Page 1 of The Duke of Fire
Chapter 1
“Amelia! Come here, right this instant!” Octavia’s shrill shriek broke through Amelia’s deep concentration.
She had been so focused on her work that it was too late when she heard her sister-in-law yelling for her. Knowing Octavia, though, she would not have called for her softly at all. She always demanded her presence for one errand or another.
I wonder what ridiculous request she has for me this time.
Struggling to stay still despite the constant screaming, she drew an elegant curve across the parchment she was writing on before she straightened up to attend to the woman in distress.
“I am coming!” she cried, although her teeth clenched from controlling her annoyance. She cursed under her breath as she had to close the two books she had been working on instantly and without her usual care and attention. One was a commissioned translation of a French book, while the other one was a translation of a scandalous book she was writing for… her personal amusement. She shoved both of them in her satchel, forgetting to carefully take note which was which.
They will have to wait. After all, someone’s world seems to be ending.
Amelia rushed to Octavia’s bedchambers, where her sister-in-law lay on her bed, rubbing a pregnant belly that was barely showing yet.
“What took you so long?” Octavia demanded from her throne of cushions. Her face was flushed more from irritation than actual discomfort and exertion; that much was obvious.
“I was occupied with… something. What do you need?” Amelia replied in a calm voice. If there was ever the sound of honest displeasure in her tone, she could not help it.
“Well, I must say you are incredibly selfish. You know well that your sister-in-law is with child, and could need your help any time.”
“I am sorry, Octavia. What do you need help with?”
“I was calling you to rub my feet, and you took your time before responding!” Octavia wailed.
Amelia looked at Octavia’s flat belly pointedly. Even as she did, the rest of her face remained expressionless while she stood with her hands clasped in front of her. She prepared herself for the usual manufactured woes.
“You are so irresponsible! What if anything were to have happened to me or my baby?”
“I was occupied with something important,” Amelia replied, still calm.
“Important? Do not make me laugh. The only people who consider reading those trivial books important are you and yoursilly friends.”
Amelia did not respond. She knew what a bait sounded like, and nothing good would come out of arguing with her half-brother’s wife. She was proud of her work, and she knew she was good at it, but saying so would be ill-advised at this point. If anyone knew she was working for a publisher in secret, she would end up being severely punished. Or worse. She took a deep breath instead.
I cannot risk losing my work, my only opportunity to escape. Not now.
“You have nothing to say, don’t you? So selfish,” Octavia repeated sullenly. “I have been waiting for you to bring me some tea and rub my feet. Do you know how hard carrying a child is? If you do not care about me, you should at least care about your brother and his baby.”
“I am more than willing to help you with anything you need, Octavia. But you could have rung for a maid to bring you tea and rub your feet,” Amelia responded reasonably. She tried to keep even the slightest edge from her tone because she knew Octavia would hear it and make a bigger fuss.
“If I were callingyou, it is because I needyou, not just any maid, Amelia. I think you know by now that I cannot trust the maids to prepare tea the way the baby likes it. What if something happens to him?”
Amelia very much doubted that the entire issue was about the baby. Octavia was doing her utmost best to sound so helpless when she had always been in the pink of health. No, this was about Octavia putting Amelia to her ‘place’.
“We have perfectly trustworthy maids, Octavia. Your baby is not due for several more months. I am sure all will be fine.”
However, Amelia knew there was no point arguing with a pregnant woman whose only intention was to make life difficult for her. This had been her behavior from the day she had set foot into the house. She now simply had a reason to justify it.
“I do not trust any of those envious chits around me or my husband. But you are Finch’s half-sister. I am certain that your mother trained you to take care of not just the household, but of everything else,” Octavia replied, sounding like a haughty matron even though she was two-and-twenty, only two years younger than Amelia.
At the mention of her mother, Amelia bit her inner cheeks. She should have been used to the insults by now. She was, after all, the daughter of a maid who had dared to fall in love with her employer and had risen in station. What she could never stomach, though, was the implication that her mother had been a fortune hunter. Shaking her head, she exhaled slowly.
“Octavia, this is ridiculous. Just because my mother was a maidbeforeher marriage, it does not mean that I—”
“What is the matter here?” Finch, the Viscount of Warton, entered the room furiously. Amelia could see the scene through his eyes: his pregnant wife, red-faced and huffing, and his half-sister standing rigidly a few feet away.
How can he not see that Octavia is faking it?
