Page 5 of The Duke’s Spinster Bride (A Duke’s Game #2)

Chapter Five

“A re you sure you would not like to hold him, dearest Andrea? He is your godson after all.” Charlotte, Duchess of Verimore and one of Andrea’s closest friends, smiled encouragingly at her.

Andrea swallowed, looking at the sleeping baby in her friend’s arms. She had decided to visit the Verimores after her encounter with the Duke. Charlotte was one of the few people she trusted to share the truth of her situation.

She had not expected to be asked to hold an infant, and glanced at her hands. How was one supposed to hold a baby? What if she dropped him. Her father’s voice rang out in her head, scolding her for clumsiness and she shook her head.

“Perhaps another day.” Andrea smiled, hoping her friend would not take offence.

“Very well.” Charlotte beamed at her son and then turned her attention on Andrea. “You wanted my advice?”

“Yes.” Andrea sipped on her tea, and glanced around to ensure there were no servants nearby. “You and the Duke, how did you agree upon the terms of your engagement?”

Charlotte’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Well, as you know, it was simply supposed to help him gain entrance to the games. It was a lie that I told my stepmother to save my sister, and he happened to capitalise on it.”

“Yes, I know. I mean, what steps did you take to ensure it remained like that?” Andrea leaned forward, procuring a paper and pen from a nearby table.

She dipped the tip of her pen in ink, leaving it poised above the paper. She caught Charlotte watching her with an amused expression on her face.

“Are you sure you wish to know? After all, it is not like we were wildly successful.” She laughed softly and nodded towards her sleeping son.

“That is exactly why I must know. If I understand what you did, then I know what to avoid. My marriage will remain a union on paper alone.” She gestured for Charlotte to continue speaking.

“You make it sound as though you are avoiding a fate worse than death.” Charlotte canted her head towards her, the corners of her lips quirked upwards.

“I do not mean to cause offence. I just… Duke Caverton is not like your husband. And I am not like you.” Andrea shrugged, feeling colour rush to her cheeks. “I want whatever is between us to remain strictly platonic.”

“From what I have heard, you have already been rather un-platonic in your actions.” She grinned mischievously.

“That was necessary. Without an appropriate scandal my father would never have agreed to the match. It was… It meant nothing.” Andrea bit her lips, realised what she was doing, and hastily stopped.

Charlotte arched an eyebrow at her. “If you say so.”

“I do.” She stabbed at the paper with her pen and caught sight of a half smile on Charlotte’s lips. “Do not look at me like that.”

“Like what?” Charlotte’s face was the picture of innocence.

“Like you do not believe me.”

“I never said that.”

Andrea sighed and put down the pen and paper. She ran a frustrated hand through her hair as she looked at her friend. “You know my views on marriage. On love.”

“Which is why I was surprised to hear of your engagement.” Charlotte shifted, moving her babe into a more comfortable position.

“It is not a real engagement. Well, it is, I suppose, in that it will lead to us getting married.” Andrea flapped her hands around her. “You know what I mean.”

“I do.” Charlotte nodded, her lips pursed thoughtfully. “Though I do not understand why you are so dead set against falling in love. Frederick has always seemed like a delightful man. He’s always ready with a smile and a joke, and a friendly ear when you need it.”

Andrea snorted so indelicately that it disturbed the sleeping Benedict in Charlotte’s arms. “Yes, so friendly that half the ton seem to have his ear at any given time.”

“If you dislike him so much, why have you agreed to marry him?” Charlotte frowned, distractedly jiggling her bundle to sooth him back to sleep.

“I do not dislike him. I just… He is always so… so smiley.” She made a vague gesture.

“You say that like it is a bad thing.”

“It is not, but well, it is hard to be around someone who thinks that hardship is having people want to be around you.” Andrea flexed her fingers, cracking her knuckles as she did so. “He does not know anything of struggle or difficulty.”

“Are you so sure about that?” Charlotte’s voice was soft.

“What do you mean?”

“Just that there may be hidden depths to Frederick.”

“That is precisely what I want to avoid.” Andrea shook her head, glancing at the baby in Charlotte’s arms. “I will not fall in love.”

She knew what a true marriage would mean, what falling in love would do to her, and she wanted no part of it. Besides, who wanted to fall in love with a man like the Duke?

Every normal woman apparently.

She pushed the thought from her mind as guilt swelled up in her. He does not want a real marriage any more than I do. That is why this will work. Goodness, but it has to work!

“Very well.” Charlotte sighed. “If you truly think this is the best, I will tell you what Dominic and I agreed.”

“Thank you.” Andrea squeezed her friend’s hands and got ready to write.

“You should know that you will have to do some of it, whether you like it or not. We pretended we were in love, though we agreed that we would only do so when we were around other people. We went through all the motions of the engagement, including an engagement ring.” Charlotte indicated the ring on her finger.

“Duke Caverton is taking me to Mosley’s tomorrow.” Andrea wondered if he was planning on buying her anything so extravagant. If I must have a ring, let it be simple and practical.

“Is he?” Charlotte’s eyebrows rose.

“Yes. We will be accompanied by my maid, of course. I would ask Cecily but she is too excitable at the best of times. And I know you have your hands full with Benedict.” Andrea gestured to the baby who had begun to wriggle in his swaddling cloth.

“Well, I am sure you will find something in Mosley’s. He really is talented.” Charlotte smiled. “And Frederick could easily buy you any ring your heart desires.”

Andrea frowned. “It does not matter what my heart desires. I have no desire for anything wildly decorative, something simple will do.”

“That is what I said. I picked out an entirely different ring when Dominic and I went. Though in truth, that was more to spare his purse than my own taste. I am grateful that he ignored me and bought me this one instead.” She ran finger over the ring on her hand.

“Avoid surprise rings.” Andrea murmured as she wrote it down on the paper before her. “Ow.”

Charlotte had thrown a scone at her. “The ring is not what made me fall in love with him, you dolt.”

“Well it certainly did not help matters.” Andrea flicked several crumbs off her lap.

“I had already fallen in love with him when he gave it to me.” Charlotte’s entire face softened.

Andrea shook her head. “I still think it would be best if I make it clear that I want no surprises, especially with jewellery. What else should I avoid?”

“Well, we wrote each other love letters, but you know that of course.” Charlotte gave her a meaningful look and Andrea shifted uncomfortably.

“I think we can safely assume that neither of us will do that. No one doubts the truth of our engagement, and we do not really need to convince anyone we are in love. Not now they have seen us kiss.”

The smell of amber threatened her memory, and she pushed it away. She was not going to think about their kiss. She simply was not. Besides, just because the kiss had been enjoyable did not mean anything.

She had no point of comparison. Perhaps it was simply an average kiss and she only thought it was not—after all, she had not experienced better.

“Trust me, a good kiss is a good kiss.” Charlotte’s eyes twinkled.

Andrea choked on the sip of tea she had just taken, sputtering and coughing madly; she had not realised she had spoken her thoughts aloud.

Even her ears were turning red. “I did not mean to. I mean. Of course it was a good kiss. Well, I think it was. It was enjoyable, but perhaps that was more the relief of my escaping Lord Crossley. Although, I suppose it would make sense that he was a skilled kisser. The Duke I mean, not Lord Crossley, not that I have kissed Lord Crossley. It is just that the Duke has had more than enough practice. Not with me, obviously. We have only kissed the once.”

She knew she was babbling but could not stop herself. Especially when she saw Charlotte’s grin broadening. She had hoped that the reminder of the Duke’s somewhat rakish nature would have stirred some anger in her, but apparently not.

“If I was not worried about waking my godson, I would throw a scone at you.” Andrea pointed the nib of her pen at her.

“How very maternal of you.” Charlotte giggled.

Andrea rolled her eyes, a prickle of discomfort spreading through her body. “Well, he is only a baby. Who knows what a scone might do to him!”

“He is a baby, not some China doll.” Charlotte shook her head.

Andrea grinned in spite of herself, reaching for a scone. “Are you suggesting that I should throw a scone at you?”

“I would rather not.” Charlotte replied.

“Very well.” Andrea nodded and returned to the paper before her. “Surely there must be other things you did?”

“Well there was the whole pet names, but that started out as a way to embarrass him more than anything else.” Charlotte smiled fondly.

“That would explain why you chose such over-the-top names for one another.” Andrea sucked on the nib of her pen, making a face at the taste of the ink. “Though, you do seem to have grown into them.”

“Sometimes the line between fondness and irritation is thinner than we imagine.”

“Hmmm…” Andrea nodded thoughtfully at the paper. “So I should avoid embarrassing him?”

“In general, it is kinder not to do such things. Just because you are entering a marriage of convenience does not mean you cannot be friends.” She helped herself to one of the biscuits on the plate in front of her.

“I suppose not.” Andrea tried to keep the doubt from her voice.

“Especially as you will be in such close proximity to one another.” Charlotte took a sip of her own tea.

“Not really, my house is not very close to his London one. Aside from the occasional ball or social event, I am sure it will be altogether too easy to avoid one another.” That is a comforting thought. She nodded to herself.

Charlotte canted her head towards her. “You do not plan on living with him?”

“I told you, Charlotte. This is not a real marriage. We will live separate lives.” Andrea noted it down on the paper before her. “That is why we agreed to it in the first place. I will get to keep my freedom, and he will avoid the apparent torture that is every eligible woman in the ton throwing herself at him.”

Charlotte chewed on her biscuit, covering her mouth with her hand. “I am not sure that the Dowager Duchess will be thrilled with such an arrangement.”

“She knows that I was looking for a match of convenience. She even gave me a list of eligible bachelors.” Andrea shrugged.

“And I take it her grandson was on this list?” Charlotte asked.

“Well, yes. Though I had not actually intended to pursue him.” She ate a biscuit, more to distract herself from the amused look in her friend’s eyes than anything else. “But we are getting distracted. Now, was there anything else you agreed to with your false engagement?”

“Not really. We agreed that we would part ways after the competition, but that is not really applicable to you as you will be marrying him.” Charlotte rolled her shoulders, shifting her neck from side to side.

“Perhaps that was your problem. You did not have enough of an agreement between you.” She stroked her chin thoughtfully. “If we have more rules, a clear understanding of what we want from the marriage, then we shall be able to enforce them.”

“In my experience, a heart cares very little for rules.” Charlotte said mildly.

“You had very few rules to care for.” Andrea pointed out, standing up and nodding to herself. “Thank you, Charlotte. This has been most helpful.”

Charlotte opened her mouth as though to say something, closed it and shook her head. Andrea wondered if she should offer to help her friend to her feet, but what if she asked her to hold Benedict?

She froze midway through the act of asking and before she had time to reach a decision, Charlotte had stood up. Perhaps less gracefully than she would have done without an armful of baby.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?” Charlotte asked. “You could spend a little more time with your godson.”

Andrea hesitated. She could see the hopeful expression in her friend’s eyes. She glanced at Benedict whose eyes had started to open. He peered at her, burbling softly, blinking sleepily. For a moment, she found herself reaching towards him.

But then he wriggled, his burbling becoming louder, closer to a whine as she held his gaze. His face crumpled slightly and Andrea let her hands fall, moving away.

She shook her head. “No, I really must get home. I have rather a lot to plan.”

“Weddings do take rather a lot of work, it must be said.” Charlotte agreed.

“And I have an agreement to draft and formalise.”

“You sound as though you are going to see a solicitor.” Charlotte looked at her quizzically.

“Of course not, but I think having our terms of engagement written down would be no bad thing.” She gave her friend an affectionate squeeze on the arm. “Perhaps I will add something about no pet names.”

“That may be for the best. Though the though of Frederick calling you something like my dainty little pudding pie is rather amusing.” Charlotte was jiggling back and forth, cooing softly to Benedict.

“I suppose there are worse things to be called.” Andrea admitted.

As she made her way to the door, she hesitated and then turned to face her friend. “You are not upset that I asked Cecily to be my maid of honour are you?”

“What? Of course not!” Charlotte gestured to the babe in her arms. “I would be a poor maid of honour even if you had asked me.”

“I just thought I would check. I… Well, you know I love you very dearly.”

“I know.” Charlotte carefully moved towards her, and Andrea let her friend give her a one-armed hug. “And I love you too. It will be nice for us to officially be family.”

“I will be your cousin-in-law.” Andrea smiled. “Who would have thought this is how things would turn out, when we met three years ago?”

Charlotte laughed. “Definitely not me. But I am glad this is how things have turned out. It just goes to show, joy can often come from the most unexpected places.”

Andrea nodded. “Indeed. I will see you at the wedding.”

“See you at the wedding.” Charlotte waved to her as Andrea clambered into her carriage.

As she pulled out of the drive, Andrea looked down at her notes. Charlotte was right, of course, joy could come from the most surprising places.

“After all, just think where I have managed to find my freedom and joy.” She laughed to herself. “From Thornback to the wife of the Ton’s most eligible bachelor. Will wonders never cease?”