Page 9 of The Beastly Duke's Christmas Bride
The promised arrivals came just as her mysterious savior had. The physician saw she was on her feet, checked on her carefully, and promised she was well. Then the fish came and so did the coal. All of them were deliveries enough to last their small household at least two weeks.
“He’s like a prince charming coming to save us,” Amber whispered delightedly. “No, a mysterious benefactor.”
Isabel tried to hold back a chuckle but couldn’t at the girl’s delight. “I knew I shouldn’t have taken to reading aloud to you all those silly novels.”
Her maid winked. “You know you liked them, too.”
It was true that she did. She adored reading the silly books. Amber proved too unconfident in learning her letters, so Isabel had taken to reading them aloud on a frequent basis. It helped distract them during the summer when her family fell apart.
But now, Isabel wasn’t certain. She had been a damsel in distress, albeit temporarily one with a whip. No one was supposed to have come to her aid. And then he had. In the midst of it, he’d caught her fainting and wound up with a blade in his arm. It was all her fault and awfully messy.
Hopefully we will never run into each other again.
Isabel stayed in the house that day and the next, remembering the giant in the shadows and how warm his arms had been. And then she remembered the carriage, the one that made her terribly anxious as she prayed repeatedly that no one had seen them. No one had known them.
The third day, she had to leave the house.
The fish and coal would last a while but not for long. It was best she ensure they had more in the cupboards while she waited to hear from her parents. Unwilling to starve or let the servants struggle, she took a beautiful vase in a careful container with Amber’s help to go pawn.
“It was worth ten times as much,” Isabel huffed on their way out of the shop. She fumbled with her reticule, so thin and light after the sale. “This will get us through December and part of January, but it should have been enough until spring.”
Amber nodded. “He was rather nasty. Perhaps we should have tried another shop. Or you should let me haggle next time.”
“Probably, but I don’t want to do that for you. I must learn to do it myself,” Isabel said stubbornly. “I’m the lady of the house. I’m responsible for everyone and must do better.”
“Goodness gracious, is that our Lady Belle?” Sang a loud voice from the street.
She stopped in her tracks.
No one called her Belle these days. That had been what her family and friends called her before the incident. Because Thomas had given her that name when he struggled with ‘s’ sounds as a child. She had loved the neat little name, how it rang off the tongue and charmed everyone.
Apparently, Lady Lucy had decided it was finally time to acknowledge her.
Turning slowly to the carriage, Isabel managed to put on a strained smile as she looked to the person she had once called a friend. Who she had seen only a few nights ago without ever being acknowledged. Her heart pounded as she wondered what was supposed to happen.
“Lady Belle,” sang Lucy as her carriage stopped before them. The window curtains widened to reveal Lucy’s mother, brother, and aunt. Her aunt, Lady Agnes Trembling, was the biggest gossip in the city––if not all of England. “What a delight it is to see you up and about after what happened on the street.”
Amber gasped for her.
Swallowing hard, Isabel tried not to look around. But she could count several people she vaguely knew and even more whom she didn’t. All of whom had ears. “I beg your pardon?”
“You and that beastly duke, of course,” Lucy teased loudly. Her mother muttered about pulling her back into the carriage, but Lucy was having too much fun. She beamed with a wicked glint in her eyes. “I must ask, my dear girl. Whatever were the two of you doing walking about Mayfair at that hour?”
Isabel wished she could faint right then. Or rather, disappear. Have the entire earth swallow her up. She stepped back, nearly hitting her maid, and tried to think of some respectable response.
Except Lucy had ruined anything potentially respectable about her in a simple question.
Cheeks flaming, Isabel ducked her head. “Let’s go,” she ordered Amber and fled down the street as politely as she could muster.
The two of them hastened home without talking to anyone else. While Isabel had meant to purchase some new tea, there was not a chance in high heaven she could bear to acknowledge anyone else at the moment. Not with society hearing what Lucy had just said.
By now, all of London would have heard. They would be asking the same questions. Which hour? Which duke? Her? Why? What could they have been doing?
“My lady,” Amber panted when they fumbled into the front hall. “Perhaps they didn’t mean it.”
Isabel gave her a sharp look. “I beg your pardon? You don’t think anyone else heard her shouting about me in the middle of a busy street?”
Someone cleared their throat. Their butler and footman, Wesley, stood in the middle of the hall with a grim smile. “My lady.”
