Page 33 of Her Temporary Duke (Rakes and Roses #2)

C harlotte wept alone as her carriage left London behind. She watched the buildings and busy streets transform into fields and villages that tumbled past in the blink of an eye. A fine drizzle fell from a leaden sky, perfectly mirroring her emotions.

I can expect nothing less. Seth has made it clear that his actions thus far have been driven by the need to protect his birthright. Naturally, he must respond to an insult that could cause him to lose everything. Why am I so upset that he is unwilling to risk his dukedom for me?

She imagined Amelia sitting across from her, drawing on all of her experience of the ton and understanding of London’s elite society.

“You can’t expect a man like Seth to give up his dukedom,” she said evenly, raising an eyebrow.

“I understand, but he said he would give up everything for me.”

“And you really believed him?”

“I did back then. Now I realize how foolish I was. It was naive of me.”

“Very naive. But it’s nothing you should grieve over. A man like that will never settle down into marriage, especially if he’s forced into it. He would eventually stray, and the pain for you would be all the worse.”

“I just wish he hadn’t said those words if he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep to his promise. I really believed that...”

“He may have believed his own words at the time. But when an immediate threat to his fortune and estates arose, he realized he could not keep that promise,” Amelia said matter-of-factly.

Charlotte looked out the window, irritated by her own conclusion.

Faintly, she grew aware of the sound of hoofbeats—a rider somewhere behind coming up fast, getting louder by the moment.

She leaned back and pulled down the window shade to avoid being splashed with dirt or mud if the rider galloped past. The sound of galloping matched their speed before surging ahead of the carriage.

Moments later, it lurched to a sudden halt, nearly throwing Charlotte from her seat.

She steadied herself with one hand and opened the blind, leaning out of the window.

Seth vaulted from the saddle of a gray stallion, which tossed its head with all the pride of its master. His eyes were fixed on Charlotte as he strode toward her. She leaned back, and a moment later, he pulled the door open and climbed in.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “You said you were going to challenge Tewkesbury to a duel.”

“I did, and I’ve ridden directly from the site.”

Charlotte folded her arms, feeling anger that Seth thought he could simply ride back into her life as if nothing had happened.

But haven’t I already reasoned that I have no right to demand that he lay down his dukedom for me? I am not the sort of woman that men make such gestures for anyway. That is reserved for celebrated beauties and accomplished women.

“So, you come to me with another man’s blood on you? Do you think I’ll embrace you, proud that you fought, injured, or even killed someone because of the words he spoke about you?”

“I bear no blood on me, either literally or metaphorically,” Seth confessed, raising his palms, “nor did I fight.”

Charlotte noticed the sword sheathed at his waist and pointed to it.

“You didn’t use that? Was it pistols instead?”

“No, it was swords by my own choice. But as I said, I did not fight. I surrendered.”

Seth drew the blade, and Charlotte saw that it ended jaggedly after a foot of steel.

“Or rather, I forfeited. I showed up at the location, broke my sword across my knee, and tossed it on the floor at Tewkesbury’s feet. He looked as shocked as you are now.”

“Forfeited? Why would you do that?” she asked, bewildered. “If his lies are believed, then you stand to lose everything.”

Seth considered the stump of the blade and then casually tossed it out the window. He banged a fist on the roof.

“Tie my horse to the back of the carriage, and let us be on our way!” he called.

There came the sound of the driver climbing down from his box and approaching the stallion with soothing sounds.

“Answer me!” Charlotte said urgently, “I must know.”

“I went there intending to fight to prove myself faithful and not default on the marriage clause of my father’s will.

But I realized that, in all likelihood, you would be gone by the time I was done.

That you would not take me back. And I began to question the value of saving my dukedom only to lose you.

By the time I reached the site of the duel, I had come to understand that one was useless to me without the other. ”

He moved to sit next to her, taking her hand. Charlotte looked at him in wonder, still not fully processing what he was saying.

“If you forfeited the duel… what does that mean? Does it mean that the rumors spread about you will be believed?”

Seth shrugged, lifting Charlotte’s hand to his lips and kissing it.

“Perhaps. It will be seen as similar to losing a libel case. I did not prove, with my body, that Tewkesbury was lying. Therefore, he must have been telling the truth. I imagine Monkton is drafting the papers to transfer ownership of the Bellmonte land and title to its new heir as we speak, with a sizable portion for himself, of course. But he is as bound to the marriage clause as I. I still have just under three weeks. The fact that everyone thinks it a fait d’accompli is neither here nor there.

Provided I have the proof that Amelia has rejected me on grounds unrelated to my supposed adultery . ”

“You say it so easily. You must go back. I will talk to Monkton and tell him the truth. This needs to be addressed immediately,” Charlotte said urgently.

She raised her hand to bang on the roof as a signal to the driver, but Seth grabbed her hand and pulled it down to her lap.

“Do not. There is nothing to be done. I feel no regret, merely the lifting of a great weight from about my shoulders,” he began, “I am truly free for the first time in my life. Free of my father, free of his legacy, his attempts to control my life even when he is in his grave. I will not squirm to hold onto dirt and gold. Or a name. If I do not provide the proof by the time required, then I will make my own name, and Tewkesbury can choke on his new title for all I care. I am free to choose, and I choose you. Didn’t I say I would? ”

He smiled, and it was like a beam of sunshine breaking through the clouds. Charlotte felt a lightness in her heart, the first stirrings of hope.

Perhaps I am the kind of woman for whom a man is willing to give up everything.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Seth whispered, gazing into her eyes.

“I’m thinking that it hardly seems believable to me that a duke would risk his birthright for me. That he would break his sword and run away...”

“Not away ,” he corrected, “I run to you. The dukedom demanded I stay in London and defend my name. I rejected that demand. I came to you and damn everything else! Besides, it does not take three weeks to ride to York. We will speak to Amelia, and she will provide the proof we need. All is not lost.”

Charlotte found herself laughing. She kissed Seth, running her hand through his hair and pressing her forehead to his.

“This is madness. What if we are waylaid? By weather, or a horse throwing its hoof, you lose everything. How will we live? On the annuity my parents left me? That’s scarcely enough for me to live on, let alone both of us.”

“You are so practical. I hadn’t given it a thought,” Seth chuckled gaily, “I will plow fields or learn a trade. I’ll draw on every penny of my fortune while it’s mine and leave Tewkesbury with as little as possible.”

“If Monkton hasn’t already applied to your bank to seize your assets,” Charlotte pointed out.

Seth grinned and shrugged again. He seemed lighter as if the world couldn’t weigh him down any longer. It was infectious. Charlotte found herself imagining living in a cottage in the Dales of Yorkshire. A smallholding with some livestock. Seth tending the land with Charlotte by his side.

A far cry from Hampton Court and boxes at the Theater Royal. But it has a romantic appeal. After all, I knew Amelia’s life in London could not be mine forever. It was only ever a brief adventure.

“I think you underestimate how difficult life can be for those without any means to support themselves,” she stated.

Seth kissed her. She let the kiss sweep her away for a moment, but her fears returned.

“I do not think you have considered...”

He kissed her again, and her concerns vanished for the duration of the kiss. When it ended, she found herself in his arms. The carriage rumbled along the road, and the rain had become so heavy that it rattled against the windows. But Charlotte felt safe inside.

In the arms of my man.

It was an intensely thrilling thought—not in the arms of her duke, but simply with her man. Could it come to pass? It seemed surreal that he would give up the wealth and privilege of a dukedom for nothing but her.

“I cannot pretend to understand your decision. It is inconceivable to me,” she whispered.

“You don’t have to believe my words, only my actions.

I know how little meaning my words have.

” He leaned back, his eyes fixed on something in the far distance.

But there was a solemnness painting his expression as he spoke now.

“As a rake and a libertine, I have spent a lifetime spouting empty phrases. Just trust in my actions for one day. Then tomorrow, see what comes. Then the next day. You’ll see. ”

They rode in silence in the carriage for a long time. Charlotte felt content now that Seth was back with her, though she still frankly disbelieved the turn of events.

“What would your father think?” she asked suddenly, the weight of their choices still pressing on her chest.

He looked at her sideways. “He would be horrified. If it weren’t a contradictory action, he might disown me for even suggesting it.”

“And your mother?” she added.

He was quiet for a moment. Then, with a breath that sounded almost like a sigh, he murmured, “My mother might have understood. Once. Before she learned it was safer to stay silent.”

He glanced away, jaw tight.

“I was sent to boarding school after the incident with the portrait. I must have been nine. My father kept a painting of our ancestors—grim, sour men in powdered wigs. I said they looked like corpses. I thought it was a joke. He didn’t.”

Charlotte frowned.

“He sent you away… for that?”

“Not just that,” Seth said, voice low. “For laughing. For answering back. For not being the son he’d ordered from the cradle. He said I had a fractured nature and needed discipline before it broke the dukedom.”

Charlotte moved closer, wordless. Her hands found his, grounding him with touch where words failed.

“It was winter when they packed me off,” he went on, more softly now. “No farewell. No carriage ride. Just a footman and a list of rules.” A pause. “I think that was the day I learned how to be alone. And when I returned some years later, my mother, too, had… changed.”

Sensing the shift in atmosphere, he asked, “And what about you? What would your family have made of all this?”

Now, it was her turn to muse. “Our mother came up with the idea for the two of us to switch places. She would try to guess which of us was which, and we could never fool her, though the household staff and our relatives were always confused. I remember our house in Carlisle as a place of laughter, light, and... love. I had never been happier.”

“And Amelia?” Seth asked.

“She felt the same. When our mother died and we were told that we would go to different homes, we were distraught. We ran away together into the Cumbrian hills. A farmer found us bedraggled, cold, and hungry. Lord knows what would have happened if he hadn’t found us.

Our rebellion only confirmed our family’s belief that we were too much of a handful for any one household. And so… we grew apart.

“I lived a quiet life tucked away in the Yorkshire hills, spending as much time with the household staff and locals as I did in the Assembly Rooms of York. And Amelia...”

“In my world,” Seth finished for her. “She must have adapted well to have caught my father’s eye as a suitable duchess for me in his final years.”

Charlotte nodded primly. “I think she did. But she sometimes craved the peaceful life that I had as much as I craved her excitement. That is why we began to change places for a month each year.”

Charlotte tucked her feet under her and nestled against Seth’s chest. He stroked her hair, his touch surprisingly gentle. Her eyes fluttered shut.

“I have been lonely for a very long time,” she murmured. “Even in the busiest rooms of Hamilton House—guests, cousins, constant chatter—I never quite belonged to any of it. I always imagined Amelia’s life here in London was the opposite. Filled with company. Filled with... everything.”

Seth’s voice was quiet. “London can be the loneliest place in the world.”

Charlotte glanced up at him, her eyes soft. “I don’t feel lonely anymore.”

He didn’t answer with words. He kissed her—slowly, reverently—and she let herself sink into it. Somehow, it always felt new. As if it might be the first time. Or the last. And either possibility made her want to remember every detail.

When he finally pulled back, he rested his forehead against hers.

“Nor do I,” he whispered.