Page 1 of The Insufferable Duke
CHAPTERONE
LONDON, ENGLAND
“Did you not read what it said, Julia? I can scarcely forget it.” Helena sat forward in the carriage, adjusting the dance card on her wrist and pulling at the edges of her long white gloves until everything sat just right. “He makes a scene wherever he goes, even behind closed doors.What damning words they are, do you not think?” She laughed and raised her eyes to look across the carriage at her sister, Julia, and her aunt, Kitty.
“I quite agree.” Kitty nodded firmly. Her dark brown hair was swept up into a perfect updo with not a curl out of place. She adjusted her gloves in much the same way as Helena had done. “The Duke of Bridstone has made a spectacle of himself repeatedly over these last few years. What wicked splendor he must be enjoying at making us all talk of him so much.”
“Wicked splendor indeed,” Helena laughed and rolled her eyes.
“Forgive me, sister.” Julia sat forward. The meekest of the family, she pressed her lips together and lowered her voice to a whisper in a way that let Helena know Julia believed she was about to speak out of turn.
“Speak freely, Julia, I pray you.” Helena reached across the carriage and patted her sister’s knee. “Never be afraid of me.” Julia smiled sadly, brushing one loose lock of her brown hair back from her cheek and tucking it behind her ear. It was a few shades lighter than Helena’s own black hair. Her blue eyes flashed in the lantern light that swung above them, attached to the roof of the coach.
“I wonder why you talk of the Duke of Bridstone so much,” Julia murmured, her cheeks blushing already with her audaciousness. “He is quite your favorite topic of conversation.”
“Pah! You think so?” Helena tipped her head back, laughing indulgently. “You misunderstand me, sister. Perhaps I just enjoy talking of what a scandalous man he is. It’s amusing, you have to admit, when he comes from the family he does.”
The Duke of Bridstone, Christopher Moore, came from a family that had been considered her family’s enemy for nearly a century now. It was natural for the families to hate each other though Helena detested the Duke a little more than the others for one particular reason.
I should not be attracted to a man I consider my enemy.
The first time she had seen the Duke of Bridstone, his fair hair and dark green eyes had entranced her. That was until Kitty had told her who he really was.
“That is the Duke of Bridstone. He is one of the Moores!”
“I quite agree,” Kitty said with passion, bringing Helena’s thoughts back to the moment. Kitty looked excitedly out of the carriage window toward the house they were driving toward. “Julia, dear, it is not that we are celebrating in a man’s misfortune—far from it, for the Duke is not a miserable man. It is simply that, knowing what family he comes from, it is entertaining to see his name plastered across the scandal sheets.”
Helena laughed with her aunt though that sound faded as her eyes rested on Julia. Her sister hung her head and fussed excessively with the skirt of her gown.
“Is something wrong?” Helena asked, lowering her voice and leaning toward her sister. From a young age, Helena had seen it as her responsibility to protect Julia. She did not always have the strongest backbone, and it led to her hiding from the world, but Helena would never let Julia stand in the shadows of any room.
My sister is the best of women. She deserves adoration!
“Please, tell me,” Helena pleaded with her sister.
“I just fear that these scandal sheets are not to be trusted.” Julia chewed her lip and looked up, her blue eyes meeting Helena’s own. Where Julia’s face was pointed, beautiful in its angular features, Helena’s features were rounder. She envied her younger sister’s beauty and admired her greatly for it. Reaching forward, Helena fussed with one of the curls of Julia’s hair, making it lie just perfectly and prompting her sister to smile at the attention.
That smile only lasted a moment. “How can you be certain what you read of the Duke of Bridstone and his family in those scandal sheets is accurate?”
“How many stories say the same thing?” Helena asked, sitting back in the carriage. “Story after story tells of his rakish ways.” She rolled her eyes. “Many women have come forward to tell such tales. Are all of them lying?”
Julia didn’t answer but chewed her lip and hung her head again. The action was a curious one to Helena. She tilted her head to the side and watched her sister as an owl might look at its newborn, curious with wide eyes.
There is something more on Julia’s mind, but what?
“Julia, dear, have you forgotten the story of what divided us from the Moores?” Kitty exclaimed as the carriage pulled to a stop. She waited for the footman to open the door before she stepped down and dramatically waved her arm to the side. “The families were once close friends, dear to one another indeed.”
“We remember, Aunt.” Helena rolled her eyes, just for Julia to see, and followed her aunt down. Julia stifled her laugh as Kitty continued on, telling them the story they’d been told since they were old enough to understand words.
“Your great-grandfather was the best of friends to the Duke of Bridstone’s great-grandfather. Yet that friendship was betrayed.” Kitty placed a hand to her heart as if the tale gave her fresh horror each time that she heard it. She led the way down the gravel drive toward the house, ushering Helena and Julia behind her.
Helena offered her arm to Julia, and they walked arm in arm.
“Get ready for the words,” Helena whispered to her sister.
“The betrayal of the century, it was!” With Kitty’s gasping words, Helena mouthed them behind her aunt’s back, for they’d heard them so many times. Julia hid her giggle behind her gloved hand as they followed their aunt into the house. “The woman your great-grandfather loved was trapped in a scandal by the Duke of Bridstone’s ancestor. He forced her into marriage, for she had no choice after being caught in his arms. What hurt, what heartbreak! Thieves and traitors, the lot of them. It ended in a nasty duel.”
Julia’s laughter abruptly faded, and Helena jerked her head toward her sister, noticing the way she chewed her lip again.
