160 Love Finds the Duke at Last Read online

  The evasive Duke is on the verge of asking me to marry him and, of course, I will fall into his arms and say, ‘yes, yes, yes!’

  You therefore owe me five pounds, as I told you I would marry a Duke and you told me that it was just impossible to capture one.

  But I have done it, despite all the difficulties which we all know has made him elude so many traps and then manage to remain single and his own Master despite the allurement that has always surrounded him.

  It is now only a question of time until he will say the words I want to hear and then I will march up the aisle triumphant as soon as possible just in case he changes his mind at the last moment.

  It is now up to you, my dear, to capture, at the very least, a Marquis or an Earl!

  But, in any case, you still owe me five pounds and I also expect a magnificent Wedding present from you.

  You were always positive that I would never land a Duke as I intended to do, but I have done it and I can assure you that I will be a fantastic Duchess and my tiara, at the State Opening of Parliament, will be larger and better than anyone else’s.

  Do not please tell any of my family about this until the announcement is actually in the newspapers.

  I want to surprise everyone and I am exceedingly pleased with myself that, as I said to you all that time ago at school, I would marry a Duke whatever he was like and however much he tried to evade me.

  As I have always got my own way, I wanted you to be the first to know that I have won my bet and, as you can imagine, I am very pleased with myself.

  With so much love and please tear this letter up as soon as you have read it.

  Yours

  Penelope.”

  As the Duke read the letter, his eyes hardened and there was an expression on his face that those who served him knew was restrained anger.

  Because he was very proud of himself and his title, the Duke never raised his voice when he was angry. Nor did he when he had to reprimand a servant or someone who had offended him.

  Yet they were well aware of his anger and few men or women made any attempt to retaliate.

  He had in fact been on the very edge of proposing marriage to Penelope simply because she was so beautiful and her special loveliness was duly acclaimed by everyone.

  Not only would their Wedding be the smartest and most spectacular Wedding of the year, but he would be the envy of all his male friends.

  Yet beneath this there was something else which to him was of tremendous importance.

  Ever since he had left Eton he had been pressured to marry because of his elevated social position and he was an exceedingly charming and gracious gentleman.

  Equally he knew that it was his title which dazzled the young women around him like a star in the sky.

  As his mother had once said to him,

  “Every young woman as she grows up hopes and prays that one day a Duke or an Earl will drop down the chimney. He will be young, handsome and charming and she will love him with all her heart. Their marriage will be as happy as your father’s and mine has been.”

  His mother had gone on to tell him that they had fallen in love with each other the moment they met.

  He had not been a Duke then, but, of course, he was the eldest son of one.

  But that did not matter.

  “In some extraordinary way when he first walked into the room where I was, I just felt my heart turn a total somersault,” his mother had told him. “Your father said exactly the same thing happened to him. The moment he saw me he knew that I was the girl he had been looking for and had never found.”

  If his mother had told him the story once, she had told it to him many times.

  As he grew older the Duke was well aware that the invitations he received and the compliments that were paid him were really directed more to his title than to himself.

  It was around then that he became suspicious of the ambitious mothers with pretty daughters who pressed him to accept their endless invitations.

  The daughters themselves would he always felt fall into his arms if he just put his hand out towards them.

  When his father had died and he became the Duke of Lavenham, he realised all too clearly just how much in demand he was in English Society because of his title and not particularly because of himself.

  It was actually not only individuals who wanted his attention, it was Companies, Charities and organisations of every kind who craved his patronage.

  It was just impossible for him not to become rather blasé and at the same time suspicious.

  When women gushed at him, he was almost certain that they were thinking of his title, riches and possessions rather than himself.

  He was conscious that every ambitious Dowager in the Social world wanted to hand him to their daughter as if she was on a plate.

  It was then he made a vow to himself that he would never marry unless the woman he asked to do so loved him for himself.

  But even as he thought about it he knew that it would be the most difficult thing in the world to find.

  Yet he thought now that he had been almost trapped when he least expected it.

  As Penelope was such a shining star in the Social world and had always had every man at her feet, he had thought the way she looked at him was different from what he had encountered before.

  He felt that what she really was offering him was her heart.

  It had been impossible for him not to be delighted that she obviously preferred him to any of the other men who constantly surrounded her.

  Quite a number of them were almost as important as he was and one man in particular would finally become a Duke when his cousin, who had produced no direct heir, died.

  It must have been after he had kissed her one night in the Conservatory of the house they were both attending a ball in, that the words, ‘will you marry me’ quivered on his lips, as he took them from hers.

  Then, just as he was about to speak, the dance must have finished and several other people, talking loudly and laughing, came bursting into the Conservatory.

  The Duke and Penelope were too late to move away and then it was impossible for them not to welcome the intruders as they joined them.

  When they went back to the ballroom together, the Duke found that he could not take Penelope away from the throng of ardent admirers who surrounded her.

  Only when they eventually said ‘goodnight’ to each other as her mother wished to leave, did Penelope say in a low voice, so that only he could hear,

  “Come and see me tomorrow.”

  She had looked up into his eyes as she had spoken.

  And he thought with a throb in his heart that she undoubtedly loved him as he loved her.

  The Duke was feeling tired when he reached home and was ready for his bed.

  Although he thought that he would stay awake all night thinking about Penelope, he had slept deeply without dreaming until his valet came into his room and drew back the curtains.

  Now, having read the letter, he felt as if the sun had ceased to shine and he was in a darkness which was all too familiar.

  He had been unable to visit Penelope the day after the ball for the simple reason that, when he got home, he found out that he had promised to make a speech at a very prestigious luncheon party that was taking place in the City of Maidstone.

  It meant he had to leave as soon as he was dressed and, as the luncheon party was followed by a meeting at which he was the Chairman, he did not return to London until it was nearly dark.

  His secretary, on his instructions, had sent Penelope a large bouquet of spring flowers.

  He had not written her a letter and knew with a twist of his lips that her rooms in her father’s and mother’s house were filled with endless bouquets of every sort and description from her many admirers.

  *

  When he woke in the morning, he had thought that he had only one engagement of any consequence and at three o’clock he could easily leave for Penelope’s parent’s house which was on
the outskirts of London.

  As Penelope was such a success, they had rented a large house near Hampton Court.

  “It will be very easy for us to hold dances in the ballroom,” her mother had said, “and it will be far easier to entertain in what is more or less in the countryside than be confined in a house in London which will not have a big enough garden and people will complain that they cannot find proper accommodation for their horses and grooms.”

  The Duke had actually found this to be true.

  When he went to Penelope’s house, his grooms said that the accommodation for the horses was very different from what they had to put up with in London.

  ‘I can easily be there in time for tea,’ the Duke told himself. ‘As they will then undoubtedly ask me to stay for dinner, I can talk to Penelope afterwards.’

  Now he thought, when he read the letter again, that he had been made a fool of in exactly the same way as his friends he had been at school with were now suffering.Is HisHisa

  He knew of at least three of them who had been married for their titles rather than for themselves.

  They had informed him on various occasions how unhappy they were and how, if they had their schooldays over again, they would be very careful who they married and would make quite certain that the woman loved him for himself and not for his social eminence.

  One man, who was a Marquis, had told him several times how unhappy he was and how he would like to have a divorce.

  “But you know as well as I do,” he had said to the Duke, “that it will not only make my family miserable but be a bad example to the young boys who are growing up and who will be pursued in the same way as we were.”

  There had been a long pause and, as the Duke said nothing, the Marquis had added,

  “When my wife fights with me in front of them and makes it obvious that she is not interested in me as a man, I hope that they are learning the lessons that we should have learnt and gone on searching for the woman who wants her husband as a man not as a figurehead.”

  He had spoken bitterly and the Duke knew that he was extremely unhappy with a wife who constantly found fault with him and contradicted him in public.

  ‘I would not be such a fool,’ he had said to himself at the time.

  Yet now he had been on the very verge of it.

  Then he asked himself what he should do to make Penelope fully aware that she had not captured him as she thought she had.

  Without thinking he had promised to see her the next day after the party and it was only when he got home that he remembered that it was something he could not do.

  He therefore told his secretary to send his apologies to Penelope’s father and mother saying that he could not come as he hoped to do, but that he would certainly call to see them at teatime the following day.

  It passed through his mind that he should send a servant with more apologies that he could not come today.

  Then he thought that she would still be thinking of perhaps writing to even more of her friends to say that she had caught him hook, line and sinker.

  And they would therefore be expecting an official announcement of their engagement at any moment.

  ‘What I must do,’ he determined, ‘is to go there and make it very clear to Penelope that a kiss is just a kiss and nothing of any significance and that I have no intention at the moment of marrying anyone, least of all her!’

  As the thought spread over him, he felt himself rage with anger that he himself had been just so stupid and so foolish in believing that she cared for him as a man.

  ‘I will make her realise that I have no intention of marrying,’ he thought. ‘After all I only kissed her and I am quite sure that Penelope has kissed many men, but had no intention of marching up the aisle with any of them.’

  He very nearly laughed out loud to himself as his thoughts continued.

  ‘It is me she wants because I happen to be a Duke, not because I am a man and not because I am someone she loves and who loves her.’

  Because he had always been most self-controlled, he merely sat still at the table looking again at Penelope’s letter to her friend.

  Then he put it into his pocket.

  With what might well have been called admirable control he proceeded to open the rest of his letters which were of no particular interest.

  Then he walked into his study where his secretary was waiting for him. There was quite a pile of letters to be signed and a number of invitations to accept or refuse.

  Even though he was seething with rage inside, the Duke talked in his usual quiet way to his secretary who had no idea how angry he was.

  “I understand, Your Grace,” he started, “that after luncheon, which as you know is taking place in the House of Lords, you will be leaving for Hampton Court.”

  “Yes, I will be going there for tea, Blackstone,” the Duke replied, “but I may not be returning for dinner. I have an appointment I think, but I am not sure.”

  “You have indeed, Your Grace, you are dining with His Royal Highness this evening but not until nine o’clock as His Royal Highness has a levy, I understand late in the evening.”

  “Yes, of course, I had forgotten,” the Duke replied.

  But he knew as he spoke it would be an admirable reason for leaving Penelope as soon as he had made it clear to her that he had no deeper intentions of any sort and certainly not what she expected of him.

  When he left his house an hour later he had finished all his correspondence and his carriage was outside.

  The meeting that followed the luncheon party took longer than the Duke had expected.

  So he was not free until mid-afternoon to drive to Hampton Court.

  It was a lovely day and the sun was shining brightly on the River Thames.

  He thought if he was as happy as he should be, the sunshine would have entranced him.

  As it was, the more he thought about what had occurred and what he had meant to Penelope, the more it made the world seem somehow darkened and distant.

  ‘Why should I ever worry? Why should I care?’ he asked himself.

  Yet he realised that the kiss he had given Penelope had meant more than any kiss he had given to a woman for a long time.

  Of course he had kissed a number of eager women, most of them married.

  But he had known, as he did so, that they found him extremely attractive and would, if it had been possible, accept any offer he had made to them.

  To them, as they were already married, his title was not significant. They had found him attractive as a man and that was exactly what he wanted.

  Now, he told himself, he would make it quite clear to Penelope that he had no intention at all of pursuing her otherwise the sort of letter she had written to his cousin’s daughter might be read to a great number of his relatives and friends.

  He might, although it did seem unlikely, be forced into offering Penelope marriage, just because she could say that he had damaged her reputation.

  As his horses travelled with such speed, he reached the house of Penelope’s father much sooner than he had expected.

  He turned up the drive and saw the house in front of him and he had a sudden desire to drive away and leave things as they were.

  But if he did so, he was quite certain that Penelope would make more trouble than she had already.

  It was therefore essential, both to him and to her, that he should straighten things out and the truth should be the truth and not deception.

  “I hope not to be too long,” he said to his coachman when the horses came to a standstill. “So don’t go to the stables, but wait for me. If I am longer than I intend to be, I will let you know.”

  “Very good, Your Grace,” the man answered.

  The Duke walked into the house.

  The butler showed him into the room overlooking the river that the Duke had been in many times.

  There was no one there and for a brief moment the Duke thought that perhaps Penelope was not at home.

 
; Then, even as he queried it to himself, the door opened and she came in.

  She was looking very lovely, there was no doubt about that.

  Because she was smiling and her eyes were shining as she walked towards him, he thought that the letter she had written to his cousin’s daughter could not be true.

  He was holding it in his hand and, as she reached him, he said and his voice was hard,

  “I have come to see you because I am exceedingly upset by the letter I received this morning.”

  “That is not the way I would expect you to greet me,” Penelope said. “I have been looking forward to seeing you this afternoon.”

  “I was looking forward to it too,” the Duke replied. “But I received this letter which you wrote to my cousin’s daughter.”

  As he spoke, he handed the letter to Penelope.

  By the way she stiffened when her eyes fell on it told him all too clearly that she realised she had made a faux pas.

  “I just cannot understand,” she said, “why Charlotte should have sent this letter to you.”

  “It was her mother who did,” he answered, “who, as you know, is my cousin. I brought it to you because I thought that we had both been mistaken over what a happy and joyous occasion the night before last was and made it into something serious.”

  Penelope stared at him.

  “What are you saying?” she asked.

  “I am saying that you were ‘counting your chickens before they were hatched’,” the Duke replied, “and I think we were both unnecessarily temperamental when we were in the Conservatory.”

  There was silence and then Penelope said sharply,

  “I just don’t understand what you are saying to me except that you appeared to be wooing me in one way or another.”

  “I was kissing you,” the Duke replied, “as you have kissed a great number of men and I have kissed a great number of women, I do not wish you to make the mistake of taking it more seriously than it was intended.”

  He paused for a moment before he added,

  “We had a most delightful dance and the kiss was nothing more serious than we expressed our delight at the way we had danced together.”

  Penelope stared at him and there was no mistaking the anger in her eyes.