The Contract Duchess, a Regency Romance: Key To My Heart Book 1

Chapter 31 - Angela

The preparations seemed to take forever. All too soon, the clock was sounding a brief chime to indicate half past ten, just as Angie settled herself under the covers on Derrick's bed. She had chosen a night-rail from her trousseau, thankful to Theo for insisting she have one, despite the unconventional reasons for her marriage. Her hands shook with exhaustion, having spent the last hours overseeing all of the details to fulfill Derrick's wishes.

The pillows propping her up boasted fresh coverings, and the sheets smelled of sunshine. A few long burning tapers bathed the room in warm light from their positions about the room, and her own skin filled the room with the scent of lavender, the result of her favorite bath oil. All was in readiness, but where was her husband?

Alone in the bedchamber, having sent Anne to wait by the door and her brothers to the other side of the house, Angie's mind filled with anxious thoughts. Derrick had still been weak the previous evening; could he have suffered a relapse? Had he been set upon by villains while he located the witness he mentioned? Perhaps he had even changed his mind after he sent the letter, but he hadn't the nerve to send a retraction. The more she lay gazing at the flickering flame of one candle or another, the more foolish she felt.

The clock sounded again, this time a longer interlude. Eleven o'clock. The day was nearly spent, and Angie felt the pull of sleep coaxing her toward sweet escape. To fend it off, she reached for a book on the bedside table, a well-worn volume of poetry, such as one might find in a schoolroom. Having long enjoyed reading verse of any sort, she opened the small tome and allowed the pages to fall open where they liked.

Sonnets of Shakespeare graced the paper before her, and she murmured the words out loud, having always preferred the spoken cadence of the phrases to the echo of sound she heard in her mind when she read silently.

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove."

Her vision blurred with tears, forcing her to pause reading to dash them away. Before she could continue, a familiar voice flowed softly into the room.

"Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

Derrick's rumbling baritone completing the sonnet with such feeling made stemming her weeping impossible. But when the poem ended and Derrick did not appear, Angie called out, "Derrick, I know you must be just outside the room. Why are you waiting there?"

The sound of something heavy striking the wall and then the floor outside the room gave her new energy, and she fairly flew from the bed to the door. Wrenching it open, she found her husband sprawled on the carpet, eyes closed and mouth gaping as he struggled to breath. Falling by his side, she yelled in the general direction of her brothers' chambers, "Help! I need help at once! Please come quick!"

Before she could finish her words, Anne and two men she did not recognize dashed out of the shadows of the darkened hall. On their heels came Robert and Theo, both still in their breeches with untucked shirts billowing as they dashed to her side. Between them all, it was short work to ensconced Derrick in the place Angie had vacated only moments before, Angie seated beside him wrapped in her robe. His color returned, and he smirked at her.

"Not exactly how I pictured this evening going, but we do need witnesses, and part of the ceremony is to have the witnesses put the couple to bed." He winked as she blushed. He reached for her hand, closing his eyes as she gripped his fingers in her own. The sight of his black lashes against the dark circles under his eyes roused her fury.