Page 48 of The Replacement Duchess

“There is a letter here for you,” his butler told him one morning, not long after the fire.

“Leave it on my desk. I shall look at it soon.”

“You may wish to read it now. It is from your brother.”

Jonathan felt his heart stop for a moment. He had not heard from Edmund in years by that point, and he fully believed that he had passed.

He tore the envelope open and scanned the letter immediately. Edmund was well, better than he had been in years, and living in Scotland. Word travels fast, he explained, and that he had come to know of his wife’s passing. How terrible, he said, but how wonderful that it presented him with an opportunity to start anew.

He could go.

Jonathan could make the carriage ride to him in a matter of days, and find the freedom that he had always wanted. The trouble was that he still had his girls, but there was always asolution. His sister arrived to care for the three of them, hoping to guide her poor younger brother through his devastating loss, and the plan formed in his head instantly.

Roberta,

You will hate me for this, possibly forever, but I cannot bring myself to care. I have sacrificed my life for this family, and I cannot do it any longer. I need to find my own life, and some real happiness of my own, before returning to the hell that I have been suffering for all too long.

We never know when we will lose our lives. Losing my wife has shown me that if I do not act now, I may never have the chance to. I never got to see the world, and I need to do it. I need to see more of life than the same home in the same town with the same people. I cannot do this any longer.

You promised me I could go once I had an heir. Now I shall never have one. I have no choice. I must go. If you never forgive me, then it is a burden I shall bear. Perhaps you might one day understand.

Thank you for the sacrifice you will make for my daughters. We can consider ourselves matched in what we have done for one another.

Jonathan.

It was not the best in terms of saying goodbye, but it was the best way of abandoning his family that he knew. At least he had the grace to leave a note—something his brother had never done.

Scotland was gray, and it rained for the first several days, but it was the most incredible place in the world to him. Everything was new, and he could be anyone and anything. He was happy for the first time since he could remember, and even before he could find his brother, he foundher.

She was tall, with deep black curls and the brightest blue eyes. She smiled, and it was as though the room smiled with her when she did. They were in a bar, and he had had far too much to drink, but he was conscious enough to know then and there that she was going to be the love of his life.

“Peggy,” she said softly to him. “I thought it best to introduce myself. I do not believe that we have met.”

“John,” he replied. “It is impossible that we have. I could never have forgotten such a face as yours.”

“I shall take that as a compliment.”

“That is precisely how it was meant.”

She motioned to the door. “You and I should have a look around, I think. I do not believe that you are from around here.”

“Is it so obvious?”

“You sound like someone from England. Might I be correct in such an assumption?”

“It would appear that you are both beautiful and intelligent.”

It was almost too good to be true. After so long, here she was, the perfect woman, the one he had spent his whole life dreaming of and never quite finding, all because he had to be elsewhere. He needed her. He couldn’t leave her, not for anything.

So he didn’t.

She was not a lady of any titled family. There was no grand estate, no incredible wealth of any description, but that did not matter to him. What mattered was that she was there, and she was the most perfect thing to ever stand before him. She lived a comfortable life, one where she did not give too much, nor did she get too much, but she was happy, and he so craved some of that happiness for himself.

And after two mere weeks, perhaps because he was in a drunken stupor, or perhaps because he truly did fancy himself in love, he remembered that he was now unmarried and asked her to marry him.

“This is fantastical.” She laughed. “It is impossible. We have only just met.”

“Where I come from, that is the norm. We could do this, Peggy. Nobody will dare question us, and we can live here and have afamily of our own. We could be so happy. I want to make you so happy.”

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