Chapter 1

London, 1815

"Father, Father! You are not listening to me. Pray, stay a minute more, and just truly hear what I am saying to you."

Alaina froze as she walked down the dark corridor of the Earl of Woolworth's house. There was just one candle keeping her company as it flickered from the hall table nearby. Alaina carried a silver tray topped with the hot chocolate her mistress liked to finish every night and her latest letters of correspondence.

Yet it seemed her mistress was not upstairs in her bedchamber at all. Lady Caroline shrieked from the Earl of Woolworth's nearby study.

"I have told you already, Caroline. There is nothing more I can do."

"Nothing? Nothing more! You can listen to what I am saying –"

"Enough!"

"So, you would sentence me married to a man I do not love? A man I do not even know."

"Do you wish every member of staff in this household to hear our business and know our struggles? Hmm?"

The guilt coiled in Alaina's stomach as she heard the Earl of Woolworth say such words, but she could not help it. Slowly, she lowered the tray of hot chocolate onto the hall table nearby, watching as the porcelain cup tremored in its saucer and the ornate silver hot chocolate pot nearly tipped over as she angled it too far. Alaina narrowly stopped it from falling over, then tiptoed towards the study door, pressing her ear close to the gap.

"Why would you do this to me?" Lady Caroline's voice suddenly took on a sharpness that made Alaina's stomach knot tight.

Lady Caroline had to be Alaina's favourite person in the world. She was kind, excessively characterful, and full of life, with such positive energy, and she always found reasons to smile. Alaina rather thought of her as a flitting butterfly. She often hopped from party to party, unable to settle at just one ball for a single evening. Such a woman hardly ever used a harsh tone at all, until now, it seemed.

It was so unlike her to use this voice that scared Alaina.

Alaina pushed the black hair back from her forehead, which often trailed in her eyes, to get a clearer view as she pressed her face to the gap. From the crack between the jamb and door, she could see the study flooded with candlelight, a stark contrast to the darkness of the corridor.

Caroline was standing before her father's desk, breathing heavily, her shoulders heaving up and down. Her curvy figure, often draped in the most beautiful silks, tonight was only clothed in a plush dressing gown, demure and dark blue.

"You cannot do this." Caroline shook her head, making her onyx curls dance around her ears. "You cannot marry me to a man neither of us know –"

She was cut off as her father stood from his seat. Though Alaina could not see the Earl of Woolworth, she saw his shadow as it eclipsed Caroline. He was a man who had a habit of making his intimidating presence known with ease.

"You would not find a husband of your own," he said, his voice quiet yet somehow holding even more harshness in the tones than Caroline had done. "You have been out for years. Years, Caroline, and yet no husband to be spoken of? No betrothed? Do you wish to be a spinster forever?"

"You see a spinster, but I see a happy woman in the mirror. I am independent, enjoying my life –"

"Independent?" he spluttered, scoffing, cutting her off once again. "Do not fool yourself with such illusions, daughter. You are dependent on a man's income, no matter where you go or what you do in life. You are dependent on my income now, and you will soon be dependent on your husband's."

"Not if I don't marry."

"Enough!" This time, the earl's bark was loud and warned her not to respond. Caroline took the smallest of steps back.

Alaina laid a hand on her quivering stomach. Caroline usually never backed down for anyone.

"You must marry," the earl said again, calmer this time. "You would not take the action alone, so I have taken it for you. The Duke of Peddleton is a good man. He has extended a proposal, and I have accepted. He even suggested you travel to his estate in the country next week so that the two of you could get to know one another before the wedding. Now, that is not the act of a cruel man, is it?"

"I didn't say he was cruel," Caroline snapped. "I said I did not know him. Surely you knew my mother before you married her? Surely you knew her heart, her likes, her dislikes, what she thought of you …" Yet she trailed off. Whatever the earl's expression had to be, it must have been negative. "That was for arrangement too?" Alaina had heard Caroline's opinions on marriage many times before. Though she knew many people did not marry for love, she had always been insistent that some people married for love, and she wished to be just the same.

"It's time your idealistic mind grew up, Caroline," the earl said, sitting down heavily again. "Few marry for something as foolish as love in this world. Now, go."

Alaina saw his shadow wave a dismissive hand in Caroline's direction.

Alaina backed up just in time as Caroline burst out of the door.

"Ah!" Caroline struggled to hold onto her squeak of surprise. Together, they fumbled, closing the door to avoid the earl realizing that Alaina had been there at all; then Caroline fell into Alaina's arms, gripping her tight. "You heard?" Caroline asked, pure panic in her aquamarine eyes as they searched Alaina's face for an answer.

Alaina's expression said it all.

"Come, come, my chamber." Caroline took hold of her hand tightly and tried to drag her away. Alaina barely had a chance to grab the tray behind her and then follow her friend. They traipsed up the steps in the house quickly and along the landing. For a few minutes, no words passed between them, an unusual thing, for they so often spent every minute of every day talking together.

As Caroline entered her chamber, she flopped herself down on a chaise longue, sighing, groaning aloud, and thrusting her fists down into the cushioned seat in frustration. Alaina locked the door, laid down the tray, and started to light candles.

"Do you think he will hold true to his word?" Alaina whispered, moving around the room fast with her taper and lighting every candle she could find.

"How long have you been a maid in this household, my friend?" Caroline asked with a heavy sigh. "You know as well as I that once my father has made up his mind, he is as immovable as stone. He is stubborn." She thrust her fists down into the seat once again. "What am I going to do, Ally?" She used the nickname for Alaina, only ever whispered between them in this room, where they were far away from the rest of the staff.

Alaina stopped with the candles and turned to face her friend.

They were very much a mirror image of one another. Both had long, ebony black hair and thin, narrow faces, but there were differences, too. Caroline had blue eyes and thin lips, bearing perfectly symmetrical beauty. Alaina's looks were a little more unusual, with full lips and a smile that was often one-sided.

I love her like a sister.

"I … I don't know," Alaina whispered, so distracted in trying to think of a solution that her taper burnt down and nearly singed her fingers. She blew it out fast and then sat heavily down in a chair beside her friend. She kneaded her fingers into the poor woollen skirt of her gown, her thoughts moving fast. "If your father cannot be persuaded out of the betrothal –"

"He will not."

"Then you must find a way to persuade the Duke of Peddleton to withdraw his offer of a proposal."

Caroline sat up fast on the chaise longue, so quickly, in fact, that she nearly fell straight off the seat. Alaina reached out to steady her, and they clasped hands together. Caroline said nothing for a minute; her lips parted as her eyes darted about the room in deep thought.

"Do you think I could do it?" she asked eventually. "If he has asked me to come to see him first, that would give me the opportunity to dissuade him, would it not?"

Alaina nodded, though she stayed silent for a minute, her thoughts now troubling her. It was often their way. Caroline was the most talkative of the two, and Alaina was the quieter. Although she could talk readily enough in Caroline's company, sometimes, it was all too easy to be silent. It was how she was in others' company, preferring to be quiet as a mouse in a corner, where people forgot she existed.

"I know that silence," Caroline said tremulously. "What is it?"

Alaina was reluctant to speak her thoughts, but Caroline now blinked madly, holding back tears and struggling. Alaina couldn't refuse her anything at that moment.

"I was thinking …" Alaina paused, chewing her full lip before forcing herself on. "If the Duke of Peddleton has proposed without ever meeting you, then his motive must be your dowry. No amount of you pleading for him to release you from the betrothal may change his mind if this is so."

"Oh! This is too awful!" Caroline suddenly lost her battle. The tears erupted from her eyes, running down her cheeks fast. "I do not even care for the title of duchess. How could I care when there is love to be had in the world?"

Alaina leaned away, snatching up a handkerchief and drying her mistress' cheeks with it as best as she could.

"Please, don't cry."

"How can I not?" Caroline gasped between hitching breaths. "My father is sending me to a prison."

"A duke's household, I imagine, is a little different from a prison, Caro," Alaina whispered. This was the only room where she ever dared address Caroline without her title.

"You know what I mean." Caroline took the handkerchief from her and stood, marching up and down in her frustration. "I have always dreamed of marrying for love; what is so awful about that?" She paced in front of the fireplace, burning with soft orange flames. "I have wanted a man who would not only understand me but talk with me into the late hours of the night. A man who would … excite me!" she declared with sudden passion.

"Excite?"

"Oh, come off it, Alaina." Caroline smiled a little through her tears, casting Alaina a brief glance. "Are you telling me you have never felt an attraction for a man? No stable boy or footman ever caught your eye? Made you think of what could happen between the bedsheets at night?"

"No, they have not!" Alaina exclaimed, backing up in her seat. "Have you seen the stable boys and footmen here?" She was now blushing a deep shade of red, feeling as if her cheeks were on fire.

It was hardly the first time Caroline had alluded to what men and women could do together in the bedchamber, but Alaina knew so little of what could happen that it made her nervous every time they spoke of it. Yet recently, her body had felt heated, too. It seemed that despite her own reserve, her curiosity was piqued.

"Fair point," Caroline murmured and stopped her pacing. She leaned on the mantelpiece, dabbing her eyes with the handkerchief. "I just always thought I'd meet someone someday who would make everything fall into place. I'd enjoy their company, and I'd look forward to what we could do in the bedchamber." She waved a frantic hand towards her bed at the far end of the room. "I would dread the thought of going to bed with a stranger."

Alaina glanced towards the bed, thoughts now burning in her mind. She tamped down her curiosity, knowing she had more important things to consider at this moment.

"Then we must think of a way to get you out of this, Caroline, a way that means you and the Duke of Peddleton will not be pushed into marriage or a bedchamber together at all."

"I pray we think of a way," Caroline said as fresh tears spilled from her eyes.