Page 2 of Captured By the Cold Duke
“Oh, women are property now?” Samantha fumed, while Minerva touched her hand dizzily to her head.
“It seems unlikely your brother would do that,” she said faintly. “He would never allow someone else to have that kind of control over you.”
“That’s what I said, and what has been so difficult to piece together,” Cherie said, “but Charles said he has the legal documents to prove it. And that by the time my brother comes back, it will be too late to do anything. I will already be married and on my honeymoon in India.”
“Did he saywhyhe betrothed you to an older man you don’t even know?” Minerva asked.
Cherie closed her eyes for an instant as the horror of the memory washed over her. “At first, he wouldn’t say. But as the quarrel continued, he lost his composure and let slip that he owes the earl a great deal of money. I believe that he made some sort of arrangement to marry me to Rochford in order to have his debts forgiven.”
Even in her distress, Cherie was gratified by just how horrified her friends looked.
“What an awful man!” Samantha seethed. “To trade your life away to cover his debts? He deserves to be locked up!”
“This is shocking beyond words,” Minerva said gravely. “The duke will put a stop to it when he returns.”
“But when will that be?” Cherie cried. The shock was starting to wear off, and with it, the numbness. Now, the panic was beginning to radiate throughout every inch of her, and she stood, suddenly restless. She strode to the end of the bed and stared at her reflection in the mirror for a long moment. She looked pale and frightened, but not beaten.
Promise me, Cherie, that you will live a different life from mine! Promise you will live your life for you and will marry only for love. Promise me!
I promise, Mama!
She turned back around to face her friends, her mind made up.
“I cannot stay here in this house, awaiting my brother’s return. Even if I were to refuse this and expose Charles to the entirety of the ton, he has too much power over me while I am in his custody.”
“What are you suggesting?” Minerva said, her eyes wide.
Samantha, of course, understood her at once.
“Are you suggesting an escape?!” she gasped. “That you flee the house to get somewhere to safety?”
Cherie looked between her two friends, seeing the same wide eyes and parted lips on each face. Then, very slowly, she nodded.
Minerva clapped a hand over her mouth, while Samantha smiled wickedly.
“I never thought I would attempt something so scandalous,” Cherie admitted. “But I must get out of the house before my cousin forces me to marry. I know that once my brother returns, he’ll put a stop to this. But until then, I cannot risk Charles trying something underhanded to force me down the aisle. If I remove myself from his protection… well, he won’t be able to coerce me into something if he doesn’t know where I am.”
“We will help you,” Samantha said at once. She looked as if she was born ready to help, and Cherie couldn’t help but smile in gratitude.
“Oh, Samantha,” she murmured, “you really aren’t afraid of anything, are you?”
“Of course I am,” Samantha said, grinning at her. “I’m afraid of my friends being unhappy. What I’mnotafraid of is courting scandal by helping sneak said friend out of her home.”
Cherie laughed. It felt so good to laugh. She’d been afraid, after her fight with Charles, that she would never again.
“We will of course help you,” Minerva assured her, taking her hand. “Anything that you need. And don’t worry about the scandal. It’s your cousin who should be blackballed from Society for this. Women might not have many rights, but wedohave the right to consent to our marriages. If people knew he was trying to force you… well, they would never speak to him again!”
“Let us not rely on that, though,” Samantha said at once. “Women must make our own ways in the world. And we must help ourselves. Society cannot be trusted to do so.”
For a moment, the three women shared a meaningful look. Each of them knew exactly how little Society cared for women, especially ladies such as them.
Cherie, Samantha, and Minerva were all considered wallflowers by the ton, so they had banded together and made a pact to help find one another husbands. So far, they been successful in marrying off Cassandra—to Cherie’s brother, no less. Now she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that her friends would help her escape marriage to the Earl of Rochford—and keep her word to her mother. Her promise that she made while she lay on her deathbed.
“What is the plan, then?” Samantha asked. She eyed Cherie. “You do have one, don’t you?”
“A vague one.” Cherie pulled herself up straight. “First, I’m going to need a disguise. And then I need to get out of London.”
The journey through the house was so frightening that Cherie felt sick with nausea the entire time. She and Minerva had acquired a dress from the housekeeper’s closet. Samantha had penned a message to her friend Lady Helen Carter, her acquaintance who would be willing to take Cherie in at her home Carleton Cottage in Margate while Cherie and Minerva acquired a maid’s dress from the sympathetic housekeeper. Now Cherie followed Minerva at a respectful distance, her eyes downcast, just like a lady’s maid, as Minerva and Samantha attempted to keep up the conversation between them like everything was normal. But Cherie could hear the nervousness in their words.
