Chapter 4

Four

“ A re you really refusing to talk to me? Surely you recognize this is childish?”

Lady Cherie was quiet all the way from Dover. She sat in front of Thomas on his horse, with his arms wrapped around her as he awkwardly held the reins. And despite her riding sideways, she avoided looking at him. In fact, her body was turned away from him as far as the saddle allowed.

“Truly you cannot fault me, I know it seems cruel, but you cannot pretend this was not our only reasonable option. Even if I adhered to your wishes, you would have a truly hard time finding someone after the scandal.”

He could feel how stiffly she rode, her back as straight as a board, and he knew what it meant: she was furious at him.

He huffed. “Keep your silence if you wish, then. My conscience is clear.”

Thomas didn’t know if he should be angry at her for her naivete and stubbornness, hurt by her apparent disgust at marrying him, or pitying that she was, despite her best efforts to the contrary, being forced to marry against her will.

“That is not to say that I don’t understand where you were coming from, of course I recognize your position, and empathize with the bitter irony of it. Believe me. It wasn’t as if I wanted to marry you, either.”

You’ve thought about it though, a voice in his ear whispered. Again, the voice that sounded so eerily similar to his father’s. You’ve thought about marrying her, but you knew you weren’t worthy.

And nothing had changed, even with a new title and everything that came with it.

“Oh, isn’t that lovely!” her head snapped back to glare at him. “In addition to everything, now I am being told that you feel repulsed by me!”

“I did not say that!”

“You didn’t have to!”

Thomas took a few steady breaths. They still had an hour’s journey to Mayfair, surely he could make her see reason by then!

“Short of blackmailing Lord Breckenridge into silence—which mind you might still not keep him from eventually wagging his tongue—there was nothing we could do to save you from being ruined.”

“Don’t pretend this was selfless on your part!”

“Of course not. I would lose my sense of honor, my friendship with Aidan, if not my life at his hands.”

“So, while I empathize with you, you need to get over your refusal to accept the reality of the situation.”

She gave him a very cold look, then turned back around. “I think we should go faster,” she snapped after a moment. “It looks like rain, and we don’t want to get trapped outside if there is going to be a thunderstorm.”

Despite the coolness of her tone, Thomas could hear an edge of fear in it. Lady Cherie had been deathly afraid of thunderstorms as a child. She must still be afraid of them, he thought wonderingly.

He would have liked to have commented on this, to have reminded her that he knew about this foible of hers and had helped her overcome it in the past, but her body language was so angry and unforgiving that he didn’t dare.

“I shall make haste,” he said instead, and urged the horse to move faster.

When they arrived at Vaston Manor, it was nearly midnight. Far too late for Thomas to come in and have a word with Charles Norton. That, however, didn’t stop him.

“You’re coming in?” Lady Cherie asked, as he dismounted his horse.

“Of course I am,” he said gruffly. “I want to make sure your cousin understands how things will be from now on.”

“Tell Norton I am here to see him,” Thomas said to the butler as they handed him their riding cloaks. “And tell him I have brought back Lady Cherie.”

Several minutes after they had settled into the parlor, Norton appeared in the hallway, looking irate. He had barely opened his mouth to launch into whatever tirade he had planned for Lady Cherie when Thomas cut him off.

“You are a disgrace to your family name, Mr. Norton,” he snarled, advancing on Charles and cutting off his direct line of sight to Lady Cherie. “If I didn’t want to spare Lady Cherie and His Grace the scandal, then I would call you out at once for what you did to Lady Cherie.”

“Wh-what are you talking about, Lord Casserly?” Norton sputtered, his eyes growing wide at the sight of the furious duke.

“It’s Duke Wheaton now,” Thomas snarled, enjoying the look of surprise and horror on the man’s face. “And you know exactly what I am talking about. Selling Lady Cherie’s hand in marriage to a man as detestable as the Earl of Rochford. It is beyond the pale!”

Norton flushed with anger, and he puffed himself up. “What I do with my cousin’s hand in marriage is none of your concern!” he exclaimed. “She is mine to do with what I will!”

“She is mine!” Thomas shouted, his anger getting the better of him. The whole house seemed to echo with his shout, and the chandelier above them rattled dangerously. Norton even took a step back, alarmed. Behind him, he heard Lady Cherie shift, but he didn’t dare look at her.

“His Grace did not put you in charge, besides, she is my family.”

“No, but she is, however, my fiancée.”

“Your—?”

“Yes, my fiancée.” Thomas stood up straighter, delighting in the look of pure astonishment on Norton’s face. “It was not public knowledge yet, which is why she came to me today after hearing of your disgraceful behavior. She begged me to make the engagement public, even though the banns have not yet been read. So, I am here, telling you: the lady is my fiancée, and therefore off limits to you or anyone else.”

“But—Your Grace! I did not know! And you have been in India.” Norton’s eyes narrowed slightly. “How could you be engaged when you have been on the far side of the world?”

“The engagement is a long-standing one,” Thomas said at once, thinking fast. “Confirmed in our letters. But that is of no concern to you. What is your concern is apologizing profusely to the lady for treating her so abominably. When the Duke of Vaston hears of this, I would not be surprised if he called you out himself!”

“I-I am so deeply sorry, Your Grace!” Norton spluttered. “I did not mean for it to happen! It was the earl, he tricked me!” Tears gathered in Norton’s eyes, and Thomas felt a deep disgust. “He got me drunk and cheated at cards! He took everything from me, Your Grace, everything! I had no choice but to give him the most valuable thing I had to offer: a wife, and a wealthy one at that. Please, forgive me, Your Grace. I have truly acted abominably, as you say!”

“I am not the one to whom you should be apologizing,” Thomas said coldly. “It is Lady Cherie whose forgiveness you should be begging.”

“I—yes of course.” Norton turned to Lady Cherie and bowed—not very low, Thomas noted. “Please forgive me, Lady Cherie. My actions were self-interested, and I was most wrong.”

“I do not forgive you,” Lady Cherie said, without a hint of remorse in her voice. “And I will make sure my brother deals with you as harshly as you deserve.”

She then stormed past both of them—refusing to look Thomas in the eye—and out the door. Her footsteps echoed as she strode away down the corridor, then disappeared.

Thomas turned back to Norton, who seemed to cower before him. He took a step forward, anger radiating off of him.

“I will give you money to settle your debts with the Earl of Rochford,” Thomas said softly. “As much as it pains me to help a bounder such as you, I will do it to ensure that you never again try to use Lady Cherie as a negotiation tactic.”

“Your Grace, thank y?—”

“And if you ever threaten my fiancée again or try to marry her off before the Duke of Vaston returns, then nothing—and I mean nothing—will save you. Do you understand?”

Norton nodded, and Thomas turned and swept from the room, hoping with every ounce of his being that Norton was scared enough not to try anything else.

The next morning, Cherie sent notes to Minerva and Samantha, and that afternoon, they both called on her during visiting hours. She waited for them in the parlor, pacing back and forth, unable to sit still.

“Cherie!” Samantha said, the moment she flung open the doors to the parlor and hurried inside. “What happened?! Did your cousin discover you? Did Helen never arrive?”

Minerva followed close behind her, and Cherie quickly explained everything that had transpired the night before. By the end of her story, both women were staring at her in horror.

“This is my fault!” Minerva finally said, breaking the silence. “I should have double-checked that my driver knew to take you to Carleton Cottage, not a seedy inn of the same name. He didn’t seem surprised by the destination, though…” she trailed off, her eyes filling with tears. “I’m so sorry, Cherie! Please, forgive me.”

“It’s not your fault,” Cherie murmured. Her mouth felt as dry as sand. “I know you were only trying to help. You could never have predicted that the Duke of Wheaton would be there, or that we’d be discovered together.”

Samantha looked up at her shakily. “I cannot believe how spectacularly our plan failed,” she said. “It feels almost comical.”

“Yes,” Cherie said dryly. “Almost.”

“Although…” Samantha hesitated. “Surely if you have to marry someone, then the Duke of Wheaton isn’t the worst prospect? Aren’t you two friends?”

“We were,” Cherie said, “but the duke seems to have become a new person entirely since inheriting his title. I could barely recognize him. He is so cold and cruel now. His title must have changed him…”

Cherie suddenly recalled an afternoon, six or seven years ago, when she’d been a mere girl of thirteen, and her brother had returned home from Cambridge with several friends in tow, including Lord Casserly. Casserly often accompanied her brother home from university, and he was by far Cherie’s favorite of her brother’s friends. While the other young men had competed in a game of pall mall outside on the lawns—refusing to let Cherie join them, of course—Lord Casserly had sat with her in the drawing room and let her beat him at cards. She had always appreciated this gesture. He was older and had every reason in the world to make fun of her the way her brother did or ignore her as his other friends did.

But Lord Casserly had been kind, and, sensing her loneliness, had taken it upon himself to amuse her. Her mother had recently died, and with Aidan away at university, those years had been especially difficult. She had been forever grateful for his kindness, and while they had become less close when he’d gone abroad to India, she had always looked forward to his trips home. At the beginning of the Season, when he’d returned home the last time, her heart had leapt in her chest when she had glimpsed him across the ballroom.

But now… now the Duke of Wheaton had replaced Lord Casserly, and he was as distant and cold as all the other fashionable lords who cared for nothing other than titles and rank.

“But you would rather marry him than the Earl of Rochford, surely?” Minerva asked, disrupting her thoughts.

Cherie shook herself, forcing these memories from her mind, and turned to look at her friend. Minerva was watching her closely, her brow wrinkled slightly.

“Anyone is better than the Earl of Rochford,” Cherie finally relented. “But I made a promise to my mother that I would marry for love, and I am not going to compromise that now. Not after everything I went through to try and escape that… detestable marriage.”

There was a short silence as all of them contemplated her words.

“I know!” Samantha exclaimed at last. “You must write to Cassandra and His Grace! Urge them to return from their honeymoon as quickly as possible. Explain what has happened and that you need their help. The Duke of Vaston will know what to do.”

“You’re right,” Cherie said, and she stood from where she was seated on the couch and strode over to the writing desk in the corner. “I’ll write to them at once! I hate to cut short their honeymoon, but this is an emergency.”

She sat down, pulled a piece of paper towards her, and dipped a quill into ink. Aidan will save me. He will understand that I can’t get trapped in a loveless marriage like Mama did .

“Well, if it isn’t the two people who most dread seeing me,” Thomas said, as he stepped into the drawing room and saw Lady Cherie and Mr. Norton sitting on opposite sides of it, not looking at one another. “My fiancée, and the man I had to save her from.”

Both Lady Cherie and Charles Norton looked up at his words, and both of them scowled. Although in Norton’s case, it was more of a fearful look than an angry one.

Good. Let the man be scared of me. That’s the only way I can keep Lady Cherie safe from him.

His fiancée’s scowl was a less welcome sight. She was already sitting stiffly, her arms crossed in front of her chest, and at the sight of him, her frown deepened, and her eyes filled with a stormy look.

“Now is not the time for jests,” she snapped. “My brother and the duchess will be arriving at any moment. Then we will have this whole affair sorted, and you and I will no longer be affianced.”

“You say that like I myself wouldn’t be relieved by the prospect,” Thomas said, seating himself near Lady Cherie in a stiff wooden chair. It was better to stay alert, after all. “But it’s not as if I wanted to get married. I have just come into a large duchy that is taking up a considerable amount of my time and energy. My father’s finances are difficult to fully understand, and on top of that, I’m now in the process of selling our business in India so that I might remain on this continent for the foreseeable future. This is not the ideal time for me to take a wife.”

“Then release me from the engagement,” Lady Cherie said at once.

Thomas sighed and crossed one ankle over his knee. “And see you ruined? And my own reputation in tatters? Absolutely not.”

Lady Cherie huffed and turned away from him, but that was all very well for Thomas. He had better things to think about than how to deal with her ill temper. Like what he was going to say to his best friend when he walked through those doors.

It had been a fortnight since the disastrous night when he and Lady Cherie had been seen outside the inn by Lord Breckenridge. The intervening weeks had been so busy with the management and running of his duchy that he hadn’t been able to spare much thought to his upcoming nuptials—or to what Aidan would say to him when he arrived home from his honeymoon. But now, sitting in the drawing room he knew so well, nerves filled him.

You have nothing to be nervous about , he reminded himself. If it weren’t for you, Lady Cherie would be ruined—or worse.

Thomas had written to Aidan, of course, the moment he’d arrived home after dropping Lady Cherie off at Vaston Manor. But he hadn’t known exactly where his friend was staying in Rome, and it seemed that Lady Cherie had also sent a letter that had reached the duke before his own because the letter Thomas had received from his friend had been clipped and irritated sounding. Thomas was sure that in Lady Cherie’s version of events, he was the villain, not the hero.

Still, there was no saying how Aidan would react, even once he knew the full story. Brothers were very protective over their little sisters, and Aidan was no exception to this rule.

At that moment, the door to the drawing room burst open, but when Thomas stood, it wasn’t the Duke of Vaston that he greeted, but the Ladies Minerva and Samantha.

“Cherie!” Lady Samantha cried, holding out her arms to Lady Cherie. “We’re here!”

“Oh, thank heaven!” Lady Cherie said, standing and greeting her friends.

“Are we on time?” Lady Minerva asked.

“And why, pray tell,” Thomas interrupted, “are you ladies here, exactly?”

All three ladies turned to face him, each with sour looks on their faces. None more so than his fiancée, of course.

“We’re here to support Cherie,” Lady Samantha said, putting her hands on her hips. “To make sure she is not coerced into marriage.”

“This is a private family matter,” Thomas snapped. He didn’t at all like the tone that Lady Samantha took with him. “One that does not involve you in the slightest.”

“But it does involve us,” Lady Minerva said. “We are as good as sisters to Cherie.”

“This is a difficult enough situation,” Thomas said, “without the lot of you meddling.”

“Meddling, are we?” Lady Samantha asked heatedly. “Is that what you call protecting a lady?”

“I am protecting the lady!” Thomas said through gritted teeth. “I am protecting her from scandal and ruin!”

Lady Samantha and Lady Minerva looked at each other, and he couldn’t quite read the look that passed between them.

“I must say, he seems quick to jump to your defense, Cherie,” Minerva noted. She was addressing Lady Cherie, but her eyes were still on Thomas, appraising him.

“Or he is obsessed with playing the part of the hero,” Lady Samantha suggested, more dryly. “Many men love to be a white knight, even when the lady doesn’t need one.”

“Please stop talking about me as if I am not here,” Thomas said crossly.

“And he is handsome,” Samantha said, ignoring him. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him so close-up before.”

“He’s certainly improved to look upon since he was at university,” Lady Minerva agreed. “Cherie, remember when he helped us decorate the treehouse? I thought he was rather ungainly then, and awkward.”

“I was never awkward!” Thomas said indignantly. He colored as the women all stared at him. As much as he didn’t like to acknowledge them when they spoke of him as if he wasn’t there, he had to make sure that particular remark was stricken from the record. “I was merely unsure how to interact with young ladies who were almost, but not quite, of marriageable age. Especially when one of them was the youngest sister of my best friend.”

“The very definition of awkwardness,” Lady Samantha said, smiling wickedly. “But I will count it as a point in your favor that you helped two young ladies decorate a treehouse. Not many young men would do so.” She glanced at Lady Cherie. “I have to stick to my original assessment, which is that if you had to marry someone, he wouldn’t be the worst.”

Thomas flushed again. Is that supposed to be a compliment?

Lady Cherie, however, glowered at her friend. “You’re not helping!” she hissed at her.

“Ladies,” Thomas said, and this time, he lent a note of insistence to his voice, “I must ask you to leave. We have a delicate matter to discuss with the duke and duchess, and it will only be more difficult for all of us if you are here.”

Lady Minerva looked thoughtful. “Although we are also here to visit Cassandra, whom we haven’t seen since she left for her honeymoon. So perhaps it would be better if we stayed.”

Next to her Lady Samantha nodded enthusiastically.

“I am sure the duchess is excited to see you as well,” Thomas forced himself to say with as much calm as possible, “but wouldn’t another time be better to call upon her?”

“Certainly not!” Came a voice from the doorway. “I am overjoyed to see all my friends here, waiting for me!”

The commotion that followed was so chaotic that Thomas had trouble following everything that happened. What was clear to him was that Lady Cherie, Lady Samantha, and Lady Minerva all squealed with delight and then launched themselves at the duchess, and for the next few minutes, the four women were chattering with each other so exuberantly that no one else could get a word in edgewise.

Thomas closed his eyes briefly against the cacophony of noise. This is overwhelming. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that Norton also looked mildly terrified, and for a moment, he felt sorry for the man. These women will eat him alive for what he did to Lady Cherie.

At last, the duchess bade her friends sit down, and then she and her husband, who had stood behind her the whole time, watching the scene unfold with an expression of alarm and amusement, came fully into the room.

The duchess looked well, Thomas thought. Happy and pink-cheeked. She had always been a round, vivacious person, and she seemed even more healthy and full of vigor now. Aidan, meanwhile, looked tanned and happy as well. In fact, Thomas had never seen his friend look as well as he did now.

Until, of course, his eyes came to rest on Thomas.

The duke didn’t scowl, but a small frown did crease his brow.

“Wheaton.” The duke said Thomas’s new title with authority, and Thomas felt the word fall around his head like a noose. “I am glad you came.”

Aidan crossed the room to his old friend, and the two of them shook hands briefly. As their hands met, Thomas’s heart sank. Aidan didn’t seem angry, but there was a distance to him as he shook his hand which had never been there before. It was as if he was still deciding how he would like to proceed with their friendship.

“I’m glad you’re back,” Thomas said. “We have many things to discuss.”

“Most importantly,” Lady Cherie cut in, “that I refuse to marry the duke!”

Thomas flinched, as if the words had physically hurt him, and turned to Aidan. “She keeps saying that, but I am determined to marry her. I would not have it any other way.”

“Then perhaps you should have asked her,” Lady Samantha objected loudly. “Instead of deciding for her!”

“But my dear, she was compromised!” the duchess said, her eyes wide as she looked at her old friend.

“None of this would have happened if Mr. Norton hadn’t tried to marry Cherie off!” Minerva pointed out.

“I was duped!” Norton said, wringing his hands. “Tricked! Bamboozled!”

“That’s enough!” This time, it was the Duke of Vaston who had spoken, and at once, all the hubbub in the room died down. Everyone turned to look at him. He was staring at Thomas, but then his eyes snapped to Lady Cherie’s. “This is chaos. We will not figure anything out with all this noise and people talking over one another. I require a word with my sister—in private. And you as well, Wheaton.”

Aidan turned and left the room, and Thomas and Lady Cherie had no choice but to follow. As they did, Thomas couldn’t help but notice that Lady Cherie refused to look at him.

Once they were in Aidan’s study, Thomas and Lady Cherie seated themselves across from him. The Duke of Vaston looked wearier, now, as he settled in his chair and looked back and forth between them.

“Before I say anything else,” he began, “I wanted to say to you, Wheaton, that I am sorry about the loss of your father.”

Thomas was surprised, and he took a moment to respond. “Thank you,” he said at last, and he felt himself relax, and soften, for what felt like the first time in weeks. His body seemed to unclench, and he actually allowed himself a small smile of gratefulness. “It was a sudden illness and a quick death. But painless, at least.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Thomas saw Lady Cherie fidget and bite her lip. He would have been willing to guess that she had clean forgotten about the fact his father had just died. Immediately, he stiffened again, retreating into the “cruel” persona that he had built around him since his father’s death.

Aidan nodded, then steepled his fingers in front of him. “Now, will someone tell me exactly what is going on?”

Thomas and Lady Cherie launched into the story at the exact time, and for the next five minutes, they corrected each other and filled in each other’s blanks, until they had arrived back at the present day. Thomas couldn’t help but feel like they were two petulant children sitting down in front of their father to explain their mischief. Which was very annoying, considering he was only trying to do the right thing.

After he had heard everything, Aidan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He then leaned forward and looked very seriously at Lady Cherie.

“After hearing all this, I do not understand why it is you still refuse to marry Wheaton. I know it isn’t the ideal match you dreamed of—no offense, Wheaton—but what other choice do you have? He has done the right thing, the honorable thing, by offering for you, when he was under no obligation to do so.” Aidan’s gaze briefly met Thomas’s, then it flickered back to his sister. “It wasn’t his fault you were caught together like that. But he still did the right thing to save you.”

Lady Cherie’s mouth fell open in surprise, and her eyes filled with tears. Despite himself, Thomas felt his heart go out to her. “Please don’t misunderstand me,” she murmured, “I fear the scandal Lord Breckenridge could start, but I know there must be another way. You could talk to him, tell him?—”

“Tell him what?” Aidan interrupted. “That there was another reason you were there? The real reason, perhaps? Would that be less scandalous?”

“No,” Lady Cherie said, reddening. “I thought perhaps you could incentivize him to keep quiet.”

Aidan sat back in his chair and gave her a hard look. “I won’t threaten the man.”

“I don’t mean threaten,” she said quickly. “You could offer him something…”

“Cherie, you don’t understand how real life works,” Aidan said, shaking his head. “Coming to Lord Breckenridge with some kind of bargain is risky. He might take it, but what if he doesn’t? My trying to shush things up could only make it more scandalous. He might feel that he is being threatened.”

“And he has probably already told people,” Thomas said. “There have been mutterings at my club.” He swallowed. He hadn’t wanted to have to tell Lady Cherie this. “Several gentlemen have asked me if we are courting. Which means they’ve heard something, if not the whole truth.”

Lady Cherie’s silvery eyes began to brim over with tears, and she turned helplessly to her brother.

“There must be something we can do!”

“There is!” Thomas answered for him. “You can marry me! Is that really so bad a fate?”

Lady Cherie looked at him, and Thomas felt the strong urge to reach out and take her hand. But then his father’s words filled his head, Not good enough , and he hardened his gaze.

“I suppose it is,” he snapped, and stood. “But I should warn you, this is the last time I will make this offer. After today, I will rescind it. I cannot keep trying to get you to see reason, Lady Cherie, when you are so stubbornly refusing to. Just know that it won’t be my reputation that is permanently scarred. Mine will suffer, but it will be yours that is impossible to salvage.”

He knew the words he was saying were cruel, but he couldn’t help it. It was too much to hear, from the lady, what he already knew to be true: that he was unworthy of her.

“He’s not wrong, you know,” her brother said after the duke was gone, and Cherie turned back around to face him. His expression was grave but sympathetic, and now that they were alone, she finally let the tears run down her cheeks. “If you do not marry, it will hurt you both, but only you will be permanently tainted. He will continue to lead his life with relative ease.”

“It’s so unfair,” Cherie whispered.

“I know,” Aidan agreed. He sighed heavily. “And I’m very sorry about all of this, Cherie. It’s my fault, really.”

“No, it’s not!” Cherie protested. “It’s Charles’s, for trying to force me to marry Lord Rochford.”

Aidan’s expression clouded, and his hand balled into a fist on the desk. “Well, yes, and he will answer for that. But I should have been here to protect you. I should have known Charles was untrustworthy.”

“It’s not your fault,” Cherie repeated, shaking her head. “It all became a mess so quickly. My friends tried to help, but they couldn’t have predicted this would happen. No one could have!”

Aidan hesitated, then folded his hands on the desk. “About your friends… have you thought what it would do to them should you become embroiled in scandal? I know they will stick by you. They are brave and loyal ladies. But if you were to be ostracized from the ton, they would be as well. Especially if they didn’t denounce you.”

Cherie gasped and clapped a hand to her mouth. She hadn’t thought about this. In her panic, it hadn’t even crossed her mind that her friends would be negatively impacted by the choice not to marry the duke.

She lowered her hand and blinked up at her brother.

“Thomas would be a good husband,” Aidan continued more gently. “He is a good man. Far better than the Earl of Rochford. Perhaps he has become more severe since inheriting his title, but I have known him for many years, and I know that his heart is in the right place. He would be loyal to you; generous; kind.”

“But I promised Mama,” she said. “I promised her I’d marry for love.”

Aidan sighed again. “Mama is dead, Cherie. And even if she were alive, she would tell you to marry the duke. She would want to protect you. As do I. As do your friends. And as does Wheaton, which is a credit to him.”

Silence filled the room. Somewhere else in the house, Cherie could hear her friends laughing. They had reached the end of the road, she knew. There was nothing else she could do.

Very slowly, she nodded. Her brother was right. She had to marry the Duke of Wheaton.