Chapter 3

Three

“Y our Grace, I demand to know what you are doing alone with this unchaperoned young lady!” Lord Breckenridge said, puffing out his chest in indignation as he stared between them. “And outside of a seedy inn in Dover, no less!”

“This seedy inn was good enough for you, my lord!” Cherie heard the duke grumble. However, it was hard to focus on what he was saying. She was, once again, in shock, barely able to move or think. After all their planning, all the factors she and the other wallflowers had taken into consideration to avoid scandal, here she was, caught in the middle of one.

What are the chances that Thomas—His Grace—would be here? Outside the very same inn that Minerva sent me to? And that Lord Breckenridge would also be here?

“Don’t make light of this situation!” Lord Breckenridge spluttered. “You have been caught in a most licentious position, Your Grace! And with the lady’s brother out of the country, where he cannot call you out! But if you do not make right by the lady… who knows what he will do!”

This got Cherie’s attention. She looked up, startled, and took in Lord Breckenridge’s outraged face. Glancing at the duke, she thought he had gone pale as well. Is Breckenridge right? The duke was her brother’s closest friend, but Aidan was also very protective. Would he really challenge the duke to a duel if he thought he had taken liberties with her?

“There will be no need for His Grace to call me out,” the duke said, straightening and taking a small step towards Cherie. As he did, he reached out and took her hand in his. “Lady Cherie and I are engaged.”

Cherie felt as if all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. She swayed, dizziness overcoming her, and the duke tightened his grip on hers as if to steady her. When her sight came back into focus, it was to see an equally shocked look on Lord Breckenridge staring at them.

“Engaged!” he repeated, thunderously. “By Heaven! Then what are you doing here, in the middle of the night, with your fiancée dressed like a maid? You aren’t… I haven’t stumbled upon an elopement, have I?”

“Certainly not!” the duke said, and the indignation in his voice sounded so convincing that even Cherie believed, for a moment, that they weren’t in as scandalous a position as they actually were. “The lady was merely coming to meet me after my return from India. Her chaperone is inside.”

Lord Breckenridge’s eyes narrowed, then flickered between the duke and Cherie, who was still too numb and in shock to try and look innocent. Breckenridge’s mouth formed a pouty little smile. “Is that so? I hope you are telling the truth, Your Grace, for the lady’s sake. I should hate for you to be lying, and for scandal to haunt you from your first moments of taking up the duchy.”

“Of course I am telling the truth!” The duke sounded truly outraged now, and he took a threatening step towards Lord Breckenridge, releasing Cherie’s hand in the process. “And I shall not hear another word from you that puts my lady’s virtue in any doubt! She is a paragon of virtue, and any insinuation otherwise will be met with my full fury. In fact…” the duke paused as if thinking hard.

“If I hear any gossip, even the faintest whiff of a rumor, about her presence here at this inn, then I shall know it was you who said something, Lord Breckenridge. And then you will have not one duke as an enemy, but two. Because Lady Cherie is now protected not just by the Duke of Vaston, but the Duke of Wheaton. And very soon, she will be the Duchess of Wheaton. And if you breathe even a word intimating any indiscretion on her part, then I can assure you, you will never again know what it means to be in Society’s good graces.”

Lord Breckenridge flushed. His eyes flashed with anger, but underneath that, Cherie could also sense his fear. After all, he was a mere baron, whereas the duke was, well… a duke. And Breckenridge’s love for gossip meant that he considered it of the utmost importance to be in the good graces of all Society’s most important players. He would not take well to being on the outside.

For a moment, Breckenridge did not answer. Cherie felt as if she could see the wheels in his head turning, as he tried to figure out what was, for him, strategically the best move.

At last, he seemed to make up his mind, because he nodded and bowed low, his expression suddenly obsequious.

“Of course, Your Grace, you are right. My deepest apologies to you, and Lady Cherie, for my mistake. I can be so quick to jump to conclusions, you see… but of course, it is as you say. There is no scandal. I see that now.”

The duke glared down at Breckenridge. “And we will not hear any stories of running into Lady Cherie at this inn?”

“Of course not, Your Grace.” Breckenridge bowed again. “And I hope you will remember my discretion in the future. After you are married, of course.”

And with one last simpering smile at the two of them, the baron departed, leaving a weighty silence behind him.

“What did you just do?!” Cherie gasped, turning furiously to the Duke of Wheaton.

The duke, however, ignored her. Instead, he seized her hand and pulled her away from the entrance of the inn, towards an alleyway where, in the darkness, she knew they would not be recognized. Only once they were fully covered by darkness did he release her.

“That was too close,” he murmured distractedly. He was still looking over his shoulder as if fearful Breckenridge might reappear at any moment. “Far, far too close.”

“You cannot be serious about what you said to Lord Breckenridge!” Cherie shouted, not caring who heard them. The duke looked around at her, clearly startled by her tone. She glared up at him, tears of panic pricking her eyes. “We cannot marry!”

“What do you mean?” the duke looked as if he genuinely did not understand her. “Of course we must marry!”

“But I am only here because I am trying to escape a marriage that wasn’t of my own choosing! I will not now be forced into another one!”

The duke stared at her incredulously. “We were seen, Lady Cherie! Do you not understand what that means? If I had not said we were engaged to be married, then Lord Breckenridge would have told the entire ton about you being here, alone with me, at an inn known for its licentious rendezvous! You would be ruined, my lady.”

“But…” Cherie's mouth had gone very dry. She knew that what the duke was saying was correct, but at the same time, she couldn’t bear to let herself be forced into another marriage. “We are not in love!”

The words came out before she could think about them, and she flushed as the duke took her in. His expression was cold, even a little angry, as he stared down at her.

“Love has nothing to do with this,” he said at last. “Love has nothing to do with marriage in general, for people such as us.”

“But I desire a love match! I promised my mother that I would not have the same fate as her, that I would be happy in my marriage.” Cherie said, desperation filling her voice. She didn’t want to tell him about the promise she’d made to her mother, all those years ago, but she knew it was the only way for him to understand.

She took his hand and locked eyes with him.

“I have always desired a love match. That’s why I ran away! My cousin was trying to force me to marry the Earl of Rochford. Can you believe it?! That terrible man wanted to force me into a union with him, no matter if I actually wanted him…”

The duke blinked, and Cherie could tell that this news shocked him to the core. There was a long silence as he absorbed it, during which the color drained from his face. At last, he spoke, his voice shaking slightly. “Why would your cousin do that?”

“Because he owes the earl money, from what I was able to gather.”

“But your brother?—”

“Is in Italy and would not have been able to stop it in time.”

The duke’s hand balled into a fist, and he looked so angry that for a moment, Cherie thought that he was going to hit the side of the alley. “You cannot marry a man as wretched as the Earl of Rochford,” he said at last. “And now that you have been implicated in a scandal, it is clear to me that if you do not marry me, your cousin will have even more power to force you to marry the earl. I am sorry, Lady Cherie, but I can see no way forward other than our marriage.”

Cherie shook her head and drew back. “But we cannot! My friends and I, we made a pact to all marry for love, ” she explained, trying a last effort to save her from the future she tried to flee.

“ We are old friends,” the duke pointed out. “Isn’t that good enough?”

“Is that good enough for you?” she demanded. “Don’t you desire a love match as well?”

Something flickered in the duke’s eyes, and then his expression turned to stone.

“I will not allow you to be ruined!” he snarled, squeezing his fist so tightly that his knuckles turned white. “Nor will I risk my own social standing, not to mention my relationship with your brother, who is the only true friend I have ever had. There is no other way, and at the very least, it will save you from a life of being the Countess of Rochford!”

The harshness in his tone surprised Cherie, and her own hands balled into fists.

“I will not be coerced into a marriage I did not choose,” she said, holding her head high. The duke’s eyes flashed with anger, and when he spoke, it was in the most unfeeling tone of voice she had ever heard.

“Then you should have thought first before sneaking out of your home and traveling, unchaperoned, to a dangerous town. I understand why you did it—believe me, I do—but you should have known what a risky undertaking it was.”

“It’s not as if I planned to run into you here!” she said desperately.

“Hang meeting me—you could have been killed! Do you not realize that?”

“I would rather be dead than forced into a marriage I don’t want!”

The duke scoffed. “Then you are as foolish as you are reckless.”

“Don’t call me foolish,” Cherie shouted, and she was furious to feel the prick of tears in her eyes. “Not when you say you understand the fate that awaited me if I stayed home! You should be showing me compassion, not cruelty!”

“I do understand,” Thomas said, his voice softening slightly. “But it was still a terrible risk to run away, both to your honor and your safety. Your actions put not only your own reputation in danger but also the reputations of all those who associate with you, including your brother. Now, you are being forced to deal with the consequences of your actions. And while you might not like it, I do not see what other choice you have. What other choice either of us have.”

Cherie could not believe the words that were coming out of the duke’s mouth. She had known Casserly—as she still thought of him—for many years. They had been friends, of a sort. He had always been kind to her; not just to her, but to everyone. In fact, his kindness was one of her favorite things about him. And now, he was speaking to her with such coldness and cruelty that she could hardly believe that this was the same person.

“When did you become so cruel?” she whispered, as tears filled her eyes. She didn’t want to cry in front of this cold, unfeeling man, but the last twelve hours had been the most emotionally fraught of her life, and she was so overwhelmed, scared, and alone.

If only Aidan were here… her brother would know how to set everything right.

The duke’s face hardened at her words, and he turned away. “Life is cruel,” he said, not looking at her. “The sooner we accept that, the better. Now come, we must get you back to London before news of your escape gets out.”

Cherie sniffled involuntarily, then wiped the tears from her cheeks quickly. The duke, however, had heard her. He paused, and his shoulders slumped slightly, as if the sound of her tears had actually broken through his shell.

When he spoke, his voice was kinder, and she wondered if he truly thought what he said next was meant to comfort her. “Fear not about our lack of a love match, my lady. This will be a marriage only on paper. We will not live together as true husband and wife.”

But this did not comfort Cherie one bit.