The Scoundrel Duke of her Heart by Violet Hamers
Chapter Six
When Jenny came to, she was in a room with light filtering in through the window, under warm covers. Raising her hands above her head, she stretched. The last thing she remembered was fainting in front of Nicholas. She bolted upright, the events of the previous night rushing back to her. She didn’t know why she had gotten ill but she felt it had to do with marrying Nicholas. Then she’d had to faint in front of him. It mortified her.
A knock sounded at her door. “Come in,” she called.
Her companion Mrs. Atwood walked in, bearing a tray. “Good morning, my lady,” she greeted. “I am glad to see you’re well this morning.”
Mrs. Atwood practically raised her and the woman was very dear to her. “What happened?” she asked, still feeling embarrassed for falling ill like that.
“I’m uncertain, my dear. Your father brought you home and you were shivering like a leaf in the rain. You looked as though you got the fright of your life.”
“I suppose marrying Nicholas is a fright,” she murmured.
Mrs. Atwood set the tray down and came to sit on the bed beside her, feeling her forehead with the back of her hand. “You seem to be alright now. What happened at the ball, my dear?”
“I overheard my fate being decided. I am to marry Nicholas Brighton.”
“Your neighbor in Norfolk? The duke?”
Jenny nodded, pushing her hair away from her face and accepting the cup of tea Mrs. Atwood was giving her.
“Oh, that explains your nerves last night.” She frowned, seemingly thinking. “But what about marrying him frightens you? You were friends, were you not?”
“Yes, we were friends. I don’t know him anymore and I don’t want to marry him.” She sighed, then took a sip of the tea and almost spat it out.
“I know it’s bitter but it will help you.”
“His grandmother, the dowager duchess, is insisting on the match.”
“Perhaps you can convince your father to allow you to make your choice.”
“I hope I can.” She swallowed more tea before setting the cup down and swinging her legs to the floor. She had to find him and speak with him. “Do you know where my father is?”
“In his study, I believe. Do you want me to help you dress or should I call Sarah?”
Jenny shook her head. Sarah was her lady’s maid and right now, she needed the comfort of having Mrs. Atwood around. “I want you to help me.”
The woman gave her a motherly smile and stood, crossing the room to her dressing room. When she arrived downstairs, she was told that her father was out. Jenny became annoyed. She needed to speak to him.
“Come, my dear.” Mrs. Atwood steered her toward the breakfast room. “You should eat to regain your strength.”
“I am not sick,” she protested.
“Yes, but nerves require strength to beat.”
“Now you make me feel feeble, Mrs. Atwood.”
She laughed. “Oh, you are anything but.”
Was she? Somehow she doubted her own strength, especially where Nicholas was concerned.
* * *
Brightness jolted Nicholas awake and he covered his face with his hands.
“Get up!” his grandmother barked, stomping her cane on the carpeted floor.
“What the devil is the meaning of this?” He sat up, trying to compose himself and wondering what his grandmother was doing at his house this early in the morning.
“Get up!” she ordered again. “Open the curtains wider,” she ordered the footman standing near the window.
“Don’t you dare open that window!” Nicholas snapped at the footman. The man looked from the dowager to the duke, uncertain who to obey. “Leave us,” he instructed to make the matter easier for him.
The footman scurried out of the room and Nicholas glared at his grandmother. “What are you doing here? Could you not have waited downstairs for me?”
She gave him an incredulous look. “Wait for you downstairs?” Then she cackled. “You may have a higher ranking than me in society but I am your grandmother.”
“Where is Bentley?”
“Are you seriously asking me where your butler is?”
He shrugged. “You’re here.”
She huffed out a breath. “I am sixty-five years old, boy. I do not have time for your nonsense. You will understand how valuable time is when you become as ancient as I am.”
Nicholas tugged the bed covers higher and squinted at the clock on the fireplace mantle: The time was some minutes past seven. This woman had another thing coming if she thought she could disturb him like this. He drew the covers up to his neck and turned onto his stomach, then buried his head under a pillow to resume his slumber.
“Have you gone deaf?” Her cane thumped on the carpet again. “You have to marry and I have never heard of a man that got married in bed.”
“You may start rejoicing, for you might experience it in your lifetime,” he mumbled into his pillow. He heard her approach the bed but ignored her. Until her cane poked him.
“Grandmother!” He turned around and sat up. “You are not afraid of wounding me, are you?”
“I only poked the duvet.” She gave him a sweet smile. “Until you have an heir, you are quite untouchable.”
“Until I have an heir…” he echoed. “Is this your way of convincing me to marry?”
“I do not need to convince you to marry. You are going to marry.”
“Will you at least afford me some privacy to perform my morning ablutions and get dressed?”
“Very well.” She moved to the sitting area on one side of the room and proceeded to make herself comfortable.
Nicholas gaped. “I mean, leave me.”
“I am far cleverer than you give me credit for, Nicholas. Once I leave this room, you are going to reach for the lock and I will have to break the door to get you to come out.” She raised her cane, pointing at his dressing room. “Go on. There is nothing you have that can hurt me. I birthed your father and uncle, and—”
“Please,” he cut her off, “spare me those details. I beg of you.” He shook his head in wonder. “Does propriety mean nothing to you?”
“I am too old to care.”
He groaned. It was all he could do not to throw a pillow at her in the hopes that she would leave him. “What do you want of me this morning?” he asked.
“I shall be calling upon the Hanover residence soon. I expect you to come with me.”
“And to what will they owe the pleasure of your call?”
“The earl is yet to acknowledge the contract I sent him. I want to know why he is hesitating. And you, my boy, will woo the girl.”
“Give him time,” he heard himself say.
“His silence is disrespectful.”
“If I recall correctly, your comments last night were disrespectful.”
She dismissed his remark with a wave of her hand. “I also want to have a little chat with my granddaughter-in-law.”
“She is not your granddaughter-in-law.”
“You are right. Not yet but as long as I am alive, this marriage will happen. Even if it is on my deathbed.”
“Jenny will not marry me,” he announced. “I asked personally and she refused.”
“Did you go down on one knee?” she asked.
He glared across the room at her. “No.”
“Then blame her refusal on it. It might even be why she became unwell before the ball ended. All that will change once I speak to her.”
Nicholas did not think his grandmother would be able to change Jenny’s mind. The girl was the most stubborn woman he’d ever known. His grandmother was right. In a way, they were quite alike.
“I need you to leave. Now.” Nicholas was determined to remove her if she did not leave.
She braced her cane on the carpet and stood. “Very well. I shall be waiting for you downstairs.”
He leaned back and allowed a relieved sigh to take him after her departure. This was only one battle against his grandmother and he augured many to come.
