Page 23 of The Unwanted Duchess

“Lady Samantha?” the Duke repeated once again. “Do you wish to marry me or not?”

Samantha could feel all eyes on her. She was not a fool, and she knew what they were thinking of her. It would be the same as what they had all been thinking from the start; she was an opportunist that had now gotten exactly what she wanted.

If only they knew.

Samantha so terribly wished to reject the proposal. She had no interest in being his wife, no interest in being anyone’s wife, but she knew better than to invite scandal. What was more was the way her father was looking at her, almost in triumph that the Duke had done this. She had no choice.

“Yes, Your Grace,” she nodded with a smile. “Truly, I thought you might never ask!”

The duplicity came almost too easily, and she hated that, but it had to be done. She could be angry with the Duke later; for now, she had to play the role of the blushing and bashful young lady who had received a proposal.

Miss Norton and Lord Nicholas seemed less than pleased for her. In fact, Samantha would have wagered that at that very moment they wanted her out of the household, out of the country for that matter, whether she were still living or not.

It made sense, all things considered, that the Duke’s brother would be the one that sent her the note. He did not like her, nor did Miss Norton, and given how spiteful the two of them were, she did not put it past them to have planned this, only for the Duke to ruin everything spectacularly for them. They must have planned to ruin her reputation there then gone about their lives as if they had not destroyed the life of another because that was the sort of people that they were. The Duke certainly seemed to think that way of them.

Even so, Samantha thought, it did not give the Duke the right to ruin her life in a different way.

“Oh, Samantha!” Lady Penelope gasped, rushing to her. “You did not tell me about yourself and the Duke! That is quite all right though. Truly, I am so happy for you!”

“It simply all happened far too quickly,” she noted. “I had not even noticed it myself, but His Grace certainly did.”

“And he is a fortunate man that he did, to have changed your mind. It is a shame that we shall not be lonely old ladies together, but fear not! I shall do the job well enough for the both of us.”

Samantha’s heart ached to join Lady Penelope in her quest to be a spinster for the rest of her life, but she knew it could never have happened anyway. Her father would have seen to that long before she could achieve such a thing.

Her father came to shake the Duke’s hand. Samantha wondered, as he did so, whether or not he would accidentally ruin everything by saying something out of turn. He was not a man known for his careful discussion, that much was certain.

“I had no knowledge of this, myself,” he exclaimed proudly, “but of all of the gentlemen that could have taken an interest in my daughter, I am most content that it is a duke.”

He was never going to help with the accusations that Samantha wished only to get ahead, it appeared.

“Yes,” the Duke nodded sheepishly, “I must admit, I did not ask you beforehand, something that I most certainly should have done, but when needs must —”

“Not another word! If my daughter pleases you, then far be it from me to destroy this wonderful union.”

A wonderful union. That is how her father claimed to see it, and Samantha had to admit that it likely was how he saw it. Two daughters that were duchesses. Who could possibly ask for more?

“And now,” he mumbled as he took his place behind Samantha, “everything is at last in place.”

He did not need to say who everything was in place for. Samantha already knew; it was the one person that had ever truly meant anything to her father, and she hated him for it, but no matter how angry she was with him, the proposal was not his fault.

“I simply cannot believe it,” Lady Penelope sighed as they left for some time alone, “You never told me anything!”

“Well, Lady Penelope —”

“Penelope,” she corrected her, “now that you are to be the wife of my brother’s best friend, it is only right. Besides that, we are friends, are we not?”

“Of course.”

“Then Penelope it is.”

“Penelope,” Samantha agreed slowly, “when I tell you that the feelings between the Duke and I were sudden, what I mean to say is that —”

“He is saving you from that wicked father of yours. Fear not, we are not all foolish.”

“It is not exactly that.”

“The Duke is a good man, Samantha, I assure you. If he saw how your father behaved around you, I do not doubt that he would have wished to rescue you. You could have refused him, though, if you truly did not feel any sort of way for him.”

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