Chapter 23
Pierce silently congratulated himself on his patience as he watched Noelle move to the settee, for all he wanted to do was to shake her until she gave him the information he yearned for. He refused to sit, instead opting to stand in front of her, his hands clenched in tight fists at his sides.
“My patience wears thin, I’d recommend you spit out the truth and make it quick,” he warned.
Noelle cleared her throat and tried to gather her thoughts before tentatively beginning, “Your grace, this whole misunderstanding is all my fault. You see, I am indeed Noelle Parrish. The girl you’ve been spending time with was merely my lady’s maid, or at least she was.”
“Impossible!” he roared, “I said I wanted the truth and I very well meant it.”
“No, it is the truth. I know it sounds preposterous but if you’d only let me explain than you might understand. Her name is Hope Hillburn and she’s been my maid for the last several years. This whole thing started before I ever knew about you and the…uh, the arrangement you and my father had made.”
“What thing?”
“You see I met this man by chance, an American who caught my fancy,” Noelle had to stop and wipe and a stray tear that had escaped the corner of her eye. It was more painful than she imagined speaking of Soren but the callous look on the duke’s face implored her to continue, “I knew there was no way I could possibly manage to meet with him unless I did something drastic. That’s when I noticed the odd resemblance between Hope and myself. I begged then nearly commanded her to take my place so I could sneak out of the house disguised as her, a mere servant, and meet with him.”
Pierce’s jaw was clenched tight as Noelle watched a muscle twitch in aggravation. He finally sat down in a nearby chair before running a hand through his thick hair. “I swear to you that if you’re lying to me you will live to regret the day I ever met your father and won your hand in marriage.”
Noelle nervously gnawed on her bottom lip as she shook her head back and forth frantically, “You have my word that this is all true. When my father finally told me of the arrangement he had made with you I was furious. I left that night to go tell the man, the American,” she could still not bring herself to say his name, “what had happened. That’s when he offered to take me away to America and make me his wife. I knew I had to convince Hope to take my place permanently.”
Pierce snorted, “And of course, what servant wouldn’t jump at the chance to act as a lady and marry a duke?” He could’ve sworn he saw red flashing behind his eyes. He felt angry and sick all at once as he realized that he had been foolish enough to fall into the same trap as before. It was a different woman but the same story—she had been out to marry him for his title and his wealth. Maybe her motives had been different than Eliza’s had but the end result was the same. When the anger finally subsided he hung his head in his hands and stared at the ground feeling utterly and completely defeated. It was as if his heart had stopped beating and his reason for living had disappeared with the elusive Hope. He groaned at the irony of her name, for at one time she had given him hope and now that he knew the truth it was as if she had taken that hope and dashed it into a million pieces.
Noelle watched Pierce slump in the chair and wished she could know what he was thinking. The silence stretched out before them in painfully long minutes. She could hear the clock on the mantle ticking away the seconds and she thought she just might go crazy if she had to listen to the repetitious sound much longer. Finally she cleared her throat and said, “If you truly believe that about Hope then you don’t know her at all.”
Turning dark, cold eyes on her he spoke, “Apparently I didn’t know her at all, I didn’t even know her real name for crying out loud. And you—you were going to let me marry a servant while you gallivanted off to another country with some foreign man all to satisfy some selfish desire. Did you think about anyone but yourself?”
Noelle reared back as guilt flooded and consumed her. She had been selfish, not realizing the extent to which her decisions were affecting anyone else.
“You would never have known had I not come back.”
“And why did you come back? Did this illustrious American decide he’d had enough of you?”
Though Noelle knew he had every right to sound upset and bitter, his coldness still managed to surprise her. She took a deep breath and tried to will down the lump of emotion clogging her throat, “No, he died, so I had no choice but to come back. There was no life for me without him and the only thing I knew to do was to come back to the life I had left behind.”
“And poor Hope was probably devastated to have to give up the life of luxury and ease you had so generously bestowed upon her.”
Noelle had had enough, “Stop that! You are talking about her as if she’s some cold-hearted, gold-digging wretch.”
He looked at her, one eyebrow raised insolently, “Isn’t she, aren’t all women?”
“No, I mean I can’t speak for all women but I can speak for her. You’re acting as if she jumped at the opportunity to take on the role of lady and it was actually quite the opposite. I had to force her, almost threaten her to do me the favor. I knew I couldn’t just leave my family with the scandal my absence would’ve created so I convinced her to take my place. She never wanted any of it, the dresses, the balls, you.”
For one blessed second, the insolence was wiped from his face so she took that for a good sign and continued, “I thought she’d be relieved when I came back to reclaim my life. I honestly would never have thought that something would’ve developed between the two of you, that you could have feelings for one another.”
“No, it’s apparent that you don’t think much when making your decisions. I on the other hand have some thinking to do and it would be best if you left. I’ll have my driver take you home and in the meantime I’ll try to figure out a way out of this marriage. If there’s one thing I do know, it’s that I will never, never marry you.”
Deceiving the Duke of Kerrington Page 32