Deceived

'I would,' said Calandra. 'To marry a duke, and go to court, I would marry the devil himself! You really are a fool, Aurora. What an opportunity your father has given you, and you are not one bit grateful. If Papa had betrothed me to a duke, I'd wed him in a trice!'

'A stranger, Cally? You would marry some stranger you had never set eyes upon? I think it is you who are the fool!' Aurora said.

'Marriages are always arranged,' Calandra answered her stepsister. 'So you have never set eyes upon this man. He cannot, surely, be the beast from some fairy tale! And, remember, he has never laid eyes on you either. I'm certain he is wondering during his long days at sea if you are the sort of girl he really wants for a duchess, but he will do his duty, for his father made this match.'

'He will gain a sugar plantation and this island for his troubles,' Aurora noted.

'And you will gain a duchess's coronet!' Calandra countered.

'I don't want it,' Aurora said irritably.

'I wish I had your opportunity, you silly creature,' Calandra snapped at her stepsister. 'You really are quite spoiled!'

'Do you want this duke, Cally?' Aurora asked the other girl. 'Then have him! You marry this Valerian Hawkesworth!'

'Aurora, that is quite impossible,' her stepmother said.

'Why?' Aurora demanded. She brushed a tendril of hair from her face where it had fallen. 'Have you seen this marriage contract that Papa arranged? What exactly does it say, Mama?'

'Say? Why, I have no idea,' Oralia replied.

'George! Go to Papa's library and look in the strongbox he kept by his desk. I will wager a year's crop you will find this marriage contract in that box. Bring it here at once,' Aurora commanded her stepbrother. Then she looked directly at her stepmother in a way that discomfited the poor woman. 'We will see if there is not some way I cannot wheedle my way out of this situation. Why, the nerve of this duke! He has ignored us all these years, and now, with not so much as a by-your-leave, madam, he announces he is coming to marry mc!'

Calandra giggled. 'I will wager a year's crop, if it were mine to wager, that your duke would be horrified to learn what manner of girl you are, Aurora. Men, I am told, do not like forward and fierce women such as yourself. You will have to improve your manners.'

'Hah!' her stepsister responded. 'The man who marries me will have to accept me for myself. I will not be molded and posed like some clay figurine. Besides, Cally, how would you know what a man wants in a woman. You haven't been off St. Timothy since you arrived from Jamaica, when my father and your mother married. You don't know any more about men than I do!'

'We're totally backward and gauche, the pair of us,' Calandra lamented. 'I don't know why Papa insisted on making us wait until we were seventeen to have a season in England. Why, he wouldn't even let us go to Jamaica for a visit. We will seem like savages when we are finally allowed out into polite society.' She pushed her plate away fretfully. 'I find I am no longer hungry, Mama.'

George reappeared, clutching a parchment. 'You were right,' he said, handing it to Aurora and sitting back down. 'It was in Papa's strongbox just as you said it would be. Hasn't anyone looked through that box since Papa's death? It is chock-full of papers.'

Aurora didn't answer him, instead, opened the missive and read it over carefully. Then, suddenly, a very wide smile brightened her face, and she chuckled wickedly. 'Here it is! The answer to my problem, Mama. This contract betroths Charlotte Kimberly to Valerian Hawkesworth. Now, while it is true I was christened Charlotte Aurora, Mama, Calandra was christened Charlotte Calandra. Remember that when you married Papa and came with George and Cally to St. Timothy, it was decided that rather than have two Charlottes, each of us would use our second name to avoid jealousy, or the appearance of favoritism toward either of us. This marriage contract does not say Charlotte Aurora Kimberly. It plainly says only Charlotte Kimberly. So, if Cally wants to marry this duke, she can. He certainly won't know the difference, having never laid eyes on me in his life.'

'No! No! Aurora! We couldn't do such a thing,' Oralia protested.

'Why not?' came the quick response.

'Well, for one thing,' her stepmother said with what she hoped was perfect logic, 'the duke is expecting to marry the heiress to St. Timothy, and not a girl with a thousand a year, a thousand pounds in gold, and some jewelry. Calandra's dowry simply wouldn't be good enough for the Duke of Farminster.'

'Mama,' Aurora countered with equal reason, 'if this duke is coming from England to marry Charlotte Kimberly, then it would appear he is a man of principle. If he cannot marry Charlotte Kimberly, I do not believe he will return quietly to England without protest. I am not the attraction for him. How could I be? He knows me not. It is the island and the plantation that hold an appeal for this man, and he will not be satisfied to go home without them. So he must have a Charlotte Kimberly to wife. Cally wants a duke for a husband. I do not know what I want, but I do know I will not be driven to the altar. Cally's inheritance from Papa shall be mine, and I would have one other thing. I want the Meredith plantation house that belonged to my mother's family. Cally will then be this duke's Charlotte Kimberly, and this island and the plantation will be turned over to her husband upon their marriage. Everyone will be happy. The duke will have the island, and Cally will have the duke. It is a perfect answer to our problems.'

'You are so very clever, Aurora,' her stepmother admitted, 'but what if the duke learns of your deception? If indeed I would even allow such a thing. Could it not be considered fraud? No! No! I will not permit such dupery. It is dishonest!'

'Then you face the possibility of having the duke demand we turn over St. Timothy's plantation to him anyhow, and we shall all be dispossessed, homeless, abandoned by all. After all, he is keeping his part of the bargain by coming to marry Charlotte Kimberly. If the bride will not cooperate, do you really expect him to bow, and graciously withdraw, leaving us to our home? Nonsense, Mama! He will be mortally offended. Why, George may even have to fight a duel to death to assuage this duke's honor. Then the duke will demand reparation for his embarrassment and broken heart. Well, it shall not be my fault. I have offered you a reasonable solution to our problem. Don't you want Cally to be a duchess? She'll be a perfect one with her classic features, her marble-white skin, and raven's-wing hair.'

Oralia Kimberly bit her lower lip in vexation.

George Spencer-Kimberly shook his head in admiration at his stepsister's devilish cleverness. Then he looked toward Calandra. She was absolutely holding her breath in anticipation.

'Say yes, Mama!' she half whispered, her tone almost desperate.

But Oralia Kimberly held firm. 'No,' she said. 'I cannot permit such a thing. Be reasonable, Aurora. Your father planned this marriage before your birth. If he were alive, we should not be having this conversation at all. I will discuss it no further.' She arose from the dining table and hurried from the room.

'I want to be a duchess,' Calandra whined.

'You will be,' Aurora assured her stepsister.

'You heard what Mama said,' George reminded them.

'Mama will change her mind, I promise you,' Aurora said with a mischievous grin. 'She will have little choice when the duke's ship sails into the harbor and I am still refusing to marry him. When that moment comes, her resoluteness will collapse entirely, for she will be considering what I have said over these next few weeks, George. No matter how honest and good she is, she cannot help but consider how marvelous Cally will look in a duchess's jewels; or of how much she will enjoy visiting Jamaica, and boasting of her daughter, the Duchess of Farminster.' Aurora laughed, and then she stood up from the table. 'We really must begin considering your wedding gown, Cally.'