Page 16 of My Dark Duke

The next morning, as Lillian took breakfast with the other boarders, a knock came upon the front door.

“In the name of God, who’s calling at this hour?” Mrs Harrod grumbled, as she waved for the scullery maid to answer the door.

The girl set down the pot of porridge she was dolling out and left the room. Lillian kept her eyes trained on the table, but inside she was a nervous wreck. Was it one of Lord Bailey’s goons, come to apprehend her?

Lillian strained to listen to what was going on outside and a few moments later, she heard the sound of two sets of footsteps approaching.

“There’s someone here with an urgent message for Miss Smith,” the scullery maid said, as she returned to the dining room.

Every pair of eyes turned Lillian’s way.

“Excuse me,” she said, standing with as much grace as she could muster. “I will be but a moment.”

She walked across the room with the same feeling as a man walking towards the gallows. There was no chance of escape, she was done for.

Outside in the hallway stood a gentleman, whose back was turned as he inspected a framed map of Scotland Mrs Harrod had hung on the wall.

Lillian cleared her throat and the gentleman turned. He was wearing the livery of one of Thorncastle’s servants.

“Oh,” Lillian gasped with relief, her knees weak as jelly. “Excuse me; I was not expecting you.”

“Excuse the early intrusion, ma’am,” the young lad answered, the tips of his ears pink. “But His Grace bid me to call on you, to ask if you’d reconsidered his offer, now that you’ve had time to sleep on it?”

Only the Duke of Thorncastle would be so impertinent as to make demands of a lady before breakfast.

Lillian opened her mouth to deliver a resounding “no” to the footman, alongside a lecture on manners, but hesitated.

She needed safe refuge, did she not? While Thorncastle might not wish to defend her honour - rather the opposite, in fact - he would protect her against harm. He had a retinue of servants at his disposal, surely he would spare one or two to make certain she was safe?

Her decision to escape Kent had been made in a split second - this decision took only a moment more.

“Please tell him I accept his offer,” Lillian said, surprising both herself and the footman.

“Er, I will,” he replied, his face worried. “I am afraid he did not advise me as to what to say if you said yes; I don’t think he was very optimistic about your answer.”

“No, I don’t suppose he was.”

For some reason, Lillian felt a slight thrill at learning she had bested the duke. He struck her as a fastidious man, who liked to be in control at all times. It gave her a small amount of pleasure to think she would now have upended his morning.

“Tell him to send a carriage, when he has worked out the particulars,” Lillian decided, before impishly adding, “Though, if it is not here by three o’clock, I shall have to rescind my offer of acceptance.”

“Yes, Miss Smith,” the footman nodded, keen to assure her he would convey the message. “I shall tell him at once. Good morning to you.”

“And to you,” Lillian inclined her head graciously.

The young man then fled down the hallway, in a rush to tell his master the news. Lillian followed behind him and closed the door, double checking the lock to be sure it was secure.

The enormity of what she had agreed to had not yet sunk in.

She had just agreed to become a man’s mistress.

Worse still, she felt no shame, only excitement.

CHAPTER SIX

SEBASTIAN IMPATIENTLY PACEDthe length of the drawing room, as he waited for Miss Smith to make an appearance.

Her surprise acceptance of his offer had thrown his morning into disarray, and he had spent a good part of the day searching for a suitable pied-à-terre for his new mistress - as well as for staff to attend to her.

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