The Duchess

always been. Allegra was like a beautiful young mare. She needed to be gentled, and she needed firmness. She was a sensible creature, and in time would come to understand there could be but one rule in their house. His.

The days flew by. George's farm was purchased. It had a fine stone house with a good slate roof, a sturdy barn, and a granary. There was an apple orchard, and young Lord Hunter intended turning one of his fallow fields into a second orchard, this one for pears. His fields were currently let to his neighbors, but next year he would grow his own grain. His father-in-law-to-be gifted him with a small flock of black- faced Shropshire sheep. Allegra wrote to her father, and shortly afterward a herd of twelve cows and a bull were driven into one of George's fields.

The betrothal between Miss Melinda Franklyn and Lord George Hunter was announced. The wedding would be celebrated on the last day of August.

Together Allegra and Quinton attended the wedding of the Earl of Aston to Lady Eunice Tarleton on July twentieth. It was held at Astondale, the earl's home village, an hour's carriage ride from Hunter's Lair. It was there that Allegra saw Sirena for the first time since her cousin had gone off on her wedding trip. Sirena was obviously blooming, and very happy.

'Mama says you ran away to Hunter's Lair,' Sirena laughed as she hugged her cousin warmly. 'You really are a naughty puss, coz.'

'I ran away from all their billing and cooing,' Allegra told her cousin bluntly. 'Really, Sirena, it was quite embarrassing, I assure you. I decided I might as well come sooner to Hunter's Lair, and a good thing, too. The architect needed me. There was far more work to the restoration than anyone had anticipated.'

'When may we come and see it?' Sirena begged prettily.

'Ohh, we are not yet ready to receive guests,' Allegra said. 'The duke's apartment has only just been finished. Ohh, Sirena, you should see my rooms. All my favorite colors, and so beautiful. We will be fortunate to have everything done by the wedding, but I have told Mr. Gardner that it absolutely must be finished in time for my ball on October thirty-first.'

'But your wedding is October fifth,' Sirena said. 'Aren't you taking a wedding trip, Allegra?'

'I have no idea,' came the answer, 'but if we are it must be a brief one for my ball is most firmly set for the night of the thirty-first of October. It will be my first formal entertainment as the Duchess of Sedgwick, and I want it to be perfect.'

'Don't you and the duke ever speak together?' Sirena asked.

'When we have something to say to one another.'

Sirena shook her head. 'If you must marry Quinton Hunter, Allegra, couldn't you at least try to love him a little?' she said.

'Sirena, dearest, we have been over this before,' Allegra reminded her cousin. 'Quinton and I have a very sensible arrangement. We are both content with it, I assure you.'

The cousins met again several weeks later at Lord Walworth's wedding to Caroline Bellingham. Sirena looked rather peaked this time.

'Breeding,' Lady Bellingham said archly. 'I see it in her eyes.'

'You aren't!' Allegra squealed excitedly.

'I am,' Sirena said, 'but I shall still be able to be your attendant, Allegra. I promised you, and I will keep my word.'

'Does Aunt Mama know yet?' Allegra wondered.

Sirena shook her head.

'You write her this day, my gel, or I shall,' Lady Bellingham said sternly. 'Your mama has waited long enough for grandchildren.'

'My sisters have children,' Sirena protested.

'Why so they do, bless me, so they do!' Lady Bellingham said. 'But it is your child that will best please Olympia, I am certain.'

***

“”Sirena and Ocky are to become parents,' Allegra told the duke as they rode home after the wedding.

'I know,' he said. 'Are you happy for your cousin?'

'Yes,' Allegra said slowly, but without much conviction.

Reaching over he took her hand in his. Their eyes met, and the duke said, 'What is it that is troubling you, my dear?'

'Sirena says she will be able to attend me at our wedding, but I do not think she will. She has a delicate constitution, Quinton. A trip to London may be too much for her in her condition.' Allegra sighed deeply. 'We are more like sisters than cousins. I cannot endanger her, or her child.' She bit her lip, but even the sharp pain of the bite could not prevent the tears from slipping down her cheeks.

'If you could choose where we would be wed, my dear, where would it be?' he asked her.

'If I could choose? But I cannot, Quinton. We must be married with all the pomp and dignity due your family's position. Lady Bellingham is right. It must be St. George's in London. I could not ask anything less of you, my lord.'

'Your commitment to my history and my name is to be commended, Allegra, but you still have not answered my question. If you could choose where we would wed, where would it be?' He gave the little hand in his a tiny squeeze of encouragement. 'Come, my dear, where?'

'The Great Hall at Hunter's Lair,' she burst out.

'Indeed?' He was very much surprised.

'Yes!' she told him. 'I love Hunter's Lair, and the Great Hall is the perfect place for such an event. Especially now that it is clean. And I would have only our family and friends. And we would give everyone on the estate the day off, and set up a feast for them on the lawns. We should come from the hall where our feast was being held, and greet our tenants and workers. It would be wonderful!' Then her face fell. 'But I know it cannot be. We must be married at St. George's, and have a proper wedding breakfast afterward with the king and the queen as our guests, and Prinny and Mr. Brummell.'

'No,' he replied. 'We shall be wed in exactly the manner you have said, my dear.' Then he kissed her hand, and their eyes met again. He felt as if something had cracked within his chest, and yet he was fine.

'Ohh, Quinton,' she said softly, 'could we really be married in such a fashion? Then Sirena could come, for her home is not so far away, is it? That would make me so very happy.' Her violet eyes were shining with pleasure.

'Would it?' he answered her softly, and then he leaned forward, and kissed her lips gently. 'I am coming to realize, Allegra,' he told her, 'that even if you are strong-willed, opinionated, and far too outspoken, that I am beginning to want to see you happy.' Then he added, 'There is nothing in our most practical arrangement that precludes our being happy, is there, my dear?' His silver eyes twinkled at her.

'I do not believe so, my lord,' she replied, her voice a little breathless. Her heart was hammering rather quickly, and she could feel that her cheeks were flushed.

'Excellent,' he said. Then he tucked her hand deeper into his.

'Are you happy with me?' she ventured boldly. 'Despite my faults? I do