Page 7 of Duchess By Accident (The Matchmaker’s Scheme #5)

Chapter Seven

“ A rrogant, cocky, vain, utterly infuriating man!” Natalie exclaimed as she stormed around the garden. Having been cursing about the Duke for some time, she had exhausted her list of expletives and had resorted to more proper insults.

She had just received a letter from the Duke saying that her guest list had been approved. He had addressed it “ My Lady Natalie.” Which had been bad enough. The contents of his letter had been even more infuriating.

“ Little Thief. ” Natalie read aloud. “ Thank you for your guest list. I note you have requested your Uncle Stephan be allowed to bring his three goats. I shall of course be more than happy to allow this and shall arrange roses for them to snack on. ”

She fumed. “You are not supposed to agree to this! Why will he not get angry? What is wrong with him?”

She growled at the letter and said in an imitation of the Duke’s deep baritone. “ I still have not received word from the modiste that you have ordered your dress, I expect to hear from the modiste tomorrow, or I will take matters into my own hands. And while I have wonderful taste, I can not guarantee it will be to your liking. ”

“I’ll show him. I will order the ugliest, most hideous dress I can find. I will turn up in a potato sack and thoroughly embarrass him.” She smiled at the thought of the Duke’s fury.

“I fear that if you do that, you will only embarrass yourself. Fetching as you are, dear Natalie, few women could look good in a potato sack.” a woman’s voice said from behind her, making her jump.

Natalie turned around and found herself staring at the Viscountess of Cotswalts, who was looking at her with an amused expression on her face.

“Oh, Lady Cotswalts, I thought you were still with Jane.” Natalie blushed.

“We returned a week ago. I had thought to catch up with your mother, but I am told she is with Marie.” Lady Cotswalts replied.

Marie, Natalie’s other sister, was pregnant with her third child and the pregnancy had not been an easy one. Natalie shifted from foot to foot, trying to work out how long Rose’s mother had been standing there.

“How… I mean… I did not think there was anyone else in the garden.”

“Clearly not, or you would not have been cursing like a sailor. Such colourful language, it reminded me of accompanying my father to the docks.” Lady Cotswalts smiled at her. “And who is the lucky young gentleman who has earned your ire?”

“Adrian Stone, The Duke of Blackwood.” Natalie said. “He sent me this delightful letter. Apparently, my guest list has been approved and now he is threatening to order my wedding dress if he does not hear from the modiste by tomorrow.”

Lady Cotswalts nodded. “Yes, Rose mentioned you were engaged. She seems more positive about this match than Lord Bolton. Though I suppose that is a rather low bar.”

“Practically a crater, Lady Cotswalts.” Natalie agreed.

“Indeed.” Lady Cotswalts took Natalie’s arm in hers. “Now, perhaps you would explain to me just why you think wearing a potato sack to your wedding is a good idea?”

“I did not think it was a good idea, just that it would irritate him.” Natalie replied. “Yet he is proving frustratingly difficult to irritate. He either has the patience of a saint or missed his true calling as an actor.”

“How so?” Lady Cotswalts canted her head towards Natalie.

“Every request that I have made he has accepted, and more than that he has done so with grace and good humour! Even when they have been utterly nonsensical! I asked that he send a carriage with a white horse to pick me up, and he said he would send a carriage and four white horses. Four!” Natalie shook her head.

“It sounds like he is a generous man.” Lady Cotswalts said.

“He just likes to prove that I cannot rile him. And that he is the one in charge. Every request I make, he agrees to but changes in some way that I could not reasonably refuse.” Natalie let out a frustrated growl. “All I want is for him to be irritated. Is that so much to ask? And yet he refuses!”

“And you wish to irritate him because?” Lady Cotswalts frowned.

“Because he irritates me.” Natalie blushed. “And he seems to delight in irritating me and that hardly seems fair.”

“I see.” Lady Cotswalts nodded her head.

Natalie gestured to the letter in her hands, before crumpling it into a ball and stamping on it. “I was going to see the modiste today, but then I received his letter and I was just so annoyed.”

Lady Cotswalts raised an eyebrow, her arms folded across her chest. “So you have no wish to see the modiste any more because he told you to see her?”

Natalie ran a hand through her hair. How is it possible that a woman so much shorter than me makes me feel about an inch tall? “Well, when you say it like that it sounds mad.”

“That is because it is mad.” Lady Cotswalts said. “Why are you so determined to not do as he says?”

“Because I do not want to be bullied.” Natalie gestured around her. “I do not want to spend the rest of my life being told what to do and where to go and what to buy. I do not want that. I have never wanted that.”

“Few women do want that.” Lady Cotswalts said. “But we do not always get what we want.”

“No. We do not.” Natalie agreed. “But why does he get to do what he wants?”

“Because he is a man, and a powerful one at that.” Lady Cotswalts said as though she were explaining nothing more than that the sky was blue. “If rumours are to be believed, the man controls more than half the ton.”

Natalie felt a tear prick at the corner of her eye and wiped it away. “Well, he will not control me.”

“And you intend to make him understand this by embarrassing yourself at your own wedding?” Lady Cotswalts shook her head. “I had hoped Rose or her sisters might pass on some of my lessons to you and your family, but it seems I was mistaken.”

“Well… No… Initially, well, I had planned to order the most expensive dress that I could and then wear my old riding habit.” Natalie smiled at the thought of strolling down the aisle in her hunting attire. “Or perhaps just order a dress so hideous that no one will be able to stand to look at me.”

“And if you do that, do you think you will feel like you have won?” Lady Cotswalts asked.

“I… Does it matter?” Natalie frowned. “He will have lost.”

Lady Cotswalts shook her head and gently patted Natalie’s arm. “Love, dear child, is a battlefield. And as any strategist will tell you, the secret to winning a battle is to know your opponent.”

“But I do not know him. The man may be in the scandal sheets near daily, but there is very little to know about him.” Natalie had spent several hours trying to find out everything she could and found information about the Duke to be strangely lacking. There is not even a mention that he has a daughter, and only the vaguest mention that he was married.

She thought back, trying to think of what she knew about the Duke. What had she seen in her interactions with him?

“Well, you know that he is a reputed rake, that he likes to be in control.” Lady Cotswalts pointed out.

“Yes.” Natalie agreed. “And that he is an arrogant, vain toe rag.”

“And that he is in the scandal sheets on a daily basis.” Lady Cotswalts said. “And the scandal sheets are a dangerous place to be. You know that only too well, Natalie.”

Natalie swallowed, thinking of Lord Bolton. “But he is a man. And his being in the Morning Post and other such rags seems to have done him no harm.”

“But it will do you harm if you are not careful. You are to be his bride, and those moral-less layabouts will be desperate for a story to tell.” Lady Cotswalts said. “And what do you think they will print if you turn up at your own wedding in a potato sack?”

“That the Duke has bad taste in women?” Natalie said flippantly.

“That you have been driven mad with grief over the loss of Lord Bolton and are a desperate, desolate woman who will fling herself at any man.” Lady Cotswalts met Natalie’s gaze. “And that is if they are in a good mood.”

“I will be more hurt than he will be.” Natalie realised, thinking of the unkind looks she was still getting around town. “He already has scandal, but it will be me who looks like a fool. I hate this. It is not fair.”

“I know, but that is the world we live in.” Lady Cotswalts said. “And knowing the truth of the world means you can use it to your advantage.”

“How?” Natalie asked, frowning.

As she looked down at Lady Cotswalts, she recalled just how many people the woman had brought together. She remembered that her mother spoke of the woman’s gift for understanding people as if it were some kind of supernatural power. Perhaps it is.

“You do what you said you wished to do. You take control.” Lady Cotswalts said simply. “You know that everyone in the ton will be watching you both. Even if they are not at your wedding. I promise, they will be itching to talk about it.”

“No doubt they will say something utterly vile and untrue. They already see me as some sort of fallen woman.” Natalie said bitterly.

“And do you wish for them always to see you this way?” Lady Cotswalts asked.

“No.” Natalie admitted.

“They will control the narrative if you do not direct them.” Lady Cotswalts shook her head. “You need to give them what you want them to talk about. If you are trying not to be controlled, then you must take control.”

Natalie thought about how powerless she had felt, how many women she passed in the streets who seemed to whisper to one another as soon as they saw her.

“Your mother is genteel and has no doubt taught you all she knows about the more aristocratic elements of life. Etiquette and that sort of thing.” Lady Cotswalts made a vague gesture.

“She has.” Natalie agreed, frowning.

“When dealing with rumour, and trying to be more than the Ton thinks you should be, you need a different kind of knowledge. You need to understand how people work. What they want. What they wish people to see.” Lady Cotswalts explained.

“And I need to know what they already see.” Natalie chewed on her lip thoughtfully. “That sounds difficult.”

“It is. But it is vital.” Lady Cotswalts pointed to her own wedding ring. “Your wedding is your chance to have control. It is your day, and you get to shape the narrative.”

“No I do not. Duke Blackwood has final approval.” Natalie pointed out. “He is the one who holds the purse strings. And he is only too happy to have his final say.”

“He cannot control everything, you have his permission to choose your dress.” Lady Cotswalts pointed out. “Do not throw away your chance to take control over some petty little skirmish. You have a chance to reclaim your reputation and your life. You just need to play your cards right.”

Natalie nodded, and felt hope flow through her. She began to pace, possibilities tumbling through her mind as she thought about what Lady Cotswalts was saying.

“I get to decide what they see. I can show them anything I want and still make the Duke understand that I will not be controlled by him.” Natalie muttered to herself, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “But what do I want them to see?”

“What do they expect to see?” she asked

“Some desperate woman.” Natalie said scowling. “Someone who would be cowed easily.”

“Then show them that is not who you are.” Lady Cotswalts said.

“Thank you, Lady Cotswalts. I should have sought your advice sooner.” Natalie said.

“I know. And perhaps next time you will.” Lady Cotswalts smiled at her and began to walk away. “I am looking forward to your wedding, dearest Natalie.”

“I promise, it will be a day to remember.” Natalie called after her.

She would give the ton something to talk about. She would leave everyone speechless.

Including the Duke.