Page 4 of Duke at First Sight (Love at First Sight #1)

Part IV

“ W e are all fools in love.” ~Pride and Prejudice written by British novelist Jane Austen

“I am sorry that you didn’t find the man of your dreams,” Becca consoled Annalise later in the day as they took their afternoon tea in the shade of the side veranda. “You can always try again tomorrow.”

“I was so sure he would be out there.” With no appetite to speak of, Annalise stared glumly at her cucumber sandwich. How wretched it was, to feel something with such absolute certainty… only to have that something never materialize. Instead, she’d spent her morning being dragged about by a duke who she was beginning to suspect hadn’t ever had any intention of helping her find a husband.

How cruel, to have wasted her time.

And how foolish, to have allowed it to be wasted.

Maybe her father was right. Maybe it was better to live safely behind glass walls rather than risk the pain of breaking free. Why, she was willing to bet her entire hair ribbon collection that the man of the bay mare didn’t even have gout. He probably would have made a very fine husband. Except she hadn’t gone looking for fine. She’d gone in search of extraordinary. Instead, all she’d found was Derrick.

Derrick, the duke with two poet’s names who despised poetry.

Derrick, the self-proclaimed rake.

Derrick, the first man to have kissed her.

Derrick, the first man to have broken her heart.

Well, she amended, poking a finger at her sandwich, maybe not broken . She was made of sterner stuff than that. But he had hurt her feelings. To have walked away like that, as if the time they’d spent together, while admittedly short, had meant nothing …

“Has your food offended you in some way, my lady?”

Startled, Annalise raised her gaze from her plate to find Becca watching her. “Oh… no. I’m sorry. I’m not… I’m not hungry at the moment.”

“I can see that. You know,” the lady’s maid began as she freshened both their tea cups, “it has not escaped my notice that you spent thrice as long feeding your geese at the park today, yet when I sought out where you regularly feed them, you were nowhere to be found.”

Guilt, sticky and uncomfortable, like the sweat that clung to her chest when she tried to sleep in the middle of summer, weighed heavily on Annalise’s shoulders. “I… took them to a new spot. On the other side of the pond.”

“Did you,” Becca murmured, giving her tea a stir.

“Oh, very well!” she cried, wringing her hands together. “I confess. I snuck away in the company of a gentleman and he kissed me. Twice . At first he said that he was going to help me in my search, but then along the way I began to think that he might be whom I was searching for, except he said he wasn’t good enough for me, and then he left.” Her bottom lip wobbled. “He left, Becca.”

“Oh, my dear girl.” In a rare display of maternal affection that went beyond the boundaries of lady’s maid and lady, Becca left her seat to envelop Annalise in a hug. Rubbing her back in soothing circular strokes, she said, “Men can be, on their best day, careless creatures. Not always on purpose, as I hope is the case with the Duke of Tennyson, although I must say his reputation precedes him. Still, I’ve found people aren’t nearly as bad as they are portrayed to be, nor as good, but somewhere in the middle where we are all infinitely human.”

“Thank you,” Annalise sniffled, “That helps a great - wait. How do you know his name?”

“Well…” said Becca, dragging the word out as she returned to her chair and took her own turn at poking at her cucumber sandwich. “I followed you.”

“ What, ” she gasped.

“Please do not take offense, my lady. It is my duty to protect you. I have no greater responsibility than that.” Becca folded her hands primly. “Did you really believe I would allow my favorite charge to go off in the company of a stranger and not follow at a safe distance?”

“I am your only charge.”

“Yes, which makes you all the more special.”

“Maybe I’m not meant to marry,” Annalise mused aloud. Tilting her head back, she studied a trail of fluffy white clouds as they slowly made their way across the clear blue sky. “Maybe I am meant to stay in this house forever, slowly drying out like a rose left too long in a vase.”

Becca clucked her tongue. “What else did he say? This duke of yours.”

“He’s not my duke.”

“He was this morning.”

Yes , she thought silently. Yes, he had been. All hers. For a little while, at least.

“We argued, mostly. First about the geese, and then about whether love at first sight truly existed.”

“And then?” Becca prompted.

“And then…” Closing her eyes, she traced the pad of her thumb across the swell of her bottom lip where she could still taste him. “And then he kissed me. The first time.”

“What brought on the second kiss?”

“I questioned how disreputable he really was if he was trying to help me. For some reason, that seemed to annoy him. So he kissed me to prove me work.”

“And?”

Her eyes opened. “It worked. He must be as disreputable and debaucherous as he claimed, or else why would he have left as he did? I was… I was nothing more than a passing amusement for him. A toy to be played with and then cast aside.”

“Oh, I don’t know if that’s true.”

“Why not?”

“Because if I am not mistaken, your duke is standing outside our gate.”

***

What was Derrick doing at a young woman’s private residence with a trail of three honking geese behind him?

The hell if he knew.

Once again, he blamed Grieves. If not for the valet’s suggestion to go for a walk… but no. No, he couldn’t really blame him. Because to blame someone for something, you had to be unhappy with the outcome. And if he searched deep within himself, Derrick wasn’t unhappy.

He was nervous.

Nervous that after squandering the start of his adulthood on gratuitous drinking and gambling, he’d ruined his one chance at true fulfillment. He had wasted countless hours, days, months in dark rooms that stank of cigars and stale sweat, searching for meaning in the shadow of sin. Then all it had taken was a single morning in the sunlight to show him what his life could be like… if Annalise were in it.

Annalise, with a feather in her hair and mud on her skirts.

Annalise, with her laughter that sounded like wind chimes.

Annalise, with a pure heart and beautiful soul.

Annalise, the type of woman he didn’t deserve… but damned if he wasn’t going to try to change himself into the type of man that did.

When he felt a hard peck on the back of his leg, he turned and scowled down at Constantine who glared right back at him out of a beady black eye. “I am working up to it,” he growled at the goose. “What would you have me do, just knock on the door and admit that I was wrong? Tell her that I was a bloody idiot for walking away, because when you’re fortunate enough to find love at first sight, you don’t leave it behind. You hold onto it with everything that you have.”

“Yes,” a soft, musical voice said from behind him. “Yes, that’s exactly what you should do.”

Derrick’s swallowed with difficulty as he slowly turned back around to discover Annalise silhouetted in the doorway, her blue eyes luminous through what he prayed were a sheen of joyful tears.

“You…” When his tongue stuck the roof of his mouth, he swallowed again and cleared his throat. “You weren’t meant to hear that. Not yet. I’m still working on it.”

“Some of the best poetry is composed without planned forethought.”

“Poetry?” he said, aghast. “I wasn’t… That isn’t… no .”

Bollocks.

This wasn’t off to a great start.

“How did you find where I live?” she asked, canting her head to the side.

She’d changed, he noted belatedly. From the violet dress she’d worn in the park to a pale green gown with capped sleeves and a heart-shaped bodice that threatened to draw his eye to a place where he wouldn’t want to be caught staring. Not now, at any rate. Not when he was already bungling the matter top to bottom.

“The geese brought me. You must have a hole in your pocket, because there was a trail of corn all the way here.” His brow furrowed. “How do you hold such an immense amount of corn, anyway? It defies the laws of matter.”

“I had my pockets specially made. They’re far deeper than they appear. That way I never run out if I ever meet other geese along the way.” Annalise frowned. “I’d never want them to go hungry.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Derrick murmured as a smile, his first true, genuine smile since he was a boy, spread all the way across his countenance from the edges of his mouth to the corners of his eyes. “Wild geese fending for themselves? We couldn’t have that.”

Annalise bit her lip. “Can you say it again? What you said when you thought I wasn’t listening.”

“Must I?” he asked with a pained grimace.

“I think it would be best.”

“May I come in, at least?”

Her gaze went past him. “Well, I don’t want the geese to feel left out.”

Constantine honked in agreement while Marcus preened his feathers and Augustus studied his reflection in a puddle.

Derrick sighed. “All right. A public declaration it is, then. How did I start?”

“You were going to tell me that you were an idiot-”

“A bloody idiot. Yes, I remember now.” He took a deep breath. Perhaps the deepest of his life. And then he laid his heart bare. “I was a bloody idiot, Annalise, for walking away from you this morning. I said it was because I wasn’t good enough for you. The devil knows that much is true. You should be with a man better than me. You should be with any man other than me.”

She raised a brow. “Because they all have gout and smallpox?”

“Yes. Precisely. And because I am not a pillar of virtuous behavior. But I want to be, when I am in your company. When I am with you, the sun is brighter. The sky is bluer. The grass is softer under my feet.”

“You’re wearing boots.”

He gave her an irritated look. “I am trying to create poetry, if you don’t mind.”

Her eyes sparkling, she pressed her lips together and nodded for him to continue.

“What I am trying to say, in the most eloquent way possible, is that I love you, Annalise. At first sight. At last sight. At every sight. As incredible as it seems, given our short acquaintance, I love you.”

“But that’s just it, isn’t it? Love is incredible. And it’s strong. And it’s quiet. And it’s loud. And it’s brave. And I love you, too.” Walking through the doorway, she leapt off the cast stone and into his arms.

Catching her easily, he plucked her off her feet and held her as if she belonged nestled against his chest. As if somehow, someway, they were always meant to end up here. Together. Forever.

Honk. Honk. Hoooonk.

Surrounded by geese.

“When we marry,” he began, striving for a casual tone, “and travel to my country estate for the summer-”

“Good idea,” she said seriously. “We should plan to bring Constantine, Augustus, and Marcus with us. You do have a pond, don’t you?”

“Several. But-”

“I’ll have suitable traveling cages made. They’ll have to be in our carriage, of course.”

Derrick tipped his forehead down to hers. “Of course.”

Annalise raised her eyes to his. “Did you say marry?”

“I did.”

“Then this is a confession of love and a marriage proposal?”

“I…” It hadn’t been his plan. But what was a plan, when love at first sight was involved? “I suppose it is. I’ll have to speak with your father.”

“And my lady’s maid.”

“Your lady’s maid? I don’t-”

“Here she is,” Annalise said cheerfully, moving to the side to reveal a slightly shorter, older, and more robust woman with a stern look to her gaze and shoulders set in iron. “Becca, might I present the Duke of Tennyson.”

“Your Grace.” The lady’s maid lowered herself in a curtsy. “A pleasure to formally make your acquaintance. It is my understanding that you took it upon yourself to kiss my young charge this morning not once, but twice. Is this accurate?”

Derrick had faced down some of the best gamblers that London had to offer. He’d stared certain financial ruin in the eye if the cards didn’t turn his way and sneered. But now, faced with the judgmental gaze of a dragon disguised as a lady’s maid, he felt a terror in his gut the likes of which he’d never experienced before.

“Ah… y-yes.” When his admission came out on a hacking cough, he cleared his throat and tried again. “Yes, I did. I did do that. Yes.”

Gray eyebrows as sharp as scalpels arched toward her white mob cap. “Were your intentions impure?”

Bloody hell.

When were his intentions not impure?

“Er…”

“Becca, please don’t frighten him,” Annalise implored as she laid a comforting hand on Derrick’s forearm. “He came here to tell me something very important.”

“Which is?” Becca said sharply.

He had to say it again?

But maybe the best things were meant to be repeated.

Over and over, until the words were imprinted on the wind.

“I love Annalise.” He put his hand on top of hers and squeezed. “From first sight, as it so happens, even though I assured myself that such a thing did not exist.”

“Hmmm.” Becca pursed her lips. “You’ve known her for less than a day.”

“And when I’ve known her for an eternity, in this world and in heaven, if I’m so fortunate as to be admitted, I will feel exactly the same as I do now.”

“Oh,” Annalise sighed dreamily, leaning her head on his shoulder. “You are a poet.”

Derrick grimaced. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

Unfortunately, the lady’s maid didn’t appear quite as smitten with him as her charge.

“You are a duke with a reputation, Your Grace.” Becca folded her arms. “For drinking, gambling, and - Annalise, don’t listen, my dear - whoring. Is it your intention to give up all of your vices?”

“Well, I was going to keep a few . Jesting,” he said hastily when Becca’s eyes narrowed. “Only jesting. If you are asking if I intend to remain loyal to Annalise, my answer is, and will always, be yes. I am will not lie and describe myself as a good man, Miss Becca. But when I am in the company of Annalise… when I am in the company of Annalise, I don’t feel as bad as I’ve convinced myself that I am. I realize that sounds trite, given the hours that she and I have known each other. But that doesn’t make it any less true.”

Terrible, torturous moments of silence.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

“I like him,” Becca announced, unfolding her arms. “Annalise, my lady, you’ve chosen well. Your Grace, you may continue with your proposal.”

His proposal?

Oh, right.

That.

“Don’t you dare bite me,” he told Constantine as he lowered himself to bending knee and gazed up into the beautiful countenance of the woman that he loved. “Annalise, I… I am afraid I’ve run out of poetry.”

“That’s all right.” Her smile’s brightness rivaled the sun. “I’d like to share some of my own. I went out this morning determined to find true love. You see, while you spent most of your adulthood in gambling dens and gentleman’s clubs, I’ve spent mine here, closed off from the rest of the world, forced to watch as it passed by without me in it. So I went out into that world today to search for my future husband. Instead, I found you. Or you found me. You weren’t who I was looking for, Derrick.”

He frowned. “I am not sure I like the direction this proposal is heading.”

“You weren’t who I was looking for,” Annalise repeated, holding up a finger, “but you were certainly who I was meant to find, and I love you. Will you marry me?”

“I thought I was supposed to say that part,” he said, a tad disgruntled.”

“You can if I like.”

“I do like, thank you very much.” He reached out and took her hand. “Lady Annalise Buttercream, protector of geese and love of my slightly jaded heart, will you do me the incredible honor of being my wife?”

“Yes,” she said happily while Becca began to clap and the geese honked. “Oh, a thousand times yes!”

“What’s all this?” asked a man as he came walking briskly up the front pathway, his eyes - the same blue as Annalise’s - going from the trio of geese, to Derrick, still on his knee, to a sniffling Becca, to a glowing Annalise, and then back to Derrick. A frown already forming, he snapped, “Who are you? What are you doing here? Why are you kneeling like that?”

What was that saying of desperate men?

The third time was the charm?

“Good afternoon, Lord Sandwich,” he said formally as he rose to his feet. “I am Derrick Blake, the Duke of Tennyson. And I am in love with your daughter…”