Abigail agreed, and from that day, she felt as if a weight had been lifted off her mind. That night as she waited in her chamber for the maid to bring her hot water, she thought about the Duke again.
“He shall see that I have no need for him anymore. I will never be weak again.”
Chapter 11
The Duke urged his horse forwards as he galloped towards the property of the Earl of Aldrich. The clock had struck 11:00 as he left his home, and he had vowed that he would bring back Abigail at the very time that she had been taken away from him. However, he would not steal into the Earl’s home silently like a thief. He had already sent the Earl a letter announcing his intention.
On the night of the 12th December, the day of thy reckoning shall arrive. I shall come in the darkness of night and carry off what is mine. However, I shall do it myself and not send a paid servant, he had written.
As he arrived at the gates of the mansion, he saw that they had been opened wide. He was surprised, having expected them to be bolted and heavily guarded. He rode in and trotted down the path towards the house. His path was lighted with lamps, and the house shone brightly as if it was day.
This does not appear to be the home of the spineless Horace Blakemore I knew as a child, he thought.
As he approached the great doors of the house, he drew his sword ready to repel the onslaught he felt sure had been prepared for him. The doors swung open, and he saw a figure standing there in a blaze of light.
“Come out and fight like a man!” he cried out.
He saw the figure descend the steps and approach him. As it drew closer, he saw it was a woman. A slight and delicate creature with honey blonde hair.
“Abigail!” he exclaimed breathlessly and then stopped, for it was indeed Abigail, but she looked nothing like the girl he had held in his arms that fateful night. Her face was thinner and less childlike. She carried herself with a mature grace entirely different to the carefree steps of the Abigail he had known, and her eyes had lost their spirit.
“Abigail!” he said again, and dismounting from his horse, he lowered his sword and held his hand out to take hers. She drew back and frowned at him as she wrapped her arms around herself.
“Your Grace, I had not expected to see you here,” she said, and the Duke felt the cold accusation in her words slice through his heart so that he almost winced.
“How could I leave you here my dear for so many days? I cannot explain it myself. An injury they inflicted on my head took some days to heal, and then I was so besieged with anxieties and the loss of my fortune that I could hardly think straight. I searched high and low for you all through the village but never once thought to come here …”
“It is of no significance, Your Grace; you owe me no explanations, and in truth, there was no need for you to come after all,” Abigail answered listlessly.
“What do you mean? I do not understand. Why do you stand thus far off from me? Make haste and take my hand. I will carry you back home from whence you were taken by that coward who dares not face me himself …”
“I am home, Your Grace.” She interrupted his words, and he gazed into her face struggling to understand her meaning.
“You may recall my telling you that I was the estranged daughter of the Marquis and Marchioness Claremont. They are no longer living, and the only surviving relative I have is their nephew, the Earl of Aldrich. He has been so kind as to take me in as family. So you see that I am at last in my own home and have no desire to leave for any other place.”
The Duke stood still for a while and gazed at her. He could feel in his heart that he had lost her, and yet he was not ready to accept it.
“Forgive me, dear heart, I have hurt you. You have no faith in me, and yet I vow to you … I have not slept or eaten or taken a step without thinking of you. I longed for you, and if you would give me a chance to prove myself, I would make you mine so that the whole world would know it. No one would ever come between us again,” he said earnestly.
She looked at him incredulously. “You are sadly mistaken if you think that I was waiting for an offer from you, Your Grace. I have no need of your generosity. You have been a liberal employer for many years, and for that I am grateful, but I have a new place now. I am the manager of the Earl’s colliery, and I hope to be independent and self-reliant.”
“Abigail! What folly is this? How can you take up employment with a liar and a cheat? Do not you know the reputation the Earl has amongst the miners? Would you work for the rival of your late father’s employer?”
“It is because I am aware of his bad reputation that I desire to take on his business and change the inefficient policies …”
“How do you propose to do that? The man is a despot and a fraud. He has defamed me and cheated me out of my labour. I have lost a large portion of my fortune and have had to leave the castle where my ancestors have lived for many generations,” he exclaimed.
“All your grievances shall be addressed, but I must ask you to leave now,” said Abigail. “The Earl is not well, and he has no intention of accosting you at the moment.”
“I beg your pardon, my lady; I shall leave at once.”’
Mounting his horse again, the Duke turned and left. As the distance between him and the Earl’s residence grew, the Duke felt as if he had lost his newly regained strength and determination. He had never dreamed that Abigail would change so completely.
“That is the power of wealth!” he thought bitterly.
“As long as I had wealth, I could do no wrong, and now that I am no longer rich, she is ready to take up with my rival! I have wasted too much of my time pining after a dream. I shall no longer think of her. It is imperative that I get my business back.”
He began planning in his mind how he would call for Tobias and discuss the day’s work at the colliery.
Chapter 12
It was a bitterly cold day in December, and the sun shone dim and half-heartedly through a sky full of grey clouds. The Duke stood in front of a crowd of his workers. The men stamped their feet and blew on their fingers to warm their hands as they listened to the Duke. His words cheered their hearts and lifted their spirits in spite of the cold.
“I wish to thank all of you who have stood by me these many years. Without your support and the untiring work of your families, this colliery would not have been the major source of coal through all of northern England that it is today. You have sacrificed your comfort and your health for this purpose, and I wish to assure you that I am not insensible to that fact. You are all of you my own family, and as did my father and grandfather before me, I shall take care of your well-being. If any one of you requires assistance, they should come to me at any time. Every man who retires from work due to old age or illness shall receive a pension. Christmas draws near, and there will be a bonus for every man who joins me at my house on Christmas Eve.”
The workers cheered at his words, and he held up a hand to indicate that he wished to speak more.
“In recent times, many of your men have quit working at the colliery and are now suffering the tyranny of less generous employers. Spread the word that they are welcome to re-join at any time. No questions shall be asked nor shall they face discrimination. They shall reap the same benefits as longstanding workers provided they stay here for a period not less than five years.”
The Duke stayed quiet as the men cheered again. He turned to Tobias and gestured for him to take over and get the men to start their daily routine. He walked away as Tobias did so.
That evening, he received the council members that had accused him of unprofessional conduct and mishandling of employees. He was able to convince them that he had been falsely accused.
These and other similar measures that he undertook succeeded in repairing his reputation little by little. He was able to win back a number of the employees that he had lost before, and this filled him with grim satisfaction as he imagined the Earl’s disappointment.
Meanwhile, Abigail rode to the Earl�
�s colliery every day. She soon discovered that the miners had been bullied and threatened by Samuel Cooper. She warned him that if she ever heard of him threatening the workers again, he would lose his position.
She gave three young miners the task of visiting nearby villages and recruiting new young men to join her colliery. She did not fear the Duke, knowing that even if he succeeded in drawing back the workers that he had lost, she would compensate with new miners.
So it was that Abigail and the Duke threw themselves into their work, each aiming to make their colliery the best in the area. However, their conscience would not allow them to malign each other.
As hard as the Duke tried to forget her, he could not. No matter how resentful he was of her rejection of him, he had to admit that he deserved it. She had shown unparalleled bravery and determination in refusing to regard herself as a victim and fighting to make a place for herself in the Earl’s home and business.
One day, Abigail was returning to the mansion of the Earl at dusk in her carriage when she chanced upon the Duke. He dismounted and mockingly bowed before her.
“My lady, it grows late. May I assist you on your way home?”
“No, Your Grace; I shall reach home well enough on my own. However, you may find some difficulty, and blame it on me.”
“No difficulty of your creation could hinder me long. I have by the Lord’s grace such faculties at my disposal that I am able to overcome any problem. You may have heard that my business is recovering remarkably, and I shall soon be able to return to the castle that my ancestors lived in.”
“That is good news, indeed, Your Grace. Perhaps once you are ensconced in your ancestral home, you shall grow more charitable. In any case, I beg your leave to continue on my way if you have nothing of moment that you wish to discuss …”
The Duke smiled at her sarcasm and then grew more solemn. “Abigail, you can be as saucy as you wish, and you shall not offend me, but I do wish you would reconsider your decision and find a way out of that dismal place.”
“What dismal place? The home of my cousin, the Earl? Do you realise he is the one person in this world that has not lied to me? My own father that brought me up lied to me about my birth. You lied to me about the circumstances of his death. It is only the Earl who from the first day was transparent about his motivations and desires, despicable as they may have been …”
“Motivations and desires? What may those have been? Did he dare have any designs on you?”
“That is of no consequence to you. However, he did take me in; provide me shelter and a livelihood, all without placing any demands on me beyond providing company to him occasionally. How can I think of deceiving him and leaving him alone again?”
“What about you and your own ambitions and desires. Do you really have no desire beyond providing company and acting as a nursemaid to your cousin?”
“It is infinitely better than coming to live with you and being subject to your whims and inconsistencies! What would you have me do? Come and be your mistress at your beck and call?”
“No! You would never be my mistress. I love you too much for that. I would …”
“Let me go, Your Grace! I do not wish to hear any more lies. Had you loved me, you would not have abandoned me to the mercy of the Earl, the way you did. You would have told me the truth about my father and how you allowed him to go down into a dangerous mine that had not been cleared, even though you knew how frail he was!”
“Abigail!” The Duke reached out towards her, but she evaded his grasp and ordered the driver of the carriage to continue. The carriage lurched into motion and moved rapidly away from the Duke. He hastily mounted his horse and started following, still calling out to Abigail. The next moment, a hooded figure on a horse rode out from the forest on the road side and slashed violently at the hamstrings of the Duke’s horse. The horse dropped to the ground with a terrible sound like a scream and rolled over the Duke.
“Stop! Stop!” cried Abigail to the driver and getting down from the carriage ran back towards the Duke. She barely saw the hooded figure galloping hastily away into the forest, sword in hand. The driver followed her and with some difficulty managed to pull the horse off the Duke.
“Are you alright?” asked Abigail breathlessly.
“Yes, I am fine. Get back in the carriage and hurry home lest the assassin returns!” warned the Duke.
“No, you are not fine! You’re bleeding!”
Abigail called the driver and assisted the Duke into the carriage, then set off down the road towards the Duke’s home.”
Chapter 13
The Duke lay unconscious bleeding from a wound on his head that he had sustained when he fell from his horse. Abigail had taken him home and called on the housekeeper and steward to assist in undressing him and putting him to bed.
Once they had left, she gently cleaned the wound and dressed it. Her heart hammered within her chest as she struggled to maintain her outwardly calm appearance. She had not realised just how much she cared for the Duke until that heart sickening moment when she realised he had fallen from his horse and was injured. She got up to leave, but the Duke caught her hand.
“Are you really better?” she asked
“My head will ache terribly for some days, but I think I shall survive,” the Duke replied.
“What happened to my horse?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, Your Grace, but he was in such a miserable condition that he had to be put down,” she answered.
“I thought as much!” muttered the Duke.
“Who was it that attacked you?” she asked.
“I do not know for certain, but I have an idea,” he answered.
“However fate works in mysterious ways. Here you are at my bedside in my mansion when you should have been at your home …”
“Yes, well I do not intend to stay …” she replied.
Abigail looked around the room, and for the first time, she became aware of how different it was from the Duke’s castle.
“I can see why you miss the castle,” she said.
“Yes, well the truth is that I could return, now that my business is getting better, but I choose not to,” he replied.
“Why is that?” she asked.
“I have no heart to face the memories that haunt me … memories of a young girl who hid to watch me eat my meals and memorised my daily schedule so that she could bring me milk at night ...”
“You remember that?” she asked incredulously,
“I do, and I miss you terribly,” he replied.
She was silent for a long while. Then she sighed and got up to leave. “It is late, and I should go home,” she said.
“Do you never think of those days?” he asked.
“I do …” she said softly and looked at him with such sadness and desire in her eyes that he caught his breath.
“I never desired to hurt thee, my love,” he murmured.
“Nor I you,” she replied.
He raised his hand to touch her trembling lips. The next instant, she was in his arms, their limbs entwined as they kissed. A slow fire had been started, and it burned brighter till it consumed them both, and they were powerless to stop it. All rational thought ceased, and they could only feel, burning and drowning in the strength of their bond.
“Abigail,” the Duke whispered.
He cupped her face in his hands and gazed longingly into her large clear eyes. She looked away shyly, but he turned her face to his again and slowly kissed her soft lips. She let out a moan, and then her hands reached up to his cravat, pulling it out as she had done many nights ago, only this time he didn’t stop her.
He held his breath as the soft fabric left his neck, and Abigail let it fall to the floor. Suddenly unable to control himself, he grabbed her by the waist. She gasped and then bit her lip. The Duke slowly moved his hands up her body, unable to contain his excitement as his hands brushed her bosom and then stopped at her collarbones.
“Do you want me to stop?” he ask
ed gently.
Abigail shook her head and widened her eyes. “Please don’t stop.”
He looked into her eyes as he undid her mantua. It slipped off her shoulders and slid to the floor, where he kicked it aside. She stood there in her underthings, and the Duke inhaled sharply at the sight of her soft white skin spilling out the top of her corset. He moved behind her, and keeping his eyes on her delicate neck and shoulders he lowered his face into her warm honey blonde hair.
His fingers began to untie her corset, and she trembled as his fingertips made contact with her skin. Once the corset was off, he removed her hooped skirt and stared at the gentle swell of her bottom rising out of her tiny waist.
Regency Romance Collection Page 5