
The life Eleanor had envisioned with Hugh—summers at Ledsey Manor, the Season spent at Ledsey Place, freedom from having to plod
along in the dreaded search for a suitable husband—all of it now belonged to Alice.
Eleanor’s throat went tight. Dash it—she was about to cry.
A delicate knock sounded at her closed door.
She quickly shoved the paper under the pillow of her bed, blinked her eyes clear and grabbed up a book. “Enter.”
The Countess of Westix swept into the room, followed by a footman carrying a large boxed parcel. Eleanor’s mother indicated the dressing table with a wave of her hand and then addressed her daughter. “I’d like a word with you.”
The footman obediently placed the parcel on the seat before Eleanor’s dressing table and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Eleanor eyed the curious package first, and then her mother. The Countess wore a lavender evening gown sparkling with beadwork over a net of black lace. She was lovely, despite the silver in her golden hair, which had been coiffured to its usual state of perfection. There was not a wrinkle of worry or anger on her smooth face, but still Eleanor’s stomach gave a familiar wrench—as it did any time her mother entered her room.
A lecture was forthcoming.
But what of the curious gift?
Her mother regarded the book Eleanor held. “What are you reading?”
“The Festival of St. Jago,” Eleanor replied slowly.
Surely her mother had not come into her room to discuss her selection of literature?
The Countess tilted her head dramatically to the side. “Upside down?”
Eleanor focused on the page for the first time. It stared up at her from its flipped position. Exactly upside down.
Drat.
“Perhaps you were reading something else?”
The Countess of Westix lifted her brow in the way she always did when it was obvious she’d spotted a lie. That look had plagued Eleanor through the course of her very rigid childhood. Or at least after Evander had been sent to school, following the incident with their father, since when life had become impossibly strict.
Eleanor set the book aside with careful measure. The Lady Observer gave an incriminating crackle from beneath her pillow.
The Countess sat on the bed beside her daughter. “I read it, too. And I’ve heard the rumors—what they say about you.”
Eleanor pressed a fingernail into the pad of her thumb until it hurt more than her mortification. It was a trick she’d used as a girl, when emotion threatened to overwhelm her, as though she could pinch the feeling out of herself with the sharp sensation.
She did not want to be having this abysmal conversation with her mother, having to relive the awful moment ad nauseam. Hadn’t the experience itself been torment enough?
“I’m proud of you, daughter. You’ve maintained your composure.”
The Countess settled her hand on Eleanor’s arm. The touch was as awkward as it was foreign. Her mother immediately drew away her cold, dry fingers and tucked the offending appendage against her waist.
“It is I who is ashamed.”
The shock of those words left Eleanor speechless. Her mother was without even a modicum of impropriety.
“I did not have a good marriage with your father, God rest his soul.” The Countess regarded Eleanor with a cool look. “He came from a strong clan before his family was elevated to the English nobility. It was his belief that all emotion was weakness, indicative of one who was baseborn, and his family had worked too hard to climb high to be considered common. Murrays are strong. They do not show fear.”
Eleanor bit back a bitter smile. She knew those words well and had spent a lifetime listening to them being recited. After all, she knew the story well enough. Her father had not allowed any of the ton to look down on them for being Scottish, for not having been members of the nobility since the dawn of time.
“I gave up a piece of myself when I married your father,” said her mother. “I didn’t realize...” Her eyes became glossy. She pursed her lips and gave a long, slow blink before resuming. “I didn’t realize I would be making my children give a piece of themselves away as well.”
This show of such emotion left Eleanor wanting to squirm on the bed with discomfort. This was immediately followed by a shade of guilt. After all, her mother was voluntarily peeling back a layer of herself to offer a rare peek within, and Eleanor could think of nothing but her own uncertainty on how to handle this foreign and precarious moment.
Her mother rose abruptly, alleviating the uncomfortable tension between them. “I aided in the suppressing of your feelings until you were rendered emotionless...cold. I did not see that until this incident.” She sighed and the rigid set to her shoulders sagged slightly. “I’m sorry, daughter. And I will right that wrong tonight.” She strode to the box and pulled off the cover.
Eleanor slid off the bed and peered into the opened parcel. Nestled within was a length of folded black silk.
“It’s a domino and mask.” The Countess gracefully scooped a black silk mask from the box. “There’s a wig as well. To protect your identity.”
To cover her hair. Of course. Anyone seeing the garish splash of red would immediately know Eleanor’s identity. The color had come from her father and it certainly had not offered Eleanor any favors. Not like her mother’s green eyes, which Eleanor was grateful to have inherited.
Eleanor stared down at the pile of black silk and her heartbeat gave a little trip. “Where am I to go that I should need a disguise?”
“I’ve paid a courtesan to teach you what I cannot.”
Eleanor jerked her gaze to her mother in absolute horror.
“Oh, she wasn’t always a courtesan,” the Countess replied. “She’d once been a sweet vicar’s daughter, which is how she is known to me. Difficult times do harsh things to women who have no other options.” She pressed her lips together in a reverent pause. “The woman is discreet, and she will teach you to be more genuine, more receptive. Less like me. I don’t want you to have a cold marriage or an austere life, in which every detail is perpetually calculated.” The mask trembled in her mother’s loose hold. “It’s been so long since I’ve allowed myself to soften I fear I would be a poor tutor.”
She pushed the mask into Eleanor’s hands.
Her fingers closed around the silk without thought. “A courtesan?” she gasped. “I’ll be ruined. You’ll be ruined.”
Her mother leveled her with a look. “Your father is dead, your brother is missing, I am getting old, and you are already two and twenty. The Season is halfway over and your one prospect has found another woman. You do know that if Evander is gone three more years he’ll be declared dead and your cousin will inherit everything?”
Eleanor’s thoughts flinched from the mention of her brother. It ached too much to think of his absence. He had left four years ago, to seek the adventure his father, the previous Earl of Westix, had once relished. In a world of turmoil and war, his prolonged absence gave them all cause for concern. Not that they had relinquished hope. Not yet, at least. But that did not mean they did not worry.
Her mother was correct in her harsh assessment. Eleanor’s prospects were bleak.
The Countess was also correct regarding Eleanor’s cousin, Leopold. He was a rapacious young popinjay, with an eye on Evander’s title and any wealth he could squander on eccentric clothing and weighted gambling tables. Eleanor would get little from him before he managed to consume it all.
“Perhaps next Season will be better,” Eleanor said. “I know I’m already nearly on the shelf, but—”
“There isn’t money for another Season.” Her mother pressed a hand to the flat of her stomach, just below her breasts, and drew in a staying breath. “Your father spent it traipsing around the world. Evander didn’t leave to follow in his path—he left to repair it. To save us from financial ruin.”
Eleanor maintained her composure—a near impossible feat when the world seemed to have tip
ped out from underneath her. “I didn’t know...”
“I wouldn’t have expected you to. It’s not information I would have willingly shared. At least your father had the forethought to establish a trust in my name after we were wed. Which is why you’ve had the Seasons you’ve had so far.”
The confident tilt of her mother’s head lowered a fraction of an inch. Weariness etched lines on her face, and for the first time in Eleanor’s life her mother appeared truly old.
Their situation was indeed dire.
Eleanor unfurled her fingers and regarded the mask crumpled against her damp palm.
“This may be your only chance, Eleanor,” the Countess said. “Learn how to be less cold, how to appear more welcoming. Dispel the rumors and rise above the label they’ve placed upon you. Be in charge of your own destiny.”
Her mother touched her face with icy fingertips. Eleanor did not pull away, but instead met the anxiety in her mother’s stare.
The Countess’s brow creased. “I want a better life for you.”
Eleanor’s heart pounded very fast. Surely her cheeks were red with the effort of it? “Do you trust her, Mother?”
The Countess of Westix nodded resolutely. “I do.”
“Then so shall I.” A tremor of fear threatened to clamber up Eleanor’s spine, but she willed it away. “When do I start?”
The Countess turned to the window, where the sky beyond had grown dark. “Tonight.”
* * *
Charles Pemberton was the new Duke of Somersville. The news was unwelcome, for it meant that in the six months it had taken him to return to London his father had died.
He stood by the desk in the library within the massive structure of Somersville House, his father’s letter clutched limply between his fingertips.
It did not feel right to sit at the desk, when for so many decades it had been the previous Duke of Somersville who had resided behind the great expanse of polished mahogany. The entire room had been off-limits to Charles for the majority of his life, and it left everything within him feeling too hard, too desolately foreign, to offer any comfort.