Chapter 2

Aaron pressed his face further into his pillow, clinging to the dregs of sleep as a voice tried to rouse him from his unconscious state.

"… Grace? Your Grace? Your Grace, you must rise now. If you do not, you will surely be late for your meeting."

With a groan, the Duke of Marson lifted his head, blinking blearily. "What the hell is it now, Dante? And there better be something equivalent to hell afoot that serves as a valid excuse to wake me up."

The valet swallowed nervously and took a step back. "You have a meeting this morning, Your Grace. You said it was important—and it is almost time. Your associates will be arriving shortly and?—"

"Damn it, Dante!" Aaron hissed, quickly rolling out of bed. "It's almost time? I specifically told you to wake me up an hour early so I could have enough time to prepare. Why in hell are you only coming to me now?"

Dante sighed, deciding it was better—not just for the sake of his position, but his throat as well—not to mention that he had been trying to wake the duke for the last twenty minutes.

"I am sorry, Your Grace," he apologized instead. "I have already laid out your attire for the day and prepared all that you might need for the meeting."

As he put on his shirt, Aaron grunted and waved his valet away, needing to focus on getting ready. After Dante left, Aaron continued to dress himself, hoping he would not be late. Not only would it reflect poorly on him—as the one who called for the meeting—but there was much to be discussed. With how urgent and sudden his request was for his associates' presence, he did not want to take up more time than he already had.

Finally, the last button was snapped into place, and he sat on his bed and pulled his shoes closer to himself. Quickly, he shoved a foot inside and?—

"What the?—"

Aaron went still, immediately noticing the disconcerting sticky feeling inside his shoe. He withdrew his foot, frowning as he saw the thick substance that coated the underside of his sock. Slowly, he picked up the other shoe and turned it upside down. He was shocked, disgusted, and angry when he watched a raw egg slip out of it, the yolk breaking as it met the carpeted floor of his room.

"Dante!" he roared, rising to his feet.

The valet appeared in record time, looking a little startled at the sudden summon. "Y-Your Gra?—"

"There were eggs in my shoes. Why were there eggs in my shoes?" Aaron demanded, flinging the offending shoe in his valet's direction.

Dante stared at the shoe as it landed at his side, shifting his gaze to the mess at the duke's feet and turning pale. "I—I do not know, Your Grace. I checked them before they were placed by your bed. I swear, nothing was wrong with the shoes, then!" he assured him.

Aaron's anger subsided only long enough for him to remember that he was familiar with this brand of troublemaking, and he wasted no time calling for the one who could bring the culprit to him.

Sarah, the housekeeper, arrived as quickly as she had been summoned, dipping into a curtsey, her greetings on the tip of her tongue.

As soon as he laid his eyes on her, Aaron asked, "Where is Lena?"

Sarah straightened up, folding her hands in front of her skirt as she replied, "I do not know, Your Grace. I was just searching for her before you called for me. I had maids looking everywhere, but none of them seem to have seen her all morning."

Aaron paused to think. If no one had seen Lena around the house all morning, then how was she able to pull off the trick without being seen at all? Feeling suspicious, he went down on his knees and peered underneath his bed, sighing in irritation when he spotted the bane of his existence—his daughter—hiding beneath the furniture.

"Lena! Come out this instant."

The girl merely turned her face away, angering him even more. Before he could snap at her, the housekeeper implored him to rise.

"I will get her, Your Grace," Sarah said, dropping down and reaching under the bed.

Surprisingly, Lena let herself be dragged out without much fuss, looking slightly disheveled as she stood before her father, staring blankly at him.

Sarah sighed as she took in the girl's appearance, whipping out a handkerchief to wipe off the smudge of dirt on her cheek. "Just look at you." She tsked. "A lady should never act so improperly. And to go as far as to bother your father on such a busy morning as this!"

"I have told you to stop acting so childishly! You continue to behave like some street urchin, pulling ridiculous pranks and disturbing me. If only you paid as much attention to your studies, you would not even have the time to behave so foolishly. I wish you would not be so stubborn," Aaron scolded.

He'd almost hoped for some sort of reaction, something different from the way Lena always responded to his remarks and words.

But as usual, nothing changed. The girl simply stared up at him silently as she blinked, her gaze defiant and uncaring. Disappointment roiled in Aaron's chest, and he looked away from her, hating the helplessness that crawled in his veins whenever he was around her.

It never changed—her stony silence—and it made him uneasy how he was someone of importance, with wealth and power, yet he could never seem to handle matters regarding his own child.

"Oh my—Lena! Where on earth—" The girl's governess spotted the duke and paled, curtseying quickly. "Good morning, Your Grace. I…"

"Neither of you seem to be taking your duties seriously," Aaron said, addressing both the governess and his housekeeper. "You are supposed to watch her carefully and to teach her how to behave properly. And yet, each time she's within my sight, something always happens. This should be the last time this happens. Do you understand?"

The women nodded with a dismayed chorus of "Yes, Your Grace."

Lena remained mum, her gaze still fixed on her father, and only dropping as the governess dragged her away. Dante left to get the duke a new pair of shoes and socks, along with a maid to clean up the mess, leaving the housekeeper with Aaron.

With a tired sigh, Aaron sat on his bed, resigned to his fate of being late.

"Forgive me, Your Grace, but something needs to be done about Lena's attitude. Never, in all my years, have I seen a child with such a flair for insubordination as her. She is also quite stubborn, consistently disobeying instructions, and she refuses to attend her lessons. She has a particular distaste for the music lessons, often ignoring a summons to head to the music room for piano practice and leaving her teacher to sit by herself for hours on end. Such behavior must be quashed before she grows even more and it becomes ingrained into her character," the housekeeper told him.

Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation and mild despair, noting that Sarah, too, seemed greatly concerned. To anyone else, he might not have been willing to admit it, but Sarah had been with him for far too long. She knew more about him than any of his other staff members and was well aware of his struggles, so he had no problem unburdening his heart before her.

"I do not know what to do with her anymore. It would not be so bad if she merely ignored only me, but she seems to disregard everyone. And if words and actions cannot get to her, I am worried nothing will. Every time I interact with her, it feels like a pointless waste of time," he said tiredly.

Sarah paused thoughtfully for a moment, then she spoke up, carefully putting the words together. "I have been thinking about this for a while now, Your Grace… Perhaps it is time you remarry."

Aaron leveled her with an incredulous stare. "Remarry? You want me to remarry? That's impossible."

"Perhaps not. I think what Lady Lena needs is someone she views as a mother figure. If you remarry, you will have a duchess prepared to take on the one thing you cannot seem to handle—your child. And Lady Lena would have someone else to rely upon and will not have time to bother you so needlessly."

Aaron opened his mouth to reject her suggestion, but then closed it because Dante returned with clean shoes and fresh socks.

Sarah smiled at him and curtsied. "Think about it, Your Grace. That is all I ask."

Aaron watched her leave, an uncertain emotion swirling within his chest. He didn't want to think about it at all—he had never considered that option to be viable and possible for him. But now that it had been suggested, he could not seem to shake off the feeling that an important point had been made.

"Would you need anything else, Your Grace?" Dante enquired.

Aaron shook his head, chasing needless thoughts out of his mind. "No," he said firmly, both as a response to his valet and Sarah's ludicrous idea. "That will be all."

Aaron arrived at his study for the meeting much later than he had expected, embarrassed to join his associates mid-conversation, causing their attention to shift to him. Quickly, he moved to where they were seated, apologizing profusely and waving away attempts to stand up and bow to him.

"I apologize, gentlemen. I did not intend to be this late?—"

"It is quite all right, Marson," one of the men, Lord Irvine, told him. "Your valet came in earlier to inform us that you had a situation to deal with and implored us to be patient, so we knew you had not forgotten about us."

"Is all well now?" Morgan Stafford, the Viscount of Hansbury, enquired in concern.

"Not exactly." Aaron sat down with a heavy sigh. "It is my daughter. She has an irritable personality for someone so young, and it is pushing me past my limit. She refuses to listen, doesn't like attending any of the lessons I go to great lengths to schedule for her, and has a knack for pulling silly, childish pranks on me. It is tiring to deal with her because she does not respond to anything I say—or to anyone else. She refuses to speak. I am at the end of my rope."

"Ah." The Baron Andrew nodded in understanding. "Of course you are. You are taking on a role with which you have no business."

"Precisely," Lord Irvine agreed. "A child's upbringing is the responsibility of a mother. If there's anything I've learned from my four children, it's that I am not the figure of authority in their eyes. Their mother is. They look to her for everything—guidance, discipline, love, and affection. Your daughter is not getting the last two from anyone, and certainly not you, so she will not even consider coming to you for the others."

Lord Hansbury nodded. "My two sons are quite unruly around me, but whenever their mother walks in, they sit up straight and turn into perfect, little lambs. Your daughter is acting out because she understands what she needs and is doing what she believes is necessary to get what she desires."

"So… I must find her a mother? Why is this seemingly the only plausible solution?" Aaron groaned, annoyed.

"It is simply a law of nature. You cannot tame her because, try as you might, you cannot fulfill the role of a woman—which is what she needs. You are plenty of things, Marson. You are a man of great potential, and you have what it takes to achieve all that you desire. This, however, is beyond your abilities."

Aaron had hoped for a different solution to be proposed, but seeing as this was apparently the only way he could solve this problem, he tried to bring up the glaring problem his associates seemed to forget would hinder their suggestion.

"Even if I were to search for a wife, I highly doubt there is a woman in her right mind who would volunteer or accept to marry me, given the rumors," Aaron pointed out.

"Ah, that is no problem at all!" Lord Irvine stated with a grin. "There are lots of ruined women desperate to find husbands. You can simply pick one and make her your duchess and the new mother of your child. It is highly unlikely that you will be met with any resistance, seeing as you would be offering a solution to their predicaments, and they will also benefit from marrying you."

"As a matter of fact, there is one whose scandal has been on the tip of everyone's tongues lately," Lord Hansbury said thoughtfully.

"Oh, is it the lady who slapped Lord Hertford across the face at a soiree?" Lord Andrew laughed.

Aaron blinked in surprise. "I am sorry. She did what? Why?"

"According to witnesses, she had approached him, and within a few moments of them conversing, she hit him. He claims she tried to seduce him, and when he refused, she tried to shame him. However, given Lord Hertford's penchant for taking liberties with women, I cannot say he's entirely blameless," Lord Hansbury explained.

"That does not help her case, either way. She has been ruined completely, and I heard that this was her fourth Season searching for a husband. The previous ones were failures for some reason. Very strange, because she is said to be quite a beauty. It is unfortunate, really." Lord Irvine sighed, lifting his cup of coffee to his lips.

It was certainly an interesting story to Aaron, who had more questions about how the situation even came to be. If she was a supposed beauty, how did she have not one but three failed Seasons? And why had not her family tried to arrange something on her behalf?

"What about her family? I can't imagine they're sitting idly by while their daughter's life is in ruins," he pointed out with a frown.

"As far as I know, she lives with her aunt and cousin. Although the cousin is meant to foster connections on her behalf, he seems to be hiding her away from curious eyes. And he isn't of good character himself—famous for his gambling habits and huge debts. The Earl of Fitzroy seems to have made it a priority to live as a disappointment," Lord Andrew supplied, before biting into his toast.

The Earl of Fitzroy? Could it be?—

"This earl… is he the one who inherited his title from his uncle and was tasked with watching over one of his cousins?"

Lord Irvine looked surprised at his question. "Yes, actually. You seem to have heard of him."

Heard of him? Aaron knew him, enough to have loaned him a large sum of money. And that debt was long overdue, providing him with the perfect medium to make his request.

"I have." Aaron nodded, feeling satisfied with the turn of events. "I know enough about him to be able to ask for his cousin's hand."

The rest of his meeting went well enough that he felt confident enough to summon his housekeeper afterward and inform her of his decision to propose to the Earl of Fitzroy's cousin.

Sarah was surprised that he had managed not only to see things her way but also find a potential bride.

"What is she like? Do you think she will be able to properly discipline Lady Lena and guide her?" she questioned.

To Aaron, he had only one chance at this. Judging by what he had heard about this woman he intended to marry, she was very desperate and would do anything to be saved from her shame.

So, he felt confident in his decision, nodding with certainty as he said, "Of course. She will not have much of a choice other than doing what I need her to do."