The Duke's Dilemma: Regency Romance Menage Short Stories

by Lacoste, G. G.

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  Katherine was very excited about the ball, and couldn't wait to experience attending a ball for her first time. However, there was a slight dilemma - Katherine was a maid who owned very little clothing to begin with, much less anything elegant to wear at a royal ball. She only had three dresses, all of which were all plain, simple and nowhere near beautiful or elegant enough to be worn to the royal ball.

  The following morning, Katherine was scrubbing the floors of the manor's large parlor when she heard Duchess Rosamund call for her. She had an odd excited giddiness in her voice (which was very uncommon for Rosamund), which raised suspicion in Katherine.

  Katherine walked over to her mistress's side, and discovered that the reason the Duchess seemed to be in such a sunny, cheerful mood was because she was wearing a ridiculously expensive-looking, and elegant, frilly, silk blue dress that had been personally customized to perfection by the Duchess's personal seamstress from Paris. Rosamund gingerly danced around her bedroom, flaunting around what appeared to her beautiful new ball-gown. Two of Rosamund's "afternoon-tea" friends, Sylvia and Anastasia were huddled around with her, cooing her with compliments - although Sylvia had an awfully obvious look of pure envy in her eyes, jealous of the Duchess's ridiculously expensive looking fancy dress.

  "Isn't it beautiful, Katherine, dear? And you wouldn't believe the fortune it's worth - certainly no where near what you can afford!"

  Katherine was used to hearing arrogant and rude remarks like this from the Duchess, who was an incredibly spoiled, selfish and self-absorbed woman with a highly demeaning, disrespectful attitude. All of the servants would whisper insults behind her back, obviously displeased with her horrendous attitude.

  "Yes, it's certainly a lovely dress. And I'm sure it did cost quite the fortune."

  The Duchess's lips curled up into a prideful smirk as she continued to dance around in her gown and admire her reflexion in the mirror. At this point, it had become crystal-clear that both of her friends were extremely jealous of Rosamund's dress. Rosamund was aware of this, and couldn't have been happier. Nothing made her happier than the look of envy in another young woman's face who wasn't as wealthy, beautiful and privileged she was.

  "Katherine, fetch us some tea", the Duchess ordered.

  "Yes, Madame". Katherine began making her way to the kitchen when Sarah, an older maid who also worked at the Oxford Manor, stopped her.

  "The Duke told me to pass on a message for you", Sarah announced in a hushed tone. "He said there's something waiting for you on the left corner of the library, behind the shelf of poetry."

  "Thank you Sarah, I'll see to it after I've set down a pot of tea for the Duchess and her guests", Katherine replied.

  While Katherine was boiling the Duchess's tea, she was overcome with curiosity, wondering what on earth it was that was "waiting" for her in the library. Her first guess was that Edward had slipped a wonderful new book for her to read. In that case, Katherine already knew it would be a fantastic read, as the Duke had an impeccable taste in literature.

  After the tea was ready, Katherine quickly set it onto a tray, along with some fresh green grapes, biscuits, cheese and caviar. She then whisked it away and served it to the Duchess and her guests.

  After tea had been served, and Rosamund had temporarily stopped barking out commands, Katherine slipped off to the library, eager to see whatever was waiting for her. When she arrived at the left corner, just like Sarah had advised her to, she spotted a large white box lying ahead of her on the burgundy desk behind the poetry bookshelf.

  Katherine slowly opened the box - when she finally discovered the object that was hiding inside of the white box, she gasped, taken over by utter shock and immensely pleasant surprise.

  Lo and behold, after seeing the Duchess show off her beautiful, fancy ball-gown, Katherine was now face to face with an even MORE beautiful gown than the Duchess had been wearing! It was a beautiful crimson-red color and was made of luxurious, gorgeous Indian silk - the kind that Katherine would've never in her wildest dreams been able to afford, just like Rosamund had said.

  Katherine peeped out the library's glass window to make sure Rosamund wasn't anywhere in sight, as she knew the Duchess would burst into a fiery rage if she were to discover that her maid had a much more beautiful and elegant ball-gown than she did. When Katherine saw that there was no sign of the Duchess, she quickly raced upstairs and locked herself in her room. After reaching her safe haven, she decided to try on the beautiful dress, and slipped it on while standing in front of her long mirror. Katherine let out a gasp when she glanced at her reflection - the dress was far too beautiful for words, and Katherine looked so elegant wearing it that she almost didn't recognize herself. She no longer looked like a plain little maid; instead, Katherine looked like a sophisticated young woman who came from a wealthy, royal family. She didn't know it, but Katherine looked a hundred times more beautiful than the Duchess had looked in her ball-gown. She couldn't wait to thank the Duke for such an incredibly kind and thoughtful grand gesture.

  Katherine glanced at the antique-looking bronze grandfather clock in her bedroom that hung over her small bad. It was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon and there were only 2 hours left for it to already be time for the grand, royal event, which was titled "The Lavender Ball" in celebration of spring. The Lavender Ball was an annual tradition in the royal family, which made it all the more excited for the wide-eyed, innocent orphaned maid.

  Katherine immediately began finishing up the rest of her chores for the day, hoping she would have enough time to get herself ready for the closely approaching ball. After all, she wouldn't stand to miss it.

  As she was dusting the countertops and paintings that hung in the Oxford Manor, she found herself daydreaming about the handsome Duke. She pictured his mysterious-looking, enticing dark hair that hung a few inches below his chin, and his dreamy hazel eyes, which were captivating, as well as filled with kindness. She knew it sounded awful, as the Duke was now a married man, whenever he was standing in front of her, she would suddenly get a funny feeling in her stomach, and had a desperate urge to kiss him. His lips were gorgeous, she thought. Soft and enticing, his lips had a rather handsome shape in which they slightly curved downwards. He was immensely handsome, in addition to being sweet, gravitating and incredibly charming. Katherine hoped she wouldn't fall anymore in love with him than she already had, as he clearly would be forever unavailable.

  "Why is human nature to always want something we can't have?” Katherine thought to herself as she dusted one of the Duke's personal frames of artwork that he had painted himself - this one was a large, majestic looking 10-foot tiger. It added a wildly entertaining and adventurous addition to the Oxford Manor's corridor, where it hung majestically, and taking up a large fraction of the beige-colored wall.

  The gloriously beautiful manor was exquisitely decorated and had extravagant glass walls and vaulted ceilings, with French Chateau inspired limestone that led to a trove of magnificent artwork that was worth an incredibly large fortune. The Duke loved art, and two of his favorite hobbies included collecting art, as well as painting it himself. The Oxford Manor also had a beautifully grand library that was elegantly complimented by domed ceilings that were covered with art, which resembled Michelangelo's paintings.

  Katherine often admired the Duke's amazingly beautiful artwork while she was dusting around the manor, or doing some other chores. She had become rather smitten with this romantic and dreamy side of him. A few of Edward's personal paintings included landscapes of the ocean, a 10-foot tiger, a field of poppies and an elegant painting of a beautiful woman in a long blue dress.

  After Katherine had finished tending to all of her chores, she dashed upstairs to her bedroom and immediately began getting ready for the ball. She had slipped into the gorgeous, crimson-red ball-gown that had been given to her as a gift from Edward. The dress was sewn in with beautiful burlesque-looking crimson-red lace, and the neckline was covered with beautiful
, natural pearls, adding a luxurious feel to the dress. The Duke had picked it up for Katherine from one of the most luxurious and expensive boutiques in England, The 3rd Avenue Boutique.

  Katherine had partly wrapped her hair around in a loose bun, and some of her beautiful, long golden locks transcended over her porcelain breasts, hanging down to her hips. She looked absolutely stunning.

  She finished getting ready with a few spritzes of her favorite perfume, J'adore Amore, a feminine, floral and beautiful scent with notes of jasmine, amber and Damascene rose. And she was ready!

  Katherine was very excited, as well as a bit anxious (she had never had the luxury of attending a ball before - much less a royal one!). She glanced at her clock and noticed it was 8 o'clock, meaning the royal ball had officially begun!

  This is it, she thought to herself while taking a deep breath.

  Katherine walked down the Oxford Manor's shiny flight of stairs, which were made of a very beautiful, opaque rose-toned marble, the type of stairs that went around in an elegant curve. She hadn't noticed yet, but Edward was below the flight of stairs, captivated by Katherine's immensely striking beauty. She was a vision in that red dress, he thought to himself.

  In fact, the moment Edward had noticed Katherine wearing the beautiful dress he had surprised her with, he instantly was smitten with her ravishing beauty. Katherine was already a natural beauty, with her large, almond-shaped piercing emerald-green eyes, dainty nose, and her full, raspberry-colored lips that delicately curved upwards into a slight smile. Not to mention, she also had the perfect figure - slender, with just the right amount of feminine curves in all of the right places. However, the elegant red gown she was wearing was doing an amazing job at bringing out her ravishing beauty, and looked rather enticing against her creamy, porcelain skin, particularly her ample breasts.

  Edward walked towards the beautiful, wide-eyed young maid. "You look stunning, Katherine", he said as he gazed deeply into beautiful, piercing emerald-green eyes.

  Katherine blushed. "You don't look so bad yourself", she replied to him jokingly.

  Then all of the sudden, there came a very annoying loud screech from across the hall. It was Rosamund.

  "Edward, dear! Come meet Lawrence, the Earl!" She sang.

  "I'm afraid I'm being summoned by the wicked witch of the west", Edward muttered before running off.

  Katherine burst into laughter.

  She then walked into the ballroom, where she was greeted with a sea of stares coming from nearly everyone at the ball. Katherine wasn't quite sure what the seemingly big surprise was, but everyone was whispering (including the Duke's own parents!), curious who the gorgeous young woman in red was.

  In fact, she was asked to dance with almost a dozen of dashing young men, all of whom were eager to hook their arms with this amazingly beautiful young woman they had never seen before.

  Meanwhile, Rosamund was with her group of ridiculous friends, talking loudly and slightly slurring her words, as she was becoming intoxicated off the many glasses of wine she was guzzling down with her friends. The Duke had started dancing with her, but being in her drunken state, the Duchess was having some difficulties with her coordination, and ended up tripping over to the ground, knocking down a nearby governess in the process. The governess had been holding a glass of wine, which she had dropped, spilling the deep-red liquid all over Rosamund's expensive blue silk gown - just a few hours after she had been showing it off to Katherine and her friends.

  The Duchess let out a shriek. "Your clumsiness has caused my beautiful gown to be ruined!" She yelled drunkenly at the governess, who rolled her eyes, clearly taking notice of Rosamund being considerably drunk.

  "Where is my maid? Someone fetch her!" The Duchess exclaimed. "I must be cleaned up at once - this is such an embarrassment!"

  Katherine heard the Duchess calling for her, and walked over to the floor, where she was currently sitting, drenched in red wine stains, to assist her. Rosamund immediately noticed Katherine's dress, which caused her to have a very unpleasant, sort of horrified expression on her face. She was too drunk to scold Katherine on having the nerve to look better than she did, and decided she'd rather be taken up to her headquarters and cleaned up.

  Katherine helped the Duchess upstairs and did her best to clean the wine stains off Rosamund's silky dress. Rosamund then drunkenly stumbled out of her room, and went back downstairs to the ballroom to be with her friends. Katherine glanced at her reflection in the Duchess's tall, wide, expensive Venetian Italian mirror. She could not believe how amazingly beautiful the dress looked on her. She looked elegant, graceful, sophisticated and vibrant. It was the most beautiful dress she had ever laid eyes on! She decided to hurry back to the ballroom, find Edward and finally get the chance to thank him for the incredibly kind, thoughtful gesture.

  As Katherine entered the ballroom, she noticed that the Duchess was now dancing with an Earl, getting a bit too "touchy-feely" with him. She was also flirting with him. Every now and then she stopped to take a few generous sips out of the wine glass in her hand. Within a few minutes, Rosamund, her friends and the Earl (who also seemed to be rather intoxicated) stumbled into the parlor with another wine-bottle in tow. Within seconds, they could be heard in the parlor, drunkenly laughing and slurring their sentences as they socialized and emptied out yet another wine bottle.

  After seeing his awfully annoying wench of a wife drunkenly befriend an Earl, Edward walked to his balcony, which was his favorite place in the manor to find peace, gather his thoughts and relax. As he stood on his balcony and stared into the dark night-sky, which was sprinkled with hundreds of beautiful twinkling stars, he thought about his life, and how unhappy he was while being married to Rosamund. He had absolutely no feelings for her, or any form of attraction whatsoever. She was an arrogant, self-absorbed, spoiled and dimwitted creature of a woman, and Edward felt enormously angry at his parents for having set him up with possibly his worst match on the planet. There was nothing between them - no spark, no interest, no intellectual stimulation - just, nothing.

  On the other hand, it was actually Katherine who had really caught his attention. Not only was the maid beautiful, with an extremely desirable body, she was also everything he ever dreamed of in a woman. She loved literature, she was down to earth with a lighthearted, warm and pleasant attitude, and she also had an impressively sharp wit, as well as a sense of humor, which he found to be irresistible. He didn't want to be married to Rosamund - much like a child is repulsed at the idea of having to pay a visit to the dentist. However, the thought of marriage was dancing on his mind - marriage with someone other than Rosamund. And that someone happened to be his wife's maid, Katherine. To him, Katherine seemed perfect. He was drawn to her like a moth being drawn to a flame. The mere sight of her would incredibly excite him, and make his entire body feel tingly - even more so when he would take a glimpse of her beautiful, soft and luscious-looking lips.

  He decided to return to the ballroom and find Katherine. He saw her standing in the corner, taking small sips out of the champagne glass she was holding in her hand. She looked absolutely beautiful.

  "Hello again, mysterious young lady. So we meet again. May I have this dance?" He asked her charming, holding out his hand.

  "You may", Katherine replied with a radiant smile on her face.

  They danced gracefully for hours, enjoying the pure excitement and passion of being lost in each other's arms, moving elegantly around to the beautiful music that was playing, as if it were a wave.

  He was absolutely gorgeous, Katherine thought to herself as she sat simply stood there, admiring the Duke's strikingly handsome features. Edward was tall. He had a chiseled face with high cheekbones that gave him his signature sculpted, chiseled appearance. Edward also had a strong, narrow, perfectly chiseled nose that also characterized his distinct, heart-throbbingly handsome face, as well as captivatingly hazel eyes that were intelligent kind and dreamy. His eyes seemed like they were staring right into your so
ul - it almost felt as if his eyes knew exactly what you were thinking or feeling at that very moment. There was just something about his intensely mysterious eyes that gave off an aura of intelligence, depth and mystery. Katherine was utterly smitten by him.

  Then, all of the sudden, Edward had a quite magnificent proposition for Katherine.

  "Katherine, you have such ravishing beauty - would you mind if I were to paint a portrait of you? In fact, I'd like it if you were to pose on my bed. I think it'll be a beautiful picture, since you're simply stunning in every way possible", The Duke said as he gently ran his fingers through her long, silky golden-blond hair.

  After noticing the maid, seeing her in the beautiful red gown, he couldn't stop staring at her. She was a vision in red - the color of passion. She was absolutely gorgeous - not pretending to be attractive under a mask of circus-inspired face-paint, otherwise as "cosmetics", but stunningly beautiful in a refreshingly natural way. The Duke had also fallen in love with Katherine's gorgeous smile, in addition to her infectious laughter. Every time she smiled, he would suddenly get a strange, warm and fuzzy, funny feeling in his stomach and would get the urge to kiss those irresistibly lush-looking lips of hers, which were the color of fresh, ripe, sweet raspberries - she had the lips of an angel, in Edward's eyes.