Barely a Bride

by Rebecca Hagan Lee

“What is it you want?” Jarrod asked as soon as the Duke of Sussex joined them at the table.

  Sussex cocked an eyebrow. “What do I want?” He leaned forward. “You invited me to join you, Shepherdston, not the other way around.”

  “You’ve been nosing around us for weeks,” Colin said. “What are you up to?”

  “The question is, what are you up to?” the duke replied.

  “We’re trying to discover why you are still interested in courting Abernathy’s bride.” Jarrod got to the point. “Heard about that, did you?” Sussex smiled.

  “Of course we heard about it,” Colin shouted. “You haven’t exactly kept it a secret.”

  “That’s because I wanted to get your attention,” Sussex told them. “And I knew that continuing my pursuit of Lady Alyssa would do it.”

  “Our attention?” Jarrod frowned. “Why?”

  Sussex leaned closer and lowered his voice to just above a whisper. “You are the leader of a group known as the Free Fellows, are you not?”

  “Where did you hear that?” Jarrod asked warily.

  “I’ve heard it for years,” Sussex said. “Almost since you formed it.”

  “Impossible,” Jarrod said. “There’s no such organization.”

  “Is that so?” Sussex queried. “Because I heard you and Abernathy and Grantham formed a secret society while you were at Knightsguild. I’ve known about it since Knightsguild.”

  “Might I remind Your Grace that you did not attend Knightsguild?” Colin offered.

  “No, I did not,” Sussex replied. “But Manners did. He told me about it.” The duke watched as Shepherdston and Grantham exchanged looks. “I see,” he mused, “that your secret society wasn’t as secret as you supposed.”

  Jarrod shrugged. “Manners had the cot next to mine. Naturally, he wanted to be a part of our group of friends and was always whining and threatening to follow us or report us to Norworthy.”

  “Didna’ have the guts to actually do it.” Colin’s Scottish burr was thick with disgust. “But I see he lived up to his reputation as a tattle.”

  The duke inclined his head. “He’s a distant cousin who, before he inherited, often prevailed upon me to augment his allowance.”

  “You bribed him,” Jarrod corrected flatly. “For information about us? When we were boys?”

  Sussex nodded. “I, too, wanted to be a part of your group of friends. And now that I know that your secret group is working to defeat the French, I want more than ever to become a part of it.”

  “So, you’ve been pursuing Abernathy’s bride?” Colin asked.

  “She wasn’t Abernathy’s bride when I began pursuing her. She was the girl my mother selected for me. But she caught Abernathy’s attention.”

  “If there was a secret organization,” Jarrod began, glancing at Colin to make certain he followed, “any new member would naturally have to meet each old member’s approval.”

  Colin picked up Jarrod’s thread of conversation. “And would naturally have to meet and pass a series of, shall we say, challenges in order to prove himself trustworthy?”

  “Naturally,” Sussex agreed. “What would you have me do?”

  Jarrod clenched his jaw to keep from grinning. “Before we have you do anything, Your Grace, we have to know two things. Why? And what are your feelings for Alyssa Abernathy?”

  “Why?” Sussex repeated. “Because I grew up in similar circumstances to yours, Shepherdston. A lonely boy surrounded by sycophants and hired companions. I begged to be allowed to attend Knightsguild because you and Abernathy and Grantham were there, and I wanted to be like you. I still do.”

  He looked away, unable to face Jarrod and Colin after baring his soul, afraid of having them turn him down. And while Daniel, Duke of Sussex, knew that Shepherdston and Grantham might not believe him, every word of what he had told them was true. He had bribed Manners into relating all of the Free Fellows of Knightsguild’s adventures, every escapade, every punishment, every triumph Manners knew, so that he could feel as if he were one of them instead of one of the many miserable buggers at Eton. Manners pretended to be one of the fellows, too. But, he was whiny and irritatingly timid—too timid to actually be a Free Fellow, so he had claimed the role of historian and secretary. Sussex grimaced. Manners was the closest thing to a friend he had ever had, and the only thing they had had in common was Shepherdston, Abernathy, and Grantham—the Free Fellows League.

  “What about Lady Abernathy?” Colin demanded.

  “I like her,” Sussex answered honestly. “Or rather, I like everything I know about her. Her mother and my mother inhabit the same circles of friends. They thought it a good match. Now that I am five and twenty, my mother has been hounding me incessantly to marry. Lady Alyssa seemed the perfect choice. I thought she would make a fine duchess.” He gave a short, self- deprecating laugh. “She apparently disagreed.”

  “Are you in love with her?” Jarrod asked.

  “Of course not,” Sussex retorted. “I don’t even know her. The first words I’ve exchanged with her since we were children were spoken at her wedding breakfast. I think it’s apparent that she prefers Abernathy.”

  “Yet you promised to continue your pursuit…”

  Sussex blushed. “Yes, well, I don’t like to lose, and if you check the betting books over there”—he nodded toward White’s betting books—“you’ll find there are several significant wagers betting that I would win Lady Alyssa’s hand. Several of them placed by business rivals and, well—” He cleared his throat. “I can afford to lose the sums wagered, but I would much prefer that they did.”

  Jarrod laughed. The young duke sounded very much like he should be one of them. “You weren’t serious?”

  “I would have courted and married her,” Sussex admitted, “if her father had accepted my suit, and I would have made her a good husband, but… He glanced down at the toes of his highly polished boots. “In truth, I’m in no hurry to marry or procure an heir. I simply wanted an end to my mother’s haranguing.”

  Colin poured the duke a dram of whisky and slid it across the table to him. “What do you know about gardening?”

  “Nothing.”

  Jarrod snorted. “You possess the finest gardens in England, man, yet you know nothing about gardening?”

  “The gardens have been in place for nearly two hundred years,” Sussex said. “And professional gardeners have always come with the garden. I simply enjoy the results. Why?”

  “Your first challenge is to become a master gardener and pay a call on Lady Abernathy.” Jarrod’s smile was wicked. “She’s missing her husband and needs a bit of cheering up.”

  Sussex groaned. “You do realize she threatened to shoot me at her wedding breakfast?”

  “Aye,” Colin answered. “We heard.”

  “So, why me?”

  “Two reasons,” Jarrod said. “The first is to prove how trustworthy you are. You pay court to Lady Abernathy, but you don’t touch.” He shot the handsome duke a scathing look. “Not so much as a stolen kiss as long as she is Lord Abernathy’s wife.”

  “Contrary to my hotheaded words at the wedding breakfast, I do not make a habit of seducing other men’s wives—especially when they appear to be in love with their husbands.”

  “That’s good, Your Grace,” Colin said. “But we have to make certain. And this is the best way to kill two birds with one stone.”

  Sussex stared at Colin as if he’d lost his mind. “Surely, you can’t believe that I’m the person best suited to lift Lady Alyssa’s spirits?”

  “Why not?” Jarrod demanded. “Who better to lift a lady’s spirits than an old suitor?”

  Sussex frowned. “Do you mean to challenge her fidelity as well as my own?”

  Jarrod took a deep breath. “Let’s just say we’re giving Lady Abernathy a reason to get up in the morning.”

  “If only for the pleasure of turning you away from her front door. Just be careful that you don’t give her cause to shoot you, Your G
race,” Colin added. “Or us, either.”