Winning a Lady's Heart (Danby #1)(8)

Her pain was what mobilized her fingers and allowed her to accept the blasted note. She’d rather deal with the Duke’s icy disapproval than memories of…of…him.

She didn’t even reach for the blade on the tray. Instead she slipped her nail beneath the flap and parted Danby’s emblazoned gold seal.



Alexandra,

In light of your recent scandal at Lord and Lady Williams’s card rooms, I expect your arrival in Yorkshire within the week. Bring my daughter and your sister. Leave your father.

~Danby



Alexandra groaned.

Her mother wrung her hands nervously. “What is it?”

Olivia snatched the parchment from Alexandra’s hands. “Do let me see that.” She scanned the missive with a smile and handed it back to Alexandra. “Have your things packed, Mother. It seems we are off to Danby Castle. Well, at least the three of us, anyways.”

This time it was their mother who groaned, sinking onto the edge of the mattress. It was her turn to reach for the note now clenched tightly between Alexandra’s fingers.

“Release it, my dear.” She tugged it free. Wide, blue eyes scanned the missive. “It seems your father has received a reprieve.”

Alexandra managed her first smile. Her mother had the tone of a petulant child.

The moment was fleeting. Mother took to her feet and gave a determined little shake of her head. “Mayhap this is just what you need, Alex,” slipping into the moniker from childhood. “You will be best served with some distance between you and—and…the scandal.”

Which was how her mother had decided to refer to the incident at Lord and Lady Williams’s home—the scandal.

Alexandra nodded in agreement. Her mother was right. This distance was just what she needed to forget Nathan.





Alexandra ignored her mother’s indignant rant. She rubbed a hand over the iced window. After four very long days, they had arrived. She peered up and up and up…to the impressive visage of Danby Castle. It was a foreboding stone testament to medieval times. A perfectly daunting place for a dour, commanding duke to live.

There was a perfunctory knock on the carriage door. Alexandra grasped the door handle and flung it open before Mother could issue the command. She accepted the hand of a waiting footman, eager to get out of the carriage that had seemed more like a coffin. In it, she’d been trapped for the better part of two and a half days with tortured thoughts of—

Alexandra gave her head a forceful shake, banishing memories of…of…him.

The day was dark and dreary. Finally, she had her miserable day to suit her miserable mood. And of course, that too brought no solace.

“What a beautiful day. It has snowed! How beautiful Danby Castle looks with the gleam of ice and coating of snow,” Olivia prattled.

Her sister’s words were so convincing, Alexandra had to steal another peek around to confirm whether she’d judged Danby Castle too harshly.

No, no, she had the right of it.

Wordlessly, Alexandra followed her mother, grateful for her loquacious sister’s distracting presence. They hadn’t even reached the front doors before the butler threw them open in greeting. He bowed low. The housekeeper, Mrs. Ealey, stood beside him and offered a deep curtsey.

“Lady Tewkesbury, my ladies,” Milne said.

Two servants rushed forward to assist them out of their travel-worn velvet cloaks.

Their mother, ever the epitome of regal elegance, even after hours and hours of uninterrupted travel, tipped her head in acknowledgement.

“The Duke of Danby requests your presence.”

“Now?” her mother squawked.

So much for regal elegance.

Milne nodded. “Now, my lady.”

Her mother eyed the long stairway longingly, and then with a sigh followed Milne to the Duke of Danby’s lair. At least Alexandra would be spared…for now.

Perhaps His Grace would place blame for Alexandra’s actions on her mother. Oh, what a horribly childish, albeit optimistic, wish.

“My ladies, may I show you to your rooms?”

Alexandra spared a distracted glance for the expectant housekeeper. What had the woman said? Olivia nudged Alexandra in the side.

“Uh, that would be lovely, Mrs. Ealey,” Olivia supplied for her.

As they made the climb to the living quarters and down the hall, Alexandra rubbed her hands together, hoping the friction would warm the near frozen appendages. From inside her battered soul to her travel-bruised body, she was utterly miserable.

“The Duke of Danby has been eagerly awaiting your arrival.”

Oh, I bet he has.

“Why, I can’t remember the last time I saw His Grace this excited.”

Excited? Was that a kind word for livid?

Her non-responses were clearly no deterrent for the housekeeper, who chatted on and on. Alexandra continued to follow Mrs. Ealey in mute silence. Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four…

“Twenty-five steps.”

The older woman paused at the top of the stairway and blinked. “I’m sorry, my lady?”

“She was counting,” Olivia explained.

Mrs. Ealey’s brow furrowed in perplexity. “Beg pardon?”

Alexandra glared her sister into silence. “It is nothing at all.”

The woman turned, continued down the long corridor, and paused before a door. She opened it for Alexandra. “Here we are, my lady.”