Deceived

but she found no allies even among her own brother and stepsister. They had both had enough of London, and were delighted to be leaving the city. Calandra sulked. Valerian was adamant. Cornering his wife's maid in the hallway, he said,

'Are you happy in your position, Sally?'

'Oh, yes, yer grace,' Sally replied, bobbing a curtsy.

'Do you wish to retain your place, then?'

'Yes, yer grace.' Sally shifted her feet nervously.

'In whose employ are you?' The duke towered over the servant.

'H-her grace's,' Sally half whispered. She was suddenly afraid.

'No, Sally, you are not in her grace's employ. You may serve her grace, but you are in my employ. You take my wage. You live under my roof, and you eat at my table. You even have a small clothing allowance from my generosity. Do you understand the difference between being in service and being in my employ?'

'Y-y-yes, yer grace.' She had to pee.

'Then since you are content with your lot, I may assume you wish to remain in my employ. In order to do that, Sally, you will report to me any foolishness your mistress may contemplate. Tomorrow we leave for Hawkes Hill. We will remain there until I decide to come up to London again. That will not be until your mistress has given me an heir or two. If your mistress should attempt to run away again, you will warn me in time to prevent her from doing so. If you do not, Sally, you will find yourself back in the same slum from whence you sprang. Do you understand me, girl?'

'If she finds out I'm spying on her, she'll kill me!' Sally told the duke. 'She's got a real mean temper when she's crossed.'

'You will be clever, Sally, and she will not find out,' he soothed the maid. 'And as long as you obey me, girl, there will be a place for you in my household. I wield more power here than your mistress, and you are no fool. You know it to be so.'

Sally nodded, and then the duke stepped aside to allow her to pass. He had been patient with Calandra, but now he was through being patient. She took his forbearance for stupidity and weakness. Decamping from Hawkes Hill and coming up to London without his knowledge had been outrageous. She believed herself off his leash, but she was not. The lead he held her by was a long one. The time, however, had come to rein her in and bring her to heel. Once they reached home he was going to be in her bed every night. He would use her until she bloomed with his child. That was why he had married her. To get children from her. With George and Aurora as his allies they would bring Calandra around to a more reasonable frame of mind.

Aurora. He was thinking about her far more than he should, and he knew it was wrong. But she was everything he had ever desired in a wife. She was intelligent and kind. She had wit, not to mention beauty. She knew her duty, which was certainly more than he could say for his wife. He was glad, nay, relieved, that no one had taken her fancy here in London. What fools men could be. It would be difficult when his grandmother found Aurora the right husband, and he had no doubt that she would. She already had a match in mind for George, the dowager had told her grandson. Valerian Hawkesworth sighed deeply. He needed to go home.

It was a journey of several days' duration from London to Hawkes Hill in Hereford. There were several coaches involved. The dowager had one in which she traveled with her personal maid. There was one for Martha, Sally, and Sally's assistant, Moll, who shared their accommodation with the duke's valet, Browne, and George's man, Wickham. Calandra and Aurora had their own vehicle in which the duke and George might ride when they were not a-horse. There were three baggage carts. There were fresh horses awaiting them at all the inns, brought from the duke's estate. A skeleton staff would remain at Farminster House. The rest of the servants had departed the day before for Hereford.

On the morning of their departure Moll came to Martha. 'Sally says her ladyship is having a tantrum and carrying on something awful. Could yer mistress come, please?' She curtsied to Martha, who thought the young girl a nice child with promise.

'We'll both come,' Martha replied. 'Go tell Sally.'

'I knew she would do this,' Aurora said. 'She half as much said so yesterday. What are we to do, Martha? I am not certain we shouldn't write to Mama and beg her to come to England.'

'Yer mama won't come, miss. She don't like the sea, but I have an idea. You just tell her high and mightiness that if she don't behave herself, you'll tell the duke of the deception played on him. That's fraud. The duke can annul the marriage or get a divorce, I don't know which. Either way, where will Miss Cally be then?'

Aurora's eyes twinkled. 'Cally would rather die than lose her title,' she said. 'I would not have thought such duplicity was possible in your character, Martha.'

'I still got a few surprises up my sleeve, miss' was the reply.

They could hear Cally shrieking as they approached her bedroom. 'I'm not going! I have already told you! I am not going! The king is giving a ball tonight, and I will not miss it! Everyone will be there!'

'But we, however, shall not,' Aurora said, entering her stepsister's bedchamber. 'We shall be tucked up asleep in some comfortable inn on the road to Hawkes Hill before the first musician can tune his violin, Cally. Why are you not dressed? We are leaving in less than an hour. You really are quite impossible, sweeting.' She turned to Moll. 'Come, girl, and help your mistress. Sally, are the trunks ready yet? Everyone else's have already gone down.'

'I am not going!' Calandra snarled, her hazel eyes darkening. Her hand reached for an ornament to throw. She gasped as Aurora grasped her wrist strongly, thereby preventing her from further mayhem.

'Leave us, all of you, just for a moment,' Aurora said. 'My sister and I need to speak together privately.' She released Cally's wrist.

The three servants left the room.

'Why are you on his side?' Cally demanded.

'Because he is right and you are wrong,' Aurora answered her bluntly. 'You were married to a duke not so you might spend the rest of your life in a round of endless pleasures, but so that you might bear him children, Cally. I may be considered headstrong, but no one has ever said I did not do my duty. Now you must do yours.'

'It was your duty to marry him, not mine, but you would not marry him,' Calandra responded, rubbing her wrist.

'Because I was headstrong.' Aurora laughed, 'But you did marry him. He fulfilled his part of the bargain. Now you must fulfill yours.'

'I will not do it! And there is nothing you say, Aurora, that will make me. I am the Duchess of Farminster. You are only my stepsister. You have no power over me!' Cally said meanly.

'Ahhh, little one, but I do,' Aurora replied softly. 'If you do not come quietly with us to Hereford, I will tell Valerian of how we deceived him.'

'You wouldn't dare!' Cally whispered, disbelieving.

'I will have no choice,' Aurora answered her. 'If you will not do your duty as Valerian's wife, then I must tell him of the fraud we perpetrated upon him. This will allow him to either annul your marriage or divorce you with just cause, which he certainly has. You have been a disobedient wife, and you refuse to give him heirs. What good are you to him? You have, I regret to tell you, Cally, become a great embarrassment to George and me. Only the vast span of the ocean has kept me from informing Mama of your bad behavior. She would not approve of it. She would want me to act toward you as I am now doing. She would not want you to ruin us all. Do you understand me, Cally?'

'I hate you!' Calandra spat out.