Page 47 of A Duchess to Unravel (The Devil’s Masquerade #3)

CHAPTER THREE

“ N o,” Amelia blurted out, then blushed. A tiny sense of guilt flitted through her.

Dominic, of all people, had saved her and had already assured her that no force of inappropriate relations would be put upon her. Still, she balked at the idea.

Dominic’s dark brows flew up at her response and his jaw tightened at her response.

“You think it is something I wish for?” he asked. “When I thought of taking a wife I did not think I would be purchasing her.”

“Why not?” she replied haughtily, her fear slowly draining from her body. “Is that not what parents of daughters do? Offer a dowry to noble men to marry them? It is really all the same. Just in a different environment.”

Dominic’s silver eyes darkened as he stared at her, and Amelia immediately cooled her temper. When he spoke his tone was low. Calm. And yet- there was a lethal edge to it.

“I understand you have had a rather awful evening. But you will speak to me with respect, Amelia. I am attempting to offer solution to this issue, even at my own inconvenience.”

Amelia cast her eyes away from his, took a steadying breath, and mentally went through the last two hours and wild series of events. I have not been sold to a stranger. I have been sold to a friend that wants to help me. I am angry. But I do not need to be angry at him. I will listen.

“I apologize,” she said as calmly as she could, looking back up at him. “Please tell me your plan.”

Dominic’s pinning, cold stare made her want to squirm in her seat, but she clasped her hands and held herself tightly. A moment later the carriage stopped, and the driver tapped on the roof.

“We are here, Your Grace,” he announced.

Still keeping his piercing gaze on Amelia, Dominic said loudly, “Walk twenty paces away from us. Keep watch to make sure we are not interrupted. I shall call you back when we are ready to leave.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” the driver announced, and silence then stretched as they felt the carriage sway slightly as the man climbed down, then listened as his crunching footsteps faded away.

“What do you know of my reputation, Amelia?” Dominic asked at last.

The question took her off guard. It was not at all what she thought he was going to ask.

“I- well, I have heard occasionally of your successes in your Dukedom from Theo and Seraphina. I have heard your witty comments between our friend group,” she explained.

A single dark brow of his rose.

“You’ve not heard any other gossip about me?” he asked.

Amelia let out a dry, mirthless laugh.

“People talk about me, Your Grace. Not to me. The only ones who have deigned to truly converse are the women in my close circle of friends.”

She paused, suddenly curious as to why he would ask and added, “Why?”

Dominic glanced away from her as he stretched his large body from a casual sitting position to one more refined.

“I am known to be quite ruthless in business,” he answered, reaching for his silver cuff link on his black shirt sleeve.

She watched as he twisted it with his fingers, as if adjusting it back into place even though it was properly seated.

“I am successful at everything I do and I am known to work with favors,” he went on. “I am knowledgeable in many things and I know the when, where, and why before most do.”

It was Amelia’s turn to raise a brow. Certainly quite confident in himself, too, she thought, growing frustrated.

“Congratulations?” she said, giving him a questioning look. “What does this have to do with my predicament?”

To her surprise, Dominic let out what sounded like an amused huff as his lips twitched.

“What it means is that I am powerful, Amelia. Powerful enough that everyone of importance wants to be an ally. Therefore if I take you on as my wife, even if some of the men back there did know who you were, they would not dare speak a word of it to anyone.”

Amelia’s brows flew up.

“You are that well liked?” she asked.

He chuckled, and shook his head.

“It is not about being liked. I am formidable. Being on my bad side can tend to get dangerous. For multiple reasons.”

Though curious, Amelia did not ask for further information. Something in the calm, unbothered way he stated these things told her that it was nothing but the truth.

“Very well,” she said quietly, then drew in a breath.

“If I marry you I shall have a certain protection. That certainly is appreciated. But what else?”

Again those sculpted lips of his twitched.

“What else?” he echoed calmly.

“That is what you are willing to do for me,” she replied. “I am assuming this is a deal. What is it that you want me to do for you?”

That small ghost of a smile faded quickly from Dominic’s lips and it made Amelia grow rigid.

“As I said earlier, I have no proclivity for an unwilling paramour. This deal will not brokered by forced sexual favors,” he replied with a bitter note in his voice.

Amelia felt her cheeks flush at the provocative word, not expecting the bluntness of it. Suddenly she wondered if the very thought of participating in such acts with her were off-putting to her, and she felt a bitter shot of disappointment.

Yes, she had put off finding a husband because of her bruised feelings toward men and her ever-floundering reputation, but some small part of her had hoped that if she could marry, it would be with a man that would show her not just love, but passion. The kind she read of so often in her books.

“Excluding that,” she said slowly, dismissing her feelings, “There must be something you want from me.”

“If we were to be married you would be a duchess,” he clarified, “Therefore it would stand to reason that you step in and fill the roles as such.”

Amelia nodded. That was a fair and rational request. After all if he was willing to act as her husband, she should be willing in some capacity to act as his wife.

And she had been trained extensively by her mother to undertake such duties; though there would be a learning curve when it came to the esteemed status of a duchess.

More hosting, more delegating. But she could handle it.

For the life he’d just spared her. She could do this.

“Very well,” she said at last, clasping her hands tightly together.

“And you stay out of London,” he dictated. “Out of sight and out of mind from the ton. You will accept your new life at Ellsworth.”

“Why would I want to return here anyway?” she scoffed.

Dominic gave a simple nod.

“I remember a vague conversation you and I had at Seraphina’s baby shower,” he went on.

“You stated that you wanted to be a woman that could do whatever she wanted. There will be rules to our unorthodox marriage. You cannot damage my reputation, and I will not damage yours. That being said, however, given the agreement we just settled on, if you use discretion you may go after a bit of the freedom you spoke of.”

Amelia’s brows flew to her forehead as her lips parted in shock.

“Truly?” she asked.

Dominic shrugged his powerful shoulders.

“If you respect my privacy and my freedoms, I shall respect yours. Can you agree on that?”

Perhaps this is a better bargain than I thought, she mused silently as she nodded.

“Very good,” Dominic stated, then reached for the door.

She stared at him in strange wonder as he called the driver back to them, and gave him Theo’s address.

“What are we going there for?” she asked as they started to move again.

“You are certainly not going back to your father’s house,” Dominic said with a rueful chuckle, “And you cannot yet come back to mine. A private residence, I suspect, would be too isolating for you after the night you had. Theo is your dear friend and her parents are very tolerant to overnight guests. Therefore you will stay with Theo until we are married.”

“And when will that be?” Amelia asked.

“I have certain connections,” Dominic replied. “We can have the license and ceremony in three days.”

“Sarah! Lydia!” Amelia gasped.

The wedding ceremony had come and gone in a blur, her mind so addled that she hadn’t noticed who was and was not among the small crowd of guests.

She still hadn’t mentally recovered from the night of the auction; her fear often taking hold of her at random moments and stealing her away for bouts of time.

When she would come out of it, she often had to take a moment to prove to herself that it was over, she was safe, and would have to re-familiarize herself with wherever she was and whatever she was doing.

Unfortunately, such a thing had happened just as she’d stepped onto the altar to marry Dominic.

She smiled widely, heart pouring with relief as she saw her sisters running toward her, and she opened her arms to embrace them. As she did so, she looked up, and a chill ran down her spine as she saw her father watching from afar.

She had not expected that they would be able to come; and she hated that her father had. Dominic, she suspected, must have paid a visit to him. She knew he had, for one of the wagons outside the church was loaded with her belongings.

Amelia suppressed a shudder as she thought of what that conversation would have been like. What their two fierce personalities clashing meeting had come about.

“Amelia, we cannot believe it!” Fourteen-year-old Sarah giggled, holding her tight. “When we last saw you we were so worried, but now here you are, getting married to a Duke! Why did you not tell us?”

Because I had no idea that was going to happen, she thought. But she refused to share the frightening details of that horrid night her father took her to auction.

“Oh, well, I wanted it to be surprise,” Amelia laughed instead, pulling away so she could take a good look at them. It had only been three days since she’d last seen them, but she’d missed and worried for them so much.

“Your wedding dress is beautiful,” Lydia gushed, her small hands delicately running over the lace. “Can I have one like this when I get married?”

Amelia smiled at her ten-year-old sister warmly.