Page 91 of The Replacement Duchess

“Samantha,” she called out, running to the door, but she felt a sharp grip on her wrist that pulled her back, and then her arms were pinned behind her.

“Why are you in such a rush?” came a whisper. “We only wish to have some fun, that is all.”

Diana recognized his voice. How she wished that she did not; it would have been easier to accept such actions from a stranger than someone she had trusted.

“I do not call this fun,” she scoffed. “You work for me, remember?”

“I work for your husband,” he snarled into her ear. “And I have done all my life, as did my father for the Duke’s father, and my grandfather for the Duke before him. It is cyclical, you see, the life of a servant.”

“That is not my fault,” she whispered.

She had always felt guilty about that, of course, but it was not the time to point that out. The footman was tall and broad, and she did not stand a chance against him. She couldn’t fight him off, and so she had to appease him.

“What do you want from me?” she asked. “If you release my sister and me, I can speak with my husband, have you given a higher rank. None of this needs to be known by anyone. We can simply go home and have all of this be done with.”

“And we can continue working for you until the day we die, is that it? That is if you even keep such a promise, which we both know you would not.”

“I would. Of course, I would.”

She would not have, and she knew that. Frankly, she could not live in the same house as them, and so she would inevitably tell her husband about it, and no matter how they were as man and wife, he would have sent them to Bedlam without a second thought. That was his nature—bullies were not tolerated.

“I can tell him that it was the two of you that rescued my sister and me. You have my word?—”

“Forgive me for not caring for the word of a lady who possesses more fortune than the entirety of my bloodline.”

“I do not have that much money.”

“Your sister certainly does, and she is not even married. Do you know how much she gave to my friend? Four hundred pounds. She gave him four hundred pounds for a mere carriage ride.”

Diana could hear Samantha screaming in the next room. She willed someone to come, and to rescue them, but the only one that they had seen was the elderly woman who had welcomed them, and she would be of little help at all.

Nobody was coming.

“Four hundred pounds should be enough, surely?” Diana spluttered. “Besides, you shall not get anything more from her. That was all that she had.”

“Then I am fortunate to have taken the Duchess. You owe me, Your Grace.”

“My husband pays you handsomely!”

“And gives us so little dignity, too. Truly, I must thank you so endlessly for all that you do. How fortunate I am to be at your beck and call. You are both incompetent and spoiled, just like that wretched sister of yours.”

Diana kicked him.

It was a terrible idea, and she knew that, but she could not stand the way he was speaking about Samantha, as if she had been a petulant child demanding to have her own way and had always been like that. It was one thing for two sisters to squabble, but for a stranger to say such dreadful things about her…

“I thought you might at least have more intelligence than that.” He smirked. “No matter. I planned for this regardless.”

He pulled her to the ground, dragging her towards her bed frame and then tying her down with some rope in his pocket. It was rough, and Diana wondered if her wrists might bleed as they had been tied so tightly, but she tried not to focus on that. Instead, she focused her attention on the man that was rooting through the room.

“I came with nothing,” she pleaded. “You know that. You accompanied me. You know perfectly well that you shall not find a thing.”

“Very well.” He laughed darkly, crouching down in front of her and tracing a finger along her collarbone. “But, my, isn’t this a pretty necklace?”

“Do not touch me.”

“I shall do as I please. You know, we servants talk, and it would appear that you and your wonderful husband are yet to consummate this sham marriage of yours. Now, that would mean that you are still a lady, and I do prefer my ladies to be of a particular sort.”

Diana did not know what he meant by that, not at all, but from the way his face darkened as he said it, she knew that she did not wish to.

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