A Duke's Entangled Enchantress (3 page)

Broken

My eyes cracked open to the bright sun shining through the bed curtains for a unfamiliar large round bed. I turned onto my side and groaned as my neck screamed from pain.

              “Stiff neck?” inquired a light pretty voice from nearby.

             
I turned toward the voice slowly and spotted a pretty young girl who appeared around fifteen.

             
“Yes, it is rather sore. I believe this happens however after a fall, I am sure I would know myself from how many times it happens in training,” I said with a slight smile.

             
“Training,” the girl echoed, but trailed off as there was a knock at the door. She looked faintly surprised. “That must be my brother again. I am truly surprised that he brought you here but not that he was worried over this.”

             
“Why would he be worried over a tumble down the stairs?” I asked quietly when she had a finger to her lips.

             
She went over to the door and poke her hear outside to whisper something, and then closed the door to come sit back in her chair beside the bed.

             
“My other older brother died just a few months ago. He died when he fell off his horse and broke his neck. Big Brother is sensitive about the matter on the whole. I told him that you were still asleep so you better get some more rest, it might be all you will get for a while. The Season is starting up and brother’s ball will be the opening ball of the Season. It will be the ball of your engagement to him.” She beamed a pretty smile from her rosy lips. “I am ever so excited to have a sister! I was never allowed to play with the boys growing up; Mama feared they would be to rough. Or teach me some ‘unladylike’ habits.”

             
I grinned at that. “I am sure I could teach you things that would drive your mother up the wall that your brothers never could.”

             
The pretty blonde giggled. “I would like that very much. Brother is always busy and running around town, we will have much time together.”

             
Brows drawn in confusion I asked, “What does he do in town?”

             
“Why race horses of course. It’s all the rage in Newmarket, and brother raises and races the horses, or at least he did until our other brother did something stupid. But never mind that, I heard you brought a horse with you.” Excitement lit her eyes.

             
“His name is Grand Champion and that he is, for he has never lost a race. He was my horse and I used to race him until about a year ago. I’ll show him to you if you like, but for now I think I better rest up.”

…

Resting up took a total of three days which at that time I came down stairs for breakfast early I ran right into Lord Grayson. Still a bit unsteady on my feet I swayed into him and he reached out to hold me in place. I smiled up at him in thanks.

              “The world won’t seem to stop spinning, my lord. But no matter I am sure it is just me,” I said with a laugh at my own witty joke.

             
He didn’t smile. “My sister informed me that you didn’t want the doctor to look you over.”

             
It was true; I had turned down the offer twice. I didn’t need to be told again by another doctor halfway across the world that after my fall my body was too weak to carry on the life I once lived. I gave up riding not only because of the fear but because of the pain and now with hundreds of stairs to climb or descend in a day it was enough. If they wanted another show of my scars they wouldn’t get one. Someday this man would have to see them, but it would wait until after we were married and it was too late for him to back out.

             
“I am quite right I can assure you. A small knock to the head likely put more sense into it then it knocked out. Now if you shall pardon me I want to eat my breakfast in peace.” I gave him a smile, a bow of the head and skirted around him into the dining room where the early morning sun was painting the sky in an array of pinks and golds.

             
He caught me by the hand and led me to a chair with a place sitting, and then he took up a seat directly from me. His stormy grey eyes cutting into me.

             
“I have the papers drawn up and all we have to do is sign them, then we are truly engaged. I think it time we had this settled.”

             
A small sinking feeling fell inside my heart.

             
He took my hand over across the table and looked seriously into my eyes. “I will promise you my backing in anything you do; you will always have my support and trust. But if you betray me once know that I do not forgive. I hope that through this marriage we can be friends of a sort. We will live two different lives and we will not see each other much, but when we are together we should be civil to each other.”

             
“Rather than smacking heads?” I asked sweetly.

             
His lips twitched but he went on.

             
“I need a wife who can run everything by herself, she needs to be strong for the both of us and I believe you can be. Can you do that?”

             
I put my shoulders back. “Of course, I am a Black after all.”

             
A true smile touched his lips. “Not for long. The ball to announce the Season and our engagement is in less than two weeks, then a month later we shall be wed.”
 

A ball for two

The ball one could say was turning out to be nothing more than torture. The dress alone weighted twenty pounds in all its glittering glory, and the corset designed so one could not breathe. However the worse is yet to come. The opening dance was about to start and the pain that would cause would last for days.

             
“Are you ready?” asked His Grace, holding his arm out to me.

             
I sighed and nodded, placing a happy smile on my face. “I don’t see why not.”

             
And so we waltzed until the room was nothing more the a blurred dream. His hands held me tight and close and I hardly noticed the twinge in my lower back and legs.

             
“You remarkably well for a rancher’s daughter,” his commented with a smile.

             
I grinned back. “Well now I wouldn’t be the great granddaughter of a duke if I couldn’t, now could I?”

             
One dark brow winged up. “Indeed.”

             
I laughed softly and relaxed in his arms. “This is going better than I could have thought. There are a few shocked mothers and disappointed daughters, but no one has yet to threaten or scream at me.”

             
His arms tightened. “They wouldn’t dare. However it may be due to the fact that are trying to puzzle out who you are. All that was given out was your name, the details no one else need know unless you want them too.”

             
I snorted. “As soon as they hear me talk the mystery will be gone.”

             
He lean in close and pressed his lips to my ear, softly he whispered, “Then I shall just have to keep you to myself.”

             
An excited shiver ran down my spine. “You just might.”

…

Later that night Lord Grayson’s little sister Samantha, whom I found was sixteen, was still bouncing on her feet excited about her first ball.

             
“Did you not see all the beautiful dresses, and oh! How lovely everything was! And the gentlemen were just so dreamlike,” Sam sighed.

             
“My lovely one, I saw it and lived it and now that it is over I am glad. I am so sore that I doubt even an warm bath could cure my aches,” I yawned as we started up the stairs, slowly going one at a time.

             
“You sound just like my grandmother, what is it that made your body so weak?” She blushed quickly and added, “If you don’t mind me asking.”

             
I waved it off. “It is no terrible secret but I am afraid it must wait until I am safely wed to your brother.”

             
“Did you even have a choice in marrying him?” she asked quietly.

             
“I had little choice in the beginning and I shall miss home. But this is home now and I wouldn’t wish it away for the whole world, Sam,” I said with a gentle smile.

             
Instead of smiling back she looked worried. “My brother is a very good actor, please be careful for yourself.”

             
“What does that mean,” I asked confused.

             
She just shook her head. “Things are not as they seem, Alanna. Why would a duke in his late twenties marry quickly and to an American when he could have waited as long as he liked and chose someone from home? Things are changing after my other brother died. Big Brother cared only about the family name, not the family before all of this.”

             
Puzzled by her tone, I turned to her. “Whatever do you mean?”

             
“Let me put it another way. All he cares for is the family bloodline; he never loved any of us.” She made a grim smile twist her lips. “But then again never had Father.” She sighed rubbing her head and walked away from me. “I wish you a good night Alanna.”

             
“And a good one to you as well,” I replied softly.

             
I wandered around the second level of the house until I had turned so many corners I was lost. The farther I traveled into the east wing the dustier items became until white sheets had been tossed carelessly over the subjects to keep away the dust.

             
However there were paintings upon the walls of children and then I spotted a portrait of the duke as a boy with a charming golden hair little girl sitting next to him and a younger boy standing behind him. The smiles upon their faces were cheerful and happy. The painting next to that was unmistakably of Lord Grayson, with his arrogant chin tilted up and a slight smirk on his face.

             
I lifted a hand and gently brushed my fingers across his face.

             
“Always the dashing man, aren’t you? Too bad you are as cold as the weather in this land,” I said softly.

             
“I cannot help the way others see me, however I thought better of you,” a deep voice rumbled from the shadows across the hall.

             
Startled I spun around with a gasp. “Don’t do that!”

             
“It is my home. I may do as I please.” He stocked out of the shadows towards me. “But I wonder why you were in this part of the house. No one besides me has come here in years.”

             
“I was restless, so I moved about,” I quipped.

             
The duke came forward and turned me toward the wall and the portrait. “This however is not me. It was my father. You were right however he was indeed a very cold man.”

             
I blushed as I felt his breath on my neck.

             
“I noticed that if you walk to long or too far you tend to need a rest, why is that?”

             
“Restless legs,” I repeated the answer I always gave people. It wasn’t quite a lie.

             
“We will be married within the month and then the grand race is two weeks after. I was thinking since he is your horse it best you train him, but I do not and I repeat. Do not ride him. He is too wild for a young woman and I will not have you fall and breaking your neck.”

             
Angry I spun on him. “Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do?”

             
Lord Grayson pinning my hands above my head, pushing me against the wall and leaned in close. “I will be your husband, and in this country a wife has to do as her husband bids her. And everything she owes becomes his.”

It dawned on me then what his meaning was. I ripped away from his grasp. “Never. I shall never marry you. All you wanted was the horse that came with me!”

“My dear,” he said coolly with a smug smirk, “there was more to the deal than just the horse; this was the icing on the cake. However half your father’s property and railway rights in America made a nice dowry.”

Glaring I advanced on him. “I will never marry
you. Your sister was right. All you care about is your precious family name!” I raised my balled hand and hauled off a good punch at him. From my height it hit just below his right eye. “Well you can take your family name and go sink with your ship!”

I spun on heel and ran down the nearest hallway, I ran until my tears blurred my vision and my weak leg gave out on me.
I slid down the wall to the carpet floor, shoulders shaking with sobs.

I had known I was not what he wanted down in my heart that I would be nothing more than a wife of convenience and I thought I could go through with it, but to be nothing more than a means to an end was unbearable. He didn’t want me nor need me; he needed the money he would have gotten from father after the marriage.

I would not be used in such a way.

“Alanna?” called a sweet voice into the dark. “Is that you?”

Sam dropped to her knees beside me. “It was my brother wasn’t it?”