Page 8 of The Duchess’ Second Chance

What if he’s right?

He couldn’t be. She pulled at the laces on the back of her gown, increasingly desperate, until finally she managed to wrestle it from her body. She threw it to the floor in a heap and dove under the covers on her bed, her eyes squeezed shut.

She couldn’t believe that her mother would look with disapproval on any of the choices she had made in her life.

That was her father talking. But he had never approved of her. It was nothing new.

And in a few days, it won’t matter anymore at all.

CHAPTER 5

Amanda had awoken very early the following morning, knowing that she needed to make all this right with one more person.

Wary of another confrontation with her father, she’d slipped out of the house before the sun was up. By the time her carriage had pulled up in front of Dorothy’s house, the sky was just barely growing light. Amanda had hesitated, but her friend would understand. She’d knocked on the door.

Now she was in Dorothy’s sitting room with a steaming cup of coffee, recounting yesterday’s events to her wide-eyed friend. “So you really are going to marry him?”

“It’s the best thing I can do,” Amanda said. “You said yourself that you didn’t think I should marry Lord Oakwell.”

“And I don’t! But is this new man any better? I saw the scars on his face when he walked through the church yesterday, Amanda. What kind of man is he?”

“A soldier,” Amanda said. “He got those scars in the war, Dorothy, not in a bar brawl. And he was a friend of George’s. That’s why he wants to marry me—because George made him promise. I can trust him.”

Dorothy sighed. “I hope that’s true,” she said. “I just don’t know what to think about the way he showed up out of the blue like that!”

“Well, he’s the best option I have,” Amanda said firmly. “I need to speak to Rose about it, though. I need to make sure she understands why the plan has changed, and that she feels comfortable with it.”

“You mean you won’t marry that man if she doesn’t want you to?”

“I’m hoping it won’t come to that,” Amanda said. “I’m hoping I can make her understand why it has to be this way. But what I won’t do is just send her off to the house of a man she doesn’t even know without so much as an explanation. She thought I was going to be marrying Lord Oakwell, and that we would be living in his estate. That’s changed, so I need to speak to her about it. Will you please get her for me?”

“Of course, if that’s what you’d like.” Dorothy got to her feet. She regarded Amanda doubtfully for a moment, but then she left the room.

Amanda sat back and let out a soft sigh.

She could understand why her friend was worried. To tell the truth, it felt good to have someone worry about her instead of demanding to know why she hadn’t done more to help them. Dorothy was behaving more like a parent to her than her own father had. But she also wanted her friend to understand why this was a good idea. It worried her ever so slightly that Dorothy couldn’t seem to see it. It made Amanda wonder whether she might be making a mistake.

“Amanda!”

She sat upright at the sound of the little girl’s voice. A moment later, Rose had jumped into her lap and flung her arms around Amanda’s neck. “I missed you!” she bubbled. “Miss Dorothy is nice, but it just isn’t the same…will I be able to come home soon?”

“Very soon, I think,” Amanda said.

“Did Lord Oakwell say it would be all right for me to live at his house?” Rose asked. “Miss Dorothy said I could stay here as long as I needed to, but I don’t know about that.”

“You don’t like it here?”

“I just miss home,” Rose said. “I miss our reading lessons.”

“Well, I have some surprising news,” Amanda said. “As it turns out…I haven’t married Lord Oakwell after all. I’m going to be married to someone else.”

Rose sat bolt upright, rigid in Amanda’s arms. “It’s that man, isn’t it?” she asked. “That beast of a man who interrupted the wedding.”

“He really isn’t a beast,” Amanda said.

“I think he must be. I saw the scars on his face, and he’s so big and strong. What could make scars like that?” Rose shook her head. “I think he clawed himself in the face under the full moon.”

“You think he’s a werewolf?” Amanda chuckled.