Authors: Elaine Young
MAIL ORDER BRIDE: ARISTOCRAT: The Duke’s Engagement (Historical Victorian Duke Romance) (New Adult Romance Short Stories) (82 page)
Bella watched his retreating back with a mixture of relief and confusion. It was clear was angry, any man in his situation would be livid so she felt relieved at having escaped an angry tirade but she felt confused by it at the same time. He had gone to considerable lengths to track her down and yet he had left wordlessly.
Later that evening Bella discovered the Duke hadn’t left so wordlessly after all. A note was delivered to her bedroom shortly before supper.
It was short and terse and left no room for arguments.
“My carriage will pick you up tomorrow at noon sharp. The wedding will go ahead as planned.”
It was a completely impersonal note, he hadn’t bothered to address her by name or sign it, but she recognized it by his seal stamped in wax on the bottom of the page.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Bella packed her own bags that evening, she felt drained and empty. She felt no animosity towards the Duke and resigned herself to accept whatever fate had in store for her as just punishment for her sins. She knew her chances of a good, honorable marriage were over. And she should feel thankful the Duke still wanted to marry her in spite of her actions, especially if she was carrying another man’s child. But she felt was like a blank slate, with no emotions. If anything she hated the idea of being indebted to this man for life, for saving her reputation. And that was the hardest pill to swallow.
Beautiful, spirited, proud Arabella Barrington who had sworn she would never allow a man to dictate her life would now be indebted to one for life. She who had gone to such great lengths to settle for nothing less than love had been cheated by that very emotion. And now she had no more fight left within her so when the carriage arrived the next day exactly at noon, she thanked Edith and Charles for their hospitality, kissed Mavis goodbye before dutifully heading back to London and to home, an obedient daughter at last. Her parents were overjoyed at her return to say the least. And very tactfully avoided any reference to where she was or what she had been up to. The story of her leaving to visit relatives seemed to hold. The wedding was planned for the following week and Bella didn’t care. She continued to live in a haze and the only time she cracked a smile was when Mavis arrived at the house on the morning of the wedding. Everything else felt like a dream. She was unaware of the ride to the church, of the guests or of anything else. She couldn’t even focus on the man standing at the altar, the man who would soon become her husband.
She parroted back the vows, feeling numb. She was thankful for the thick, lace veil, which hid her face and obstructed her view. She didn’t think she could stand to look the Duke in the face, not when he had hardly spoken a word to her. The ceremony ended at the church because the Duke had urgent business at the palace and wouldn’t be back till the evening. The formal reception had been organized for the following night. Bella secretly hoped the Duke wouldn’t be back till she was asleep, if there was one thing she wasn’t looking forward to was the wedding night. But unfortunately God wasn’t on her side, she was still wide-awake when the Duke crept into their dark bedroom late at night. With no words he slipped into the bed and began to kiss her. Startled she tried to move away but he tightened his grip on her and continued to mold her lips with his.
The kiss felt familiar, the body felt familiar. Was Bella losing her mind, was she so consumed by her thoughts of Luke she was beginning to hallucinate? Everything about the embrace felt familiar and right. When Thomas’ lips travelled down from her lips to the hollow of her neck, she moaned out loud hungry for his touch. She arched her back involuntarily and pressed herself closer to the hard body wanting more. The next instant she moved away from him, everything felt wrong. This felt wrong, she couldn’t consummate her marriage to her husband, not like this!
“I can’t do this.” She said in a strangled whisper.
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t stop thinking about him. Everything feels like him.” She whispered miserably in the darkness. She didn’t care if Thomas sent her off to a convent or banished her to a home in the countryside, she couldn’t go through with his sacred and intimate act.
She waited with bated breath for his temper to flare. But it didn’t come. Instead after a few minutes of silence he growled in his low voice,
“Put on a robe, we’re going for a walk.”
“Now?” she asked nervously. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“Right now.” He said firmly.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Feeling scared by what was about to transpire she slid out of bed and slipped a velvet cloak around her shoulders. The last thing she wanted to do was go anywhere with her husband but she knew she had no choice. Thomas grabbed her by the hand, none too gently and led her out of the bedroom, down three flights of stairs and several long hallways until they found themselves outside in a garden towards the back of the mansion.
“What are we doing here?”
He didn’t respond and lead her deeper into the shadows, she was reminded of the night months ago when she had first met Luke. Like that night, a sliver of the moon hung perched in the sky, bathing everything in a warm glow.
They walked for a few minutes silently and then Thomas stopped abruptly, he pushed her up against a tree and without any warning he kissed her fiercely, passionately, almost angrily. Bella wanted to cry out in anger but something wasn’t right. She couldn’t be imagining this, she wasn’t crazy, nor was she dreaming. The kiss was too real. She pushed the man she had married away from her, tearing her lips away from him. She grabbed his hand and this time she was the one pulling him, she hurried to a spot in the garden illuminated by moonlight. Then taking in a deep breath she turned around and looked at her husband’s face for the first time. During the ceremony she had been shrouded in a veil and saw nothing but a hazy figure, then he had only reappeared at night when all the lamps had been blown out.
“It’s you.” It was a statement not a question. She felt foolish, she should have known from the moment he first touched her in the bedroom it couldn’t have been anyone else but Luke.
“It’s me.”
“Who are you really? The gardener? The groom? A Duke? A betrayer?”
“My name is Thomas Luke Chambray, and I’m a man who has loved you for a very long time. A man who wanted you to love me for me, once I realized how important that was to you.”
“I don’t understand.” Bella felt no relief or joy at this turn of events. She felt only confusion and a deep sense of being wronged somehow. Her emotions toyed with.
“I guess I owe you an explanation.”
Bella didn’t answer, she looked away instead. She was too hurt at the moment to really care.
“That night when we first kissed, I had just arrived in the city, I came earlier than was expected and I came over to your house because I wanted to see you. I stumbled across you in the garden and you were mumbling to yourself about how unhappy you were. I couldn’t tell you then who I was, you hated me enough as it was. So I kissed you instead. And then one thing led to another and I found myself following you down to the country pretending to be a groom so we could get to know each other with no pretenses.”
“But you left.”
“I did because I was too scared to admit what I had done, I was scared I might lose you again, so I left and…”
“Forced me to marry the Duke whom I loathed.” Bella finished the sentence for him.
He didn’t respond because he suddenly saw it through her eyes and felt badly for what he had done. He took in the hunched shoulders and the stormy eyes gazing into the darkness and moved towards her and gathered her closely in his arms. He waited for her to pull away and was relieved when she didn’t.
“You’ve really loved me all this time?”
“Yes, really truly I have. And do you love me?” he asked in turn.
“I do.” She said the words softly.
Bella wanted to hold on to the hurt feelings but she couldn’t. A peaceful, thrilling joy was overcoming the anger and pain. All she could think of was she had found her fairy tale love after all.
THE END
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