The Duke's Divorce (The Reluctant Grooms Series Volume IV) (8 page)

“Oh Robert, do not be disappointed for my
sake. As I said, Fiona is a delightful creature, beautiful, and
very sweet. My only disappointment is that you are not giving her
the chance to become your wife in every sense of the word. I
understand your misgivings, but every marriage starts out thus. Why
your father and I barely spoke to each other for the first three
months of our marriage. We were so afraid of our feelings we tried
to keep them from showing. And you know how much we loved each
other.”

“Yes, Mother, that is just it. I do not love
her and she does not love me. We have no basis for keeping our
marriage intact.”

“Well, then you must find common ground. If
you plan on keeping to your silly charade you must be willing to
overlook what you think are deficits in her character. However, I
beseech you, dearest, if you give Fiona a chance, I’m sure you will
find someone with whom you may spend a lifetime of happiness.” His
mother leaned over and patted his cheek. “Now, if you will excuse
me, I have your sisters arriving and must begin my day.”

Robert got up and walked to the door.

“Dearest,” his mother called. “For your own
sake, I beg you, you must try and get to know your wife.
Invitations have started to arrive and it will do you no advantage
if you do not appear to at least like one another. You do not wish
the rumor mills to be reporting on you every day. Leave that for
someone else.”

Robert stepped out to the hall, made his way
downstairs, and asked Edwards to find his wife. He would apologize
for his morning’s behaviour. His mother was right. He needed to get
to know his wife.

Robert waited in the study for what seemed an
eternity. Edwards finally appeared. Alone.

“Where is my wife?” Robert asked.

“She has gone for a walk, Your Grace.”

“A walk!” So much for his directives.

“Yes, Your Grace. According to her maid, she
came up from breakfast, changed her gown, and left a little after
half-seven.”

Robert glanced at the clock. Who walked for
an hour first thing in the morning?

*****

Fiona strode determinedly through the park
muttering to herself. Surely, she looked as if she belonged in St.
Mary’s Hospital, but her anger at her husband knew no respite. How
dare he issue such an insane command! He was her husband, not her
keeper, she was a person, not cattle, and if she wanted to go
out-of-doors, he could do nothing to stop her.

He had seemed like a perfectly reasonable
sort when they had begun their marriage, considering it started
under such duress. His gestures at kindness allowed her to think
they might perhaps, do nicely, as he said. He had shown no hints at
cruelty, had not even raised his voice until this morning. However,
in light of this morning’s outrageous demand, mayhap it would be
wiser to move to the hotel, annulment be damned. If this was the
way he was going to behave, surely she did not have to agree with
it. Not have her leave the house! Absolutely ludicrous! The man was
insufferable if he expected her to live as a virtual prisoner.
She’d rather go back to Scotland and face the wrath of her father.
At least she could walk whenever she pleased.

She was a woman without a past, and now, it
seemed without a future. She was a person, a rightful human being,
and she refused to be brought under anyone’s thumb, even a husband.
Her father had his own rules, food on the table, clean clothes,
clean house, but for the most part left her alone to do as she
wished. The Duke of Cantin did not bargain for her with his trip to
Scotland, but that gave him no right to treat her callously,
issuing commands, demanding her compliance without any
explanation.

Turning toward the river, she wiped away a
quick tear. A miserable way to start a new life, but there was
nothing for it now. In for a penny, in for a pound. She stole a
look at her timepiece and found the hour drew near to ten. Not
wanting to return to Cantin House, she also did not want to
disappoint Lady Joanna. The woman had been nothing but kindness
itself.

Fiona walked quickly back to St. Martin
Street and rather than going to the front door, entered through the
kitchens, startling the cook, two scullery maids, and a footman.
She flew up the back stairs and into her bedchamber without being
seen by anyone else. Removing her woolen gown, she slipped back
into the lavender, did up the buttons as best she could, and fixed
her hair.

As she descended the stairs, Fiona heard
several female voices sounding like chattering birds, flowing from
the hall. The sisters had arrived.

Edwards stood at the entrance to the morning
room. She sailed past him with a smile and noted his shocked
expression.

Fiona stood just inside the doors and waited
for Lady Joanna to notice her. She did not want to call attention
to herself, although she supposed that was the whole reason for the
ladies visit this morning. While she waited, she took a good look
at Robert’s sisters. All three fair, however, the two youngest
looked like Lady Joanna. Whom she assumed was the eldest resembled
Robert, who looked like his father according to the portrait Lady
Joanna had shown her yesterday. They seemed pleasant, and excited
their brother had gotten married without a word to anyone.

Lady Joanna turned and saw her. “Fiona,
dearest, please come and meet my daughters.”

Fiona curtsied through the introductions.
First to Roberta, then Susanna, and lastly to Phyllis, who took
Fiona’s arm and led her to the settee.

“Mother tells us you grew up near Castle
Cornnan,” Phyllis said. “I wonder if you knew the little girl who
lived on the neighboring farm. Her father raised sheep and she and
I spent a few weeks one summer playing together.”

Fiona remembered a bright-eyed blonde girl
with a flowing braid and a dirty pinafore the summer she was nine.
They took to naming all the sheep and after running out of common
names like Fluffy, Cottontail, and Blackie, found some rather
unconventional ones like Horatio, Makepeace, and Julius. That child
had been her last real friend.

“I believe I am that girl. We named all our
sheep that summer.”

“Oh my stars, is not this the most unlikely
of coincidences then?” Phyllis asked.

Fiona didn’t know what to say. Unlikely
coincidence did seem to sum up her newfound life.

Lady Joanna allowed them a few more minutes
to chat before ushering them into the breakfast room. The board
overflowed with delicious aromas and Fiona took great delight in
all she saw before her. Porridge and toast had been her fare in
Scotland and her father did not deviate from that. What Cook had
laid out seemed fit for a king.

After the meal, Fiona sat with the women in
the green salon, rather pleased her first foray into the
aristocracy had gone well. Until Robert entered the room. His
sisters jumped from their chairs, kissed him with congratulations,
and berated him on keeping such a secret from them. His eyes locked
on Fiona.

“If you will excuse us, I wish to speak with
my wife,” he said in a tone that allowed no argument.

Fiona rose slowly. He was not pleased.

In the hall, he took her elbow and demanded
in a whisper, “Where were you this morning? I told you not to leave
this house until you had spoken to my mother.”

“Your mother was still abed when I decided I
needed a walk. Forgive me, my lord, but I am not a prisoner here. I
shall come and go as I please.” She shook off his grasp.

His voice rose. “You will inform Edwards
where you are going from now on, and you will take your maid with
you. It is unseemly for a duchess in your position to be seen
walking about Town like a common fruit-seller.”

“This is why I made sure to change my gown
before I left. I was unrecognizable as you so convincingly told me
last night before dinner.”

Robert seemed taken aback, but did not deter
from his position. “Women in our society do not go for walks. They
are seen
at lunches, or parties, or balls. They are always
escorted and if they do walk, they do so at the fashionable hour,
not half-seven in the morning.”

“I
like
walking in the early
mornings,” Fiona said, her voice rising in tone to match his. “I
did so every day in Scotland and find the exercise agreeable.”

“You
are not
in Scotland any longer,”
he yelled. “
Ladies
do not walk for exercise.”

“Well, as you decidedly have no care to treat
me as such,” she yelled back, “I shall walk whenever I bloody well
please.” With that, Fiona turned and ran up the stairs to her room.
She slammed the door not caring if the whole house heard. Tears of
frustration erupted and she threw herself across the bed. She
wanted to go home where she could walk in the fields whenever she
wanted, lie in the hay, look at the sky, and listen to her sheep.
She yearned to live simply, the way she had for so long and not
have to learn rules about which fork to use, which gown to wear, or
when it was proper to walk, of all things.

Fiona’s only desire that last night at Castle
Cornnan was to keep the silly sot from killing himself. She wiped
her tear streaked face with the back of her hand. “I should have
let him choke,” she said to the empty room.

Robert listened as his wife’s footsteps beat
a staccato on the stairs and the door to her chamber slammed.
Immediately, he wished he could take back his words. He had never
raised his voice in anger to a woman in the whole of his life. He
turned to head to his study and found his mother and sisters
staring open-mouthed at him from the doorway.

The look in his mother’s eye nearly broke his
heart. He about-faced, strode up the hall, and out the front
door.

Good Night! What was it about Fiona that had
him raving like a lunatic? Of course, she could walk when she
pleased. How stupid of him to forbid it. She was raised in
Scotland, not some foreign outland. What had he been thinking? That
was the problem, he wasn’t thinking. He hadn’t been thinking
clearly since he had first seen her in her new gown last night at
supper. What was it about Fiona that had him wanting to keep her
behind closed doors? Surely, she would never embarrass him in
public, it wasn’t in her nature. She was a steady girl, he knew
that from their travels. He needed to understand his reasoning and
he had no idea how. His analytical mind was in a whirl with
emotions he hadn’t felt in a very long time. And he didn’t like it,
not one bit.

Robert followed the streets through Mayfair
until he reached his club. He usually didn’t arrive before
luncheon, however, this was not the day to remain at home.

“Your Grace,” the maitre d’hotel intoned.

“Good morning, Jacobs. Tell me, are any of my
friends about this morning?”

“The Duke of Caymore is in the breakfast
room,” Jacobs said.

“Thank you.” Robert took the stairs two at a
time.

He found his cousin seated by himself at a
small table by the window, reading the newspaper.

“Have you seen it?” Robert asked without
preamble.

William looked up, a smile playing at the
corners of his mouth. “Yes, I have seen it. I’m sure all of Society
has seen it, Robby. I still cannot believe it is true.”

Robert sat down and ordered coffee from a
passing waiter. “Yes, it is all too true.”

“It is so unlike you to do something so
spontaneous, especially where marriage is concerned. Now we are
alone, you must tell me the real story. What happened? Did her
father catch you in the act?”

Robert placed his fingers to his temples and
rubbed. He gazed at his cousin. “Unfortunately, yes. But it is not
what you are thinking.”

William sat back, folded the newspaper and
placed it on the table.

“I trust you will not relay the story,”
Robert pleaded. “The gossipmongers have already started and I do
not wish for any more fuel to be added to the fire.”

William feigned a hurt look. “Cousin, blood
is thicker than water.”

The waiter brought his coffee, and while he
sipped, Robert related the truth of how he managed to get married
in Scotland.

“We are telling people our love grew over my
time there, and once you see her, it will be no hardship to
believe,” Robert said as he finished his tale.

“I would expect nothing less from you,”
William said.

Robert nodded. His exploits with stunningly
beautiful women were well renowned. How he had escaped the nuptial
noose had added to his legendary status.

“Thankfully, I do not have long in the
parson’s trap,” Robert said. “I plan to annul the marriage within
six months. However, that is strictly privileged information.”

“May I ask why?”

“I do not love her. She does not love me, and
I will not be stuck in a loveless marriage like so many of our
contemporaries. I have always wanted what my parents had. I do not
need money, or a title.”

“Yes, that is what you have always
maintained,” William said. “Why did you not just make a settlement
on the chit?”

Robert had the grace to look shamefaced. “I
did offer, however, I….” Robert remembered the sting of Fiona’s
slap across his face. And the look of desolation in her eyes. “I
decided I would marry her and settle on her after our annulment,
thus killing enough birds with one stone to keep all parties happy.
Well, except myself, of course.”

“Does your mother know?” William asked.

“About the annulment?”

William nodded.

“Yes, both she and Lady Olivia know the truth
of our marriage and subsequent annulment.”

“You’ve told Lady O the truth?” William
almost shouted.

At William’s raised eyebrow, Robert
explained. “I thought it was in my best interest to let the Dowager
in on my scheme. She is such a meddlesome creature, I’m sure she
could help Fiona to find a suitable swain to marry once our
marriage becomes void.”