Mrs Ward made her noncommittal grunt again but took her place at the stool Ella had been sitting at behind the counter. Ella guessed it was the most she was going to get by way of support.
“This is the right thing, Ma,” Ella said with finality to both herself and her mother before rushing out of the front of the shop.
Chapter 6
It had been three days since the Duke left London to return to his country estate. In that time, he had already made great strides to resolve the issue with the lumber mill, and production was increasing to its usual quota.
However, as he entered the breakfast room on the third day, he found a large pile of letters that told him the London correspondence had caught up with him. He let out a heavy sigh before lifting the items off their silver tray.
Sipping some tea that he preferred over the currently fashionable luxury of hot chocolate in the morning, he sorted through the letters. Finding one from his mother, he decidedly pushed it to the back of the pile, choosing the one in Lord Melvin’s handwriting first.
He was glad to hear the report given. As requested, Lord Melvin had sought out the currently famous Miss Ella Ward. It seemed that Lord Melvin believed he gave an offer that couldn’t be refused, and the miss was to join the household that very day.
The Duke briefly wondered how much money he had given up to secure her. Luckily, the Duke had not been strapped for finances like so many other lords of the ton. His father and grandfather had both been sensible with their spending, never giving in to the vice of gambling as so many others did, and had been keen investors and businessmen.
The Duke liked to think he followed in their footsteps. He had done everything in his power to improve on the holdings that had been given to him at his father’s passing. Though his mother and friend had been right in assessing that he often worked hard to avoid the society that had burned him so harshly in the past, he also had a passion for improving on the good those before him had done.
Already his contracts with the crown and the measures he supported in the House of Lords had helped improve the lives of subjects the whole country round—at least that was what he hoped his influence and work was causing.
He believed his increase in yearly income was simply due to hard work and determination. He had no desire to gloat about his wealth to others but rather enjoyed when he could use it to help those not quite in such a blessed situation.
Lord Melvin was one such gentleman. It had been no fault of his own that he was born into a situation where no place could be made for him. As a second son to a lord, standings were already precarious, but then to add to the fact that his father lost all their wealth on a bad investment, it had made him nearly poverty-stricken.
At least a lady in such a situation could fall back on a good education to take a place as a governess, companion, or even teacher if needs be. But for a gentleman, it was much harder to make one’s way in the world when you were raised to be one thing and then forced to be another.
He had been glad to give Lord Marvin the position in his estate and the overly generous living with it. In fact, there were several other relations in like fashion that his father supported, and the Duke had continued to support when his time came.
If his father had taught him anything, it was that their good fortune was meant to bless many lives. In the free giving of their surplus, the late Duke believed, they, in turn, would get much more. A very biblical approach, not often expressed by many of his class, but one that he had proven true.
In fact, it was this desire to work hard and give so freely that his father had instilled in both his children that drove Lady Pamala to pursue her passions instead of sitting idly. Despite not always showing it, he knew that his mother was proud that both her children had developed these worthy traits.
Still, she wasn’t always happy when such traits became flaws in society’s eyes: a Duke who preferred work over a gentleman’s life and a daughter who enjoyed bending over needle and thread to social engagements.
It was with this knowledge in mind he steeled himself to read his mother’s letter next. Tearing it open, it was no surprise that it was written with an angry hand. He could always tell his mother was in a mood because in her haste to get all her thoughts down, her handwriting slanted at acute angles.
My Dearest Son,
It is with great disappointment that I was informed this afternoon that you have chosen to return to Halstead after less than a day’s time in your family’s company. It is most distressing as we have two private dinners to attend next week. We will most certainly need to show face in our opera box seat at least once with the new production already having its opening night.
All of this will have to be done without your presence now. It is most disappointing that you would put this needless estate problem in front of your sister’s needs. How will it look when we attend these events and you are not by our side? People could very well question your sister’s decision to come out in society with only a few years since your father’s unfortunate death.
If this was not reason enough for you to return in haste to your family’s side, I have had the most distressing news this afternoon. I have now been told that the dinner we have agreed to at the end of the week will also be attended by Lord and Lady Parshall.
It will be far too obvious if we now remove ourselves from the engagement we have agreed to attend, having no other excuse to remove ourselves outside of their presence. It is still too early in the Season to have a competing engagement, and to claim as such would be quickly discovered as a lie.
How can you ask your sister and me to bear their company without you? I know the events of the past have wounded you, but they have wounded us as well. It would be far too much to ask for your sister to endure their company, with so little experience in society, without your strength and support.
It is for this reason I ask that you return to us at your earliest convenience. I have little constitution left to provide proper navigation through such delicate matters, and your sister is far too unschooled in them to do it justice.
I beg this request of you.
Your Loving Mother,
Dowager Duchess Winthrope
The Duke let out a long and deep sigh as he read the letter a second time. He would have liked to tell his mother to just cancel the engagement and let the gossipers be damned. Still, he knew that she would never do such a thing—especially on the eve of his sister’s coming out.
She spoke as if he had the courage to confront Lord and Lady Parshall, and in all honesty, he didn’t know if he did. Had she not just been scolding him the other night for not yet getting over the pain of the past? How could she now expect him to confront the cause of the pain and be a strength to her and Pamala?
He threw the note down. Already he knew he wouldn’t, couldn’t, deny her the request, but had no desire to think about what lay in his future. Really, most of his work had been completed, and he had successfully mediated the situation at the lumber mill.
Still, he had planned to hold out in the country till just before the ball and Pamala’s introduction at court. Now that wouldn’t be possible. Still, he was determined to stay away from society as long as he could. If Lord and Lady Parshall were there, he would stay at Halstead as long as possible to avoid any accidental encounter.
Though his last encounter with Viscount Parshall and his wife was two years back, it still stung him deeply. His eyes seemed to gloss over while the memory came back to him.
The Duke’s father had just passed, and he was in London as he was sworn into the House of the Lords in his father’s seat. Though he hadn’t forgotten the sting that Lady Elisabeth Smith had caused him when he was just nineteen years old, he would have liked to think he had finally successfully buried that heartbreak away.
It should have come to no surprise that the newly married Lord Parshall was there in the hall as the mostly ceremonial political business took place. However, he was still taken aback when leaving t
he hall, he found Lady Parshall waiting outside for her husband.
The Duke wished he could have said she disgusted him, but if he were honest when he saw her at that moment, he only saw the beautiful lady who had enchanted him three years prior. Certainly, she looked different in her exuberantly fashionable gown. Under her matching silk bonnet were the same heart-shaped face, golden locks, and piercing green eyes.
Lady Elisabeth Smith had been born to an Earl of little influence and even smaller means. When he first met her as an impressionable young pup, she had been two years his senior and a spectacular light to behold.
It didn’t matter that her gowns were humble, that her father’s London home was rented on a less than fashionable street, or that they could scarcely afford rented carriages, having none of their own. Lady Elisabeth had shone with an inner light, catching the attention of every gentleman in every room she entered.
At first, the Duke had never understood why she had turned her attention to him when she could have had any gentleman of her choosing. The fact that she would have little by way of means to bring to a marriage was inconsequential. She was the centre of society, and lords and ladies alike revolved around her attentions.
On the other hand, he was an insecure young lord fresh from school and still learning the ways of society. In many ways, he was still that immature child who liked to play pranks on his schoolmasters alongside Lord Melvin. He had never even considered marriage as an option. He merely wanted to enjoy the frivolities of society as all the other young lords.
When Lady Elizabeth had set her sights on him, however, all of that changed. It didn’t take long for the Duke to believe he was utterly in love with the woman. Everything about her seemed perfect. There was so much more to her than that initial outer layer of beauty. She was easy to talk with, was well educated enough to hold deeper conversations—unlike many of her kind—and she had a quick wit.
The only thing that seemed to eclipse her beauty was her personality. Few, if any at all, who came in to contact with her, didn’t find her the most wonderful woman in all of society. It had been commented upon by many that it was a wonder she was not married yet.
When the Duke had asked her that very question several weeks into their friendship, she simply said that she waited for love. He remembered the scoff he gave at her answer.
“You think it’s silly of me, I am sure,” she answered in her usual soft fashion. “A woman in my situation should use all her skills to ensnare a man before my years are gone. I am sure that many have commented that I am nearly at that point of expiration,” she added with an easy giggle. “But I don’t think one’s situation should determine their choices. If I marry, and I certainly hope I do, of course, it will be with a man I can see enjoying my life with. What is the point of title and comfort if one cannot be happy?”
She had furrowed her golden brows in concentration as she spoke. He always loved it when she did that. She had sounded so convincing as well.
She had convinced him that she was not just pure of heart, without the insatiable hunger for a title that so many ladies of society had, but that she also had been lucky enough to discover that she was falling in love with him.
At the time, he was a gangly creature, not yet grown into the man he would become. He had honestly thought himself lucky to have earned her love and admiration. He had nearly been to the point of proposing when the truth had been revealed.
Lady Elisabeth hadn’t been waiting for love all these months. She had been waiting for the chance to be a Duchess. There had been the Lady Elisabeth she had shown the world and then her true nature that only surfaced when she was alone.
Though she had hoped to secure a place at The Duke’s side, she hadn’t denied herself other pleasures. At the same time that The Duke had considered them courting, she was also growing close to two other men. One was a much senior Duke who had recently lost his wife, and the second was Viscount Parshall.
Lord Parshall had always been a strange creature, with few social skills but deep pockets. In hindsight, he can only guess that Lady Elisabeth was engaging Lord Parshall’s affections in the event that her first two options didn’t work out to her liking.
All of this information had come to light when one of her past friends had stepped forward to tell The Duke the truth. Lady Clarissa was the same age as the Duke but had known Lady Elisabeth from their years at a ladies’ seminary together.
Lady Clarissa had unfolded all the information she had on Lady Elisabeth after finding a connection with his younger sister. She had informed Lady Pamala of Lady Elisabeth’s true plans, despite Lady Pamala only being a child of thirteen and quite possibly unable to understand all the delicate workings of society.
It would seem that even in their early school years, Lady Elisabeth had gone to great lengths to boast of her future plans to secure her place as a Duchess. She had even memorized all the genealogy of titles and listed out possible prospects. The Duke had always been at the top of her list.
It hadn’t been love or even admiration that had caused Lady Elisabeth to notice the awkward young boy that was still learning his place in the world. It was a decided, plotted act simply for the sake of gaining title and fortune.
Yes, it had broken The Duke’s young heart, but at the same time, it had also taught him an important lesson. Everyone always had ulterior motives in life, and to assume otherwise was just foolish and stupid.
He had considered himself educated from the experience and moved on. That had changed when he saw the newly married Lady Parshall standing outside the House of Lords. He expected she had placed herself just there on purpose.
He never spoke to her again from the moment he heard the truth of Lady Elisabeth’s intentions from his sister. He had simply stopped calling, and when they were at the same events, he blatantly avoided her.
It wasn’t long after this that the other Duke passed, many say on account of grieving his late wife’s loss. Lady Elisabeth secured an engagement to Viscount Parshall.
“My dear, you shouldn’t be standing out here,” he heard the annoyingly squeaky voice of Lord Parshall call over his shoulder.
Up until that moment, The Duke had been locked in Lady Parshall’s gaze. However, the moment her husband spoke, he watched her visage change like the dropping of a curtain. What had been longing and apology instantly turned into an overly joyous light.
She wrapped both hands around her swelling belly, causing The Duke’s gaze to register there.
“You know, my dear, I have become increasingly worried every time you are away from us.”
She gazed on her husband’s face, marred with smallpox scars, with loving admiration. It reminded him how much she used to look at him in the same manner and how much of a lie it had all been.
When she had looked at him like that, he was sure that it had meant something. Now when he saw those emotions he knew that people could never be trusted.
He often wondered later on if Lady Parshall had been waiting to speak to him as she had looked to be when he first exited the hall or had she simply been there to gloat. To show him that despite saving his own heart from entrapment to her, she had found someone else. Lord Parshall was, after all, still a Lord and very well off indeed.
The way that Parshall had looked upon his wife and her round belly had made the Duke wish that he was still in that innocent bliss of thinking her kind words and loving gazes were not an act. Had his knowledge of Lady Parshall’s true intentions all those years back actually saved him or sentenced him to a life of enlightened misery while Parshall lived in blissful ignorance?
He hated how much he wished he knew what Lady Parshall had wanted to say to him that day, and even more how jealous he realized he was of Lord Parshall’s fabricated but happy life. For the Duke was now sure that Lady Parshall had no love in her heart for anyone but herself.
Those memories had stayed with him all through his time mourning the loss of his father. In many ways, he mourned the loss of that
simpleton boy he had been and would never ever hope to be again.
Mending the Duke's Heart: A Historical Regency Romance Book Page 6