Just a Marriage of Convenience with the Duke by Hazel Linwood
Chapter 2
Despite Isabel’s hopes, that dream was not a unique event. Instead, it was not unlike the single drop of rain before the downpour, each night bringing a new dream that invariable turned out to be true.
Not that I am able to reveal that to anyone.
Her uncle was still quite unmoved about the whole situation. Or so Jenny had told her. She had seen neither hide nor hair of him since she saved Roger’s life at the stables, and she did not expect that to change soon, though she had heard no gossip about the incident.
Resigning herself to act normally, she rang the bell to summon her lady’s maid. She settled back into her pillows, ignoring the guilt squirming in her belly.
She won’t be hurt, but do not react when she knocks over the water stand.
True to her dream, Ellen bustled into the chamber a few minutes later carrying a tray laden with Isabel’s morning meal and ran into the water stand, knocking it to the floor with a loud crash.
“I’m so sorry, Milady,” the young girl stammered with a blush rising on her cheeks. “I will have it cleaned immediately.”
“It is no trouble, Ellen,” Isabel reassured her. “It was an accident.”
One that I could have prevented if I were allowed.
Isabel turned to place her feet on the ground to retrieve the tray, but Ellen rushed to her side, preventing her from putting her feet on the ground.
“You should stay in bed, Milady, at least until I can sweep the glass up. There might be small bits of glass and ye might cut your feet.”
Isabel smiled and acquiesced even though she knew it was perfectly safe for her to walk around the chamber. She had already seen as much in her dream.
“Thank you, Ellen,” she said. “Shall I break my fast in bed, then?”
The tray was placed in her lap for her to do just that, as Ellen summoned one of the housemaids to assist her in cleaning up the mess of broken glass and water near the foot of the bed.
An hour later, Isabel was dressed, and Ellen was putting the finishing touches on her hair when Jenny knocked on her door and walked in.
“Good morning, Cousin,” she said with a wide smile.
Isabel smiled gently in return. “Good morning, Jenny. How was your outing to the theater last night?”
She tried to keep the question as devoid of jealousy as she could. She did not begrudge her cousin her ability to attend the Season’s events. She only bemoaned her inability to join her. If she had not been confined to her chamber, she would most definitely been at theater with them the previous evening.
“It was lovely, as usual,” Jenny said. “I wish you could have been there with us, however. Alexandra is not nearly as pleasant company as you are.”
“Yes, well, Alexandra was hired as a chaperone to protect our virtue. It is not her duty to be entertaining.”
Jenny pouted. “Yes, but she does not have to be so dour all the time. It is as if she does not wish for young men to approach me at all. She will frighten them all off with her scowl.”
Isabel laughed, but schooled her expression quickly. Alexandra was not unkind, but she was also not the most affable person she had ever met. Still, it would be cruel to mock the poor woman, and she told her cousin so.
Jenny shook her head. “Miss King’s chaperone is much more approachable than Alexandra. They are friends even.”
“It is only until one of us is married,” Isabel consoled. “After that we will be able to chaperone each other, and then you will no longer be able to complain about Alexandra’s dour face.”
Jenny brightened at the thought and was soon engrossed in recounting everything that had occurred at the theater the night before.
“Lady Whitewood was wearing an orange gown. Can you believe it? Orange!”
“I daresay it was the height of fashion,” Isabel said in a false tone.
“It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen in my life,” Jenny said with a shudder. “And her hat was full of ostrich plumes. I do not know what modiste dreamed up such a thing, but I would like her name so I can avoid buying my gowns from her.”
“And her daughters?”
“Just as gaudy, if you can believe it, though their gowns were blue and green. Much more acceptable colors.”
“I imagine so.”
A comfortable silence descended between them for a moment, and Isabel nibbled on the corner of one of the biscuits that Ellen had brought up for them.
“We should try speaking to Father,” Jenny suggested, and Isabel nearly choked on the bits of the confection in her mouth.
Coughing lightly, she turned to look at her cousin.
“Has he said something?” she asked.
“He keeps repeating that you should stay in your chamber, but it is so unfair. And it is starting to become noticeable that you are absent. We circulated the story that you are ill and unable to attend, but rumors will start spreading soon if you do not make an appearance.”
“Which is what uncle is trying to avoid by confining me to my chamber.”
“Precisely. So, either he will have to send you to Bath to keep up the ruse, or you will have to be allowed to go on outings. After all, it has already been two weeks and nothing else has happened. It was probably just a coincidence.”
Isabel hesitated for a moment and then nodded, even as guilt pooled inside her. She and Jenny had been as close as sisters ever since she came to live with them and it felt like a betrayal to their friendship to not tell her that the dreams were still occurring, but something inside her was screaming at her to keep it a secret.
“I don’t think that it will happen again,” she said.
That much was true. So far, though she had had many dreams about things that would happen in the future, she had been careful not to reveal that she was aware about what would happen to anyone, allowing things to happen as they would without interfering, just as she had that morning with Ellen.
She could manage to conceal having dreams, and nothing like the events with the stable would happen again. Besides an unrelenting fatigue from lack of sleep, there was no other evidence of anything.
“Lady Blackburn’s annual ball is on Saturday,” Isabel said, interrupting her thoughts about the dreams. “It is one of the most important events of the Season and it will not do for you to miss it.”
She had not realized that the ball was so soon. Though she had been trying to keep up with her correspondence, she had avoided the invitations as much as they could. It had pained her, knowing that she would be attending almost every event under normal circumstances.
“Do you think we can convince your Father to allow me to attend?” she asked. “He was rather adamant that I stay in the Manor.”
Jenny’s smile was devious.
“He will rue the day if he does not.” She reached over and patted Isabel’s arm. “Don’t worry. I will speak to him.”
A small hope rose within Isabel. If her uncle had one weakness, it was his love for his daughter. He could rarely resist anything Jenny asked of him, especially after the death of her mother the year before.
“Now, did I tell you that I saw Lord Kingston two days ago? And he was asking after you.”
The rest of the morning passed in agreeable fashion, each tidbit of information that Jenny was able to recall analyzed and commented on by the two young women.
Isabel was grateful for how wonderful her cousin was. She had never been confined to the Manor before and she felt decidedly lonely without the social interaction that the Season offered.
“You will be out soon,” Jenny reassured her when she mentioned it, and Isabel wished that she had her confidence.
It was Friday, the evening before the ball, when she was finally summoned to the Duke’s study.
She knocked on the door and was admitted into the room. It was a darkly masculine space, with deep oak paneling on the walls and an enormous desk dominating the space. She and Jenny had rarely been allowed to step foot inside when they were younger and stepping through the threshold still held a touch of the forbidden in it.
“Good evening, Uncle. Jenny.”
Her uncle nodded and gestured for her to come closer. She sank into one of the armchairs that sat opposite the large desk.
“Your cousin has been rather insistent that I remove your restrictions these past few days,” he said without preamble. “But I am not so certain that there is no risk.”
His blue eyes pierced into her own. She read suspicion there, and wariness, but also a willingness to listen. She took hope from that last one and launched into speech.
“Please, Uncle. I understand your concerns, but I promise you that I will not endanger this family’s reputation in any way. I have always been careful to maintain my reputation and behave properly in society. Nothing has changed.”
“After all, you cannot lock her in the Manor for a single event. A dream no less,” Jenny chimed in. “Not to mention, she has not had another dream such as that in over two weeks. I hardly think it poses a threat to our family in any way.”
Her uncle sighed deeply, lacing his fingers together and placing them on his slightly rotund belly as he thought.
“You have not had any dreams like that one again?”
“No, Uncle.”
Her belly clenched uncomfortably at the lie, but she ignored it. If it would get her out of the Manor, she was willing to deceive her uncle slightly.
“How can you be certain that you will not have another dream?”
“It was just a dream,” Isabel said. “A coincidence.”
She could almost feel Jenny trembling with excitement on the chair beside her as she too sensed the Duke’s capitulation.
“Very well,” he said with a nod. “You may begin attending events again.”
Jenny clapped her hands in glee.
“Oh, thank you, Father. Thank you.”
Her uncle raised his hand.
“But I warn you that if I hear one whisper about anything that privilege will be revoked, and you will be confined to the Manor once more. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Sir,” Isabel said and then was swiftly pulled out of her chair by her cousin.
“Uncle?” she said, pulling her hand out of Jenny’s by the door.
The Duke looked back at her with a questioning look.
“Thank you, Uncle. I will give you no cause to regret your decision.”
The stern look that he had been wearing since she entered his study softened slightly and he waved her away.
“Go. You might want to get a good night’s sleep as I daresay my daughter will drag you to all the shops on the morrow.”
She smiled back and nodded before joining Jenny in the corridor. Her cousin immediately launched into a list of things that needed to be done.
“We need to go the milliner in the morning. Thank goodness we had dresses made a few weeks ago. You should wear your blue gown. It looks beautiful on you. Do you think that I should wear my blue gown as well? Or would that be too much? I have this lovely plum-colored dress that would do as well.”
Isabel knew from experience that her cousin needed little input when she went into a tirade like that, so she simply smiled and nodded when appropriate. She would wait until Jenny exhausted the catalog of items in her head to give her opinion.
In the meantime, her mind wandered to her dreams. Despite her assertion that magic and premonitions were not real just a fortnight ago, it was more and more obvious that some sort of magic was involved.
Nevertheless, as long as they remained dreams, she was in control of what she revealed to others. There was little chance of her exposing her newfound abilities during the ball unless something occurred to change things.
And nothing like that was likely to happen.
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