The Duke and the Accidental Bride (Duchesses of Convenience #5)

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

“ C an you please stop looking at me like that,” Isabella snapped at her sister, who was staring at her with an open mouth and wide eyes.

“Like what?”

“Like a fish who has found itself on land and is trying to breathe air for the first time. Honestly, there is no need to be so dramatic.”

“Oh, I am sorry,” Louisa said with purposeful sarcasm. “What would you prefer instead? A hug, I suppose? Perhaps a congratulatory kiss on the cheek?”

“Stop it.”

“I know, I shall arrange a party. A celebration, for surely that is --”

“I said stop it! You are not helping!”

She snorted. “Is that what I am supposed to be doing? Helping?”

Isabella glared at her twin. “If I had known that you were going to be so... so frustratingly smug, I might not have bothered telling you in the first place!”

“Forgive me, Isabella. But it is not every day that one learns their twin sister had become secretly engaged after what was supposed to be an innocent dinner party. Good heavens, I can’t help but wonder what it was that His Grace put in the wine.”

“And as I explained already, it is not as simple as it seems – I did not mean it!”

“Oh yes...” She rolled her eyes. “The words simply tumbled out on their own accord. I have warned you, Isabella. Time and time again, have I not? That tongue of yours, and your insistence on using it so with such haphazard abandon, was bound to land you in trouble sooner or later. Sooner, it would seem now.”

“So, that is the way of things, is it? Rather than helping, you are going to mock me?”

Louisa shrugged. “Can I not do both? As tragic and truly shocking as this is...” Her eyes flashed and she pressed her lips together to keep herself from laughing. “You must admit, from where I am seated, it is rather amusing.”

“It is not!”

“On the contrary, sister...” A snort escaped her lips, and she covered her mouth.

In response, Isabella fixed her sister with a glare so cold that it could turn ice to water. Louisa, typically, felt no such effect, still struggling to keep herself from giggling, for she knew that deep down, Isabella was not angry at her. It was herself who Isabella was furious with.

Well, myself and the Duke... mostly him.

It was just last night that Isabella and the Duke had become unofficially engaged – although the way that the Duke’s mother and grandmother spoke about it, one would think it was written in stone.

Thankfully, the night had ended shortly thereafter, and Isabella had found her way back home where she had tucked herself into bed, closed her eyes, and prayed that when she woke all this would be nothing more than a bad dream from which she was yet to wake.

Typically, no such eventually occurred.

It was real. So very real. And having no choice but to accept it as such, when her twin sister whisked her back to her bedroom and demanded that she tell her of the previous evening, Isabella was only too happy to comply.

She told Louisa everything, her hope being that her sister might see a way out, a mistake made, a path forward that Isabella had not noticed but could be taken to get her out of this mess.

"What of mother?” Louisa had suggested. “Perhaps she will be able to do something? It is not proper that His Grace announce an engagement without first asking her.”

Isabella snorted. “Mother? She will be beside herself. You know she wants nothing more than for me to marry. And a Duke at that?” She shook her head. “No, I do not think mother is the one who will save me.”

“Then there is nothing to be done,” Louisa sighed.

“I cannot marry him!” Isabella cried. “It is absurd! Insane! Surely, he must see that!”

“I am certain that he does,” Louisa agreed as she stilled her laughter. “Unfortunately, and you know this to be true, now that it has been spoken of, there is little to be done to stop it. You said that his mother and grandmother both think of it as fact?”

“They do...” She pushed her lips together as she remembered the tears of joy in his grandmother’s eyes.

“That is it. His Grace is likely as trepidatious as you. But to go back on his supposed word like that...” She shrugged. “You know how men are when it comes to their honor. They would rather walk across broken glass than have it challenged.”

“There must be something I can do!” Isabella pleaded. “Mother is yet to find out. So far, only a few know of it. If I can convince him to change his mind somehow...” She looked at her sister with desperation, needing an answer. A solution!

“There is one thing I can think of.”

“Yes? Anything!”

“Marry the man.” Louisa looked flatly at her sister. “He is a duke. From what you have said, he is rather handsome --”

“I said no such thing!”

She felt her face flush and looked away, refusing to even allow the thought of such a thing to enter her mind! What had happened last night between them, what she had felt... it was not attraction! It was fear. Fear because the man was a bully and nothing more.

She winked. “You inferred it then. But truth be told, Isabella, you could do a lot worse than a duke. A lot worse...” She eyed her pointedly. “Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me that marrying His Grace will be as bad as you are trying to convince yourself that it is. That some semblance of joy cannot be salvaged from this mess?”

Isabella should have expected this reaction from her sister.

Louisa was the romantic one of the two. The one whose life seemed to revolve around finding a mate and settling down – likely, she was even envious of Isabella, as ludicrous as that was.

For Isabella, the idea of falling in love and settling down had never been a dream worth chasing. Truth be told, she found it rather pedestrian, even insulting. What she desired more than anything was to be treated as more than a mere object which might be used for social graces and political maneuvering.

Although only a few knew this of her, what she desired most was to be allowed to study as a man might be. To go to university, to give herself over entirely to a vocation of her own choosing, to push the boundaries of thought and intellectual observation beyond what women of her station were allowed. Now that was a dream worth chasing!

But this? Marriage! A death sentence where independence was concerned, a complete waste of her life, as far as she knew it. No thank you very much.

“I need him to change his mind,” Isabella said, ignoring the look that her sister fixed on her. Not to mention the question.

Her sister snorted. “He will not do that. He told you as much, did he not?”

Isabella pumped her eyebrows. “He is a man like any other. And what do men hate more than anything?” She grinned. “Being told what to do by a woman. Oh yes, last night he told me that he would not have his mind changed. But I would bet my last gold coin that was only because I was the one suggesting it! If he was to decide on his own, however...” She pumped her eyebrows again, the idea forming into a most wicked plan.

Louisa frowned and leaned back. “So, you are to trick him into cancelling this marriage.”

“It is not a marriage yet,” Isabella said excitedly, seeing for the first time a way out. “Nor will it be. Not by the time I am done with him.”

“And how do you expect to do that? He already knows you do not wish for this. Surely, he will see right through your scheming.”

If there was one thing that Isabella knew she could rely on, it was a man’s ability to completely underestimate a woman. No doubt, His Grace thought of her as an ignorant, air-headed, highly silly woman who was incapable of scheming in the ways that would be needed to end this marriage before it began.

And that, Isabella now knew, was what she needed to lean into.

“It will be simple, really...” Isabella’s mind started to work as she considered the possibilities. “His Grace does not know me – not nearly as well as he thinks he does. But I know him. He is short-tempered. Stubborn. And most of all, he does not like it when he does not get his way.”

“Your point being?”

“What I need to do is show him a side of myself that he will find so abhorrent, so impossibly unbearable that he would rather deal with the fallouts of cancelling our engagement than considering having to spend the rest of his life with me.”

“Perhaps if you are just yourself,” Louisa said dryly. “That might do it.”

Isabella ignored her as ideas began to form. “My dress last night. It wasn’t nearly as scandalous as it could have been. I saw him glancing at it, but he didn’t seem as put out as I would have liked.”

Louisa grimaced. “Any more scandalous and you might as well be nude.”

“He is proper, and I have no doubt that the idea of a wife who dresses like that will undo him.” Her mind raced with possibilities. “Also, he does not like being told no. So, if I argue with him or refuse to agree with anything he says, that will only serve to frustrate.”

“Isabella...”

“Yes...” She began to nod to herself. “I need to frustrate him! Men hate women who are too highly opinionated and who speak their mind. So, let us see how he likes one who shares every opinion she has ever had.”

“Isabella, are you sure --”

“Selina will be visiting us this week, will she not?” Isabella cut her off. “And she is quite pregnant...” Her eyes flashed. “I wonder how His Grace will like her mood swings, of which I will be sure to encourage and play in to. Oh yes...” She laughed menacingly. “By the time I am done with him, he’ll be considering moving country so as to put as much distance between myself and him as possible.”

It was a lot. Some might have said it was too much. But if there was one thing that Isabella was certain that she knew of His Grace, it was that he was as stubborn as she. He did not like being told no. He did not like being proven wrong. If this was to work, she would have to commit fully.

And if she was to have a little too much fun with it? Well, I shall try not to enjoy myself too much.

“I really think that this is unnecessary,” Louisa sighed. “Have you tried talking with him – an actual conversation? If you do that, you might find out that the two of you have more in common than you realize.”

Isabella shook her head at that. The last thing she wanted to do was get closer with His Grace. She could still remember the previous evening, the way she had felt when he was pressed up against her, his hand over her mouth, teeth around her ear as he whispered to her...

It sent a warm flush over her body just to think about. A sensation she had never felt before, and did not want to again. Isabella was too smart to be taken by desires like that. She had plans. Goals. Aspirations that she would not simply forget about because there was a chance she might find a man attractive.

Better to avoid that altogether than risk the consequences. Consequences... she had dealt with enough of those as it was.

“No, no,” she said firmly, willing herself to believe this plan would work. “The next time I see His Grace, I shall be ready. And the next time I see him, shall be the last!”