Page 5 of The Jilted Duchess
Looking down and laughing at such complete and utter misfortune, no doubt, she thought bitterly.
She started as an impatient fist rapped against the window. “Alexandra. It’s time to get out. Come along now.”
Alexandra scowled upon hearing her father’s voice through the door. James Balfour’s cheeriness sounded especially forced today. However, she supposed that since he had barely been able to look at her since news of the party and its aftermath reached him, that he was talking to her at all was something he would no doubt congratulate himself on later. She glanced around heras he knocked on the carriage door again. Did she have time to escape through the other side and run to freedom?
No sooner had the thought entered her head than the door was wrenched open to reveal Penelope’s anxious expression. She reached for her elder sister, grasping Alexandra’s hand tightly and squashing a good chunk of her bouquet in the process. Her little face was pinched with worry, and Alexandra felt a pang in her chest as the sisters stared at each other.
Why did I have to get involved? Stupid, stupid, selfish, stupid-
“Lexi?” Penelope whispered, breaking her out of her swirling thoughts. “Are you okay? I mean,” she hesitated, refusing to meet Alexandra’s eyes. “You are going to be okay. Aren’t you?”
Alexandra swallowed. She closed her eyes and took a breath before replying. “Of course I’ll be okay, Pen. I know what I’m doing. You don’t have to worry about me.”
Penelope didn’t look convinced, but Alexandra forced herself to smile as she crawled out of the carriage and into her sister’s arms. They rounded the back of the carriage together, and Alexandra charitably ignored her father’s irritable expression.
“There you are. What on earth were you doing in there?”
She bristled. “Powdering my nose. Admiring my flowers. Thinking about how I’m to leave your house forever and how you’ll fall into ruin the moment you have to stand by yourselfand do your own accounts again. You know, the usual things a girl does on her wedding day to a beast.”
“You cannot blame me for your scandals, my girl. I raised you better than that.”
“That’s interesting, since I wasn’t aware of you raising me much at all.”
“It’s a beautiful day,” Penelope cut in sharply, squeezing between her father and sister as though she hoped that limiting their physical proximity would resolve the tensions that hung thickly around the group.
Alexandra and James held each other’s gaze for a moment, before Alexandra turned away. She was furious. Her father had failed her time after time, her whole life had been spent waiting for a change that had never come. Penelope was just a child, but Alexandra knew better than to believe his recent half-hearted kindnesses. They wouldn’t last. He didn’t care.
If he cared, he would have listened to me. If he cared, surely he would have protected me?
A small voice in the back of her mind insisted that surely she was being a little unreasonable, but she forced it down. She had tried to do the right thing, to be a good person, and now she was being punished for it. She needed her family’s support, but her sisters were powerless, and her father was ashamed of her. For all the years the family had endured his cruelty and irresponsibility, Alexandra had never imagined that one day, he would look ather as though she were a problem that needed solving. She had never imagined a solution such as this.
Penelope squeezed her arm softly before placing her hand gently into their father’s. “Our sisters are inside,” she whispered. “Everyone is here. They’re all waiting for you.”
Alexandra swallowed. She felt suddenly faint, just for a moment, before James pulled her securely to his side. She turned to him, but looked quickly away as she caught sight of his damp eyes. “Well then,” she said firmly, trying to keep the tremor from her voice. “If everyone is waiting, then I suppose we should be swift, shouldn’t we?”
James grunted, Penelope smiled, and Alexandra tried to control her breathing as they stepped forward in unison, away from the beating sun and into the cool vestibule of the church.
Hector shifted restlessly in his seat, ignoring his stepmother’s pointed glares. He surreptitiously checked his pocket watch for what felt like the hundredth time in just a few minutes. The blasted bride and groom werebothlate, and the gathered attendees were starting to whisper behind fans and cupped hands.
Hector tried not to show his impatience. He simply couldn’t bear these stuffy, formal affairs. The sooner this whole ordeal was over and done with, the sooner he could retreat home and read through the new contracts he was lining up.
Well, retreat to the estate, he mused to himself.I wouldnae call that place a home now.
He was debating whether to collar Jones or Pembroke and see if they knew the status of their missing sister, when the chapel doors finally opened. Hector stood along with the small crowd and they turned as one to glimpse the bride entering. He had to admit that she was a pretty wee lass, even if her expression was less than jubilant. He pitied her in a way, being tied to his fool of a brother like this, but it surely couldn’t be helped.
He met her eyes across the heads of her family, and her gaze jolted through him. Tension skittered through his veins and seeped into his bones at her stare. Her eyes, startling green and glittering, never wavered from his. Hector wondered if she could feel whatever it was he was feeling, this strange, urgent prickling beneath his skin.
Alexandra’s eyes flickered to the front of the church, before returning to his. Her brow furrowed slightly, and he wondered what was happening in her head. His confusion lasted only a moment before Theodore Notley turned and nudged him.
“So…where is the troublemaker then?”
Hector frowned. “Troublemaker?” He whispered back, eyes locked onto Alexandra’s.
“The demon spawn. The Beast of England. The reason we’re all here.” Theodore sighed as he received no response. “Your brother.”
Hector blinked sharply, his mind returning to the present situation with a jolt. He turned to the altar and the minister waiting, somewhat impatiently for a man of God, he thought, beside it. The damned scoundrel Benedict still wasn’t there, hadn’t magically materialized while Hector was engaged in a staring match with his bride. Hector hadn’t been a part of this world with its rules and customs for very long, but even he knew this was not good.
As the doors swung open, Alexandra instinctively gripped her father’s arm tighter. Penelope glanced back at her with a reassuring smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes, and Alexandra swallowed hard. They crossed the threshold, and she scanned the gathered family members, unsure who or what she was searching for.It’s a bit late for a rescue now, she thought.
