Page 27 of The Duke's Forbidden Bride
Slowly, the Earl of Countess moved to the side. Eleanor knew it was not out of curiosity but out of deference. Their door was open for a duke, but not their own daughter.
They truly believe I shamed them.
Eleanor swallowed thickly as they were led into the drawing room. Her chest ached at the familiar walls. Walls she had dreamed of in the convent, walls she had prayed to return to. Now that she was there, all she felt was anger and dread. She wished for the autumnal palette of Everdawn, the splash of colors throughout the estate.
The Duke did not bother with small talk.
“I have acquired a special license,” he announced. “Lady Eleanor is to become the Duchess of Everdawn and return to Everdawn Hall with me after our wedding. It will be a small affair, and we shall not bother with a wedding breakfast.”
He was efficient, businesslike, and Eleanor watched as her parents struggled to keep up.
“I-I do not understand. Th-The convent,” her father stammered.
She was pleased at seeing him so unsettled. She had loved her parents once, but years of helplessness had hardened her heart. They had abandoned her, never once given her the chance to speak out against Lord Belgrave. They had chased power and status over their own daughter’s safety.
“Lady Eleanor is no longer their ward,” the Duke explained. “They will no longer interfere in her life, and neither will you. Unless she agrees.”
Eleanor could detect the anger in his words. It was the same anger she had sensed that night at the inn, where he had cleaned her wounds with brandy.
She lifted her gaze to her mother, only to be met with a glare.
Do you not miss me, Mother? Have you not missed your only child all these years?
“Your Grace, you cannot simply retrieve my daughter from?—”
The Duke raised a hand, cutting her father off. “Lord Quinley, with all due respect, you left your daughter in the hands of a religious establishment. What she does from this day on should be irrelevant to you, as should what she went through at the convent. So, yes, I can retrieve her, and I have, and shewillbe my wife.”
“She has not atoned for her sins, according to Mother Caroline,” Lord Quinley accused. “We-We all heard what my daughter did with—with a stablehand! Poor Lord Belgrave was devastated.Wewere devastated, bearing such shame. It was not enough to ruin yourself, Eleanor, but with a stablehand?”
“Father—” The sudden noise coming from the threshold of the drawing room cut her off.
Sister Martha was ushered inside by the butler.
At once, Eleanor went stiff. Beside her, the Duke moved closer. She had faced Sister Martha a thousand times alone. Surely she could do it now.
“Lord and Lady Quinley!” Sister Martha cried out. “She—Eleanor?—”
“Is a remarkable woman,” the Duke interrupted smoothly. “When I met her during my travels, I found her most exquisite. I felt a kinship with her. And now that she has returned to her life here, it is only appropriate for me to propose.”
“Kinship?” Lord Quinley sputtered. “Travels?”
The Duke gave a sharp smile. “Nothing will stop this wedding, Lord Quinley.”
“My disapproval can,” Lord Quinley countered, his eyes narrowing. “She is ruined. Completely worthless!”
Anger surged through Eleanor, and she felt it in the Duke too. He went rigid at her side.
“She is my bride, and as she is above one-and-twenty, she does not need your approval. Quite frankly, neither do I. I brought your daughter here out of courtesy, thinking that perhaps you’d wish to see her before her wedding. But clearly, I was wrong.”
Shame flashed across her parents’ faces.
Lady Quinley’s lip curled. “Thetonwill think you have ruined her, Your Grace.”
“Not if the two of you uphold the story,” the Duke said smoothly. “By your own account, thetonalready believes that Lady Eleanor has been residing in the colonies with an aunt. It requires no great imagination to say that I encountered her there—which, as of now, is precisely what occurred.”
He gave them all a hard look, producing a bag of coins that he tossed to Sister Martha. Disgust rose inside Eleanor as she watched the horrid woman catch it.
“You will forget about Eleanor Barnes, Sister Martha.” The Duke bared his teeth as he looked at the woman who had orchestrated the abuse. “And you will instruct the other sisters to do so as well.”
