Page 76 of Taken By the Dangerous Duke

“Are you really with child?” asked her mother.

“Don’t listen to her,” said her father. “She will say anything to try and get her own way. She is not with child, and we all know it. She is going to have her marriage annulled—everything is already in place. Then, she can wed Gerald, and we can all move on with our lives.”

“I am not marrying Gerald,” said Margaret. “I don’t care what you do, I am not marrying him.”

“Do you want to be struck again?” asked Gerald. “You need someone to teach her some manners. Your parents have been too soft on you, but I won’t. I will teach you how to respect people.”

“I’ll talk to the duke,” pleaded Margaret. “You can have whatever Gerald has promised you and more.”

“Mr. Swanson,” snapped Gerald. “Manners, girl. Manners. And, you said it yourself, James. She will say anything to get out of this. You have spoken to her. Do you really think you will get any money from her when she is back in the safety of the duke?”

“I—” started her father.

“Double! Triple!” said Margaret.

There was a silence in the carriage, and she could see that her father was considering the proposition.

“Father, he was prepared to give you anything you wanted, but it was me who stopped him. I will tell him to give you as much as you want, and then we will never see each other again. You don’t have to deal with Ger—Mr. Swanson again.”

“James, she is lying to you. Besides, I have the money ready for you. Why take the risk of losing it all? And, with the court case coming up, you know I hold all of the cards when it comes to the truth. You wouldn’t want that getting out, would you?”

“I knew it,” said Margaret. “You did make the whole thing up. I won’t tell anyone, I promise. You will get all the money you want, and you will get my silence.”

“Or you can have the money we agreed on, and you won’t go to jail,” warned Gerald.

“An agreement is an agreement,” relented James. “I am a man of my word, Gerald.”

Margaret snorted. She wracked her brain, trying to think of a way out of the situation, but she could come up with nothing. The duke would come for her, she knew he would. He would stop this farce, even if it meant paying them. One thing she knew for sure—she would not wed Gerald.

“At least let Cynthia live out her life,” said Margaret, resigning herself to going along with her parents for now.

“Oh, we don’t need her anymore,” said James. “We will look magnanimous when we let her go free.”

“Mother, are you really all right with all of this?” asked Margaret, making one last attempt to appeal to reason.

“What needs to be done, needs to one done,” she said as if she had rehearsed the line over and over.

All reason was gone.

“At least tell me where you are taking me,” demanded Margaret.

“All in good time,” said her father. “But, it is the last place anyone would expect. You will see soon enough.”

All Margaret could think about was being locked in a dungeon somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The duke would surely know that her parents had taken her, but would he know where to look?

“Doing all of this to your own daughter,” said Margaret. She knew her parents were deranged, but she could still not believe that they had tricked her into leaving the grounds and then all but kidnapped her and bundled her into the carriage.

“And, here we are,” said her father.

The coach came to a stop, and everything was quiet. The door was opened, and Margaret saw where they were.

“Brilliant, isn’t it?” asked her father. “No one will think that we have hidden you away in your childhood home.

It gave Margaret some hope. The duke would surely come here to look for her, and she would make it known that she was inside when he did.

“We are not going to have any trouble, are we?” asked Gerald. He lifted up his jacket to show a pistol. “Ever since the robbery, I have been on edge. I won’t hesitate to use this, both on you or the duke if you step out of line.”

Margaret knew that she had gone quite mad, and she was deathly afraid that he would use it. If her family were capable of kidnapping her, what else were they capable of doing to get what they wanted. And, she was not only afraid for her own life, but that of her child. They didn’t believe that she was pregnant, and that made them more dangerous. If she was struck in the wrong place, it could harm the child.

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