Page 10 of Wedded to the Cruel Duke
According to the papers, this had been going on for quite some time already, and that the two of them were to be married soon. In fact, they had even gone into great detail about his daily routines.
By the end of it, Charles did not know if he should be aghast that someone had a thorough and intimate knowledge of his daily activities, or the fact that someone had concocted an extremely ludicrous story regarding himself and a certain young ladywho lived next door.
I knew something was bound to happen, he thought to himself.I just never expected it to bethis!
Having lived most of his adulthood detached from thetonand its shenanigans, he could hardly grasp the meaning of having his name plastered on the papers in association with a certain young lady’s. He knew well enough, though, that such a story could ruin not only a lady’s prospects, but that of her entire family as well.
Society, as vain and shallow as it was, was also quite quick to judge its members and there was nothing it liked to feed on more than the tattered reputations of young ladies.
He thought of the young woman from last night, her eyes wide and clear as she rambled on about her cat and the mice in his estate. Somehow, she did not strike him as someone who would be capable of maneuvering the dangerous waters of public opinion, and a piece like this could very well pull all her sisters down, as well.
Those damned sharks are going to eat her alive. That much is certain.
“What are we going to do about it, milord?” O’Malley wailed.
“Of course, we must protest it,” Huxley scoffed. “Such a libelous falsehood printed for all the world to see! Why, they should be ashamed to call themselves a publication!”
“We must stop getting our papers from them!” the footman agreed.
The butler nodded. “Certainly! Right after we shut down their business and throw every single one of them out by the ear!”
As his butler and footman argued about how they were going to tear that so-called respectable broadsheet apart, Charles still could not get Miss Phoebe Townsend out of his mind.
He thought of her wide, brown eyes staring back at him and for some reason, heknewhe could not leave her to deal with whoever was hateful enough to drag her name and reputation into the mud by printing such falsehoods.
He had never been one for chivalry. His brief stint in the ballrooms of London also taught him that he offended more ladies than he could charm.
But that paper had woken up something deep and latent within him.
With a solemn finality, he closed the paper. Almost immediately, Huxley and O’Malley ceased their childish argument and turned towards him.
“We are going to do no such thing,” he told them. “Have my carriage readied. I will be going to Townsend Houseright now.”
It was the first time in a long while that he had stepped out of Wentworth Park, and he wondered just how much Miss Phoebe Townsend was going to upend his life and his precious routines.
He had a hunch that this was only the beginning, and unfortunately, his hunches were rarely ever wrong.
CHAPTER FIVE
It was as if a pall had been cast in the morning room of Townsend House as Lord and Lady Townsend, as well as their three daughters, sat facing each other. Each one of them was wearing the most somber of expressions—it was as though they were all in mourning.
For Phoebe, she might as well be, for her reputation was severely in tatters and there was very little hope that it may be revived.
“Well, I suppose this means that my coming out shall be delayed further,” Minerva muttered in a vain attempt at levity, one that was quickly shot down by a sharp look from Lady Townsend.
“I do not think this is the appropriate time for such jokes, Minerva,” Lady Catherine Townsend chastised her second daughter, a frown marring her elegant features. “This is—”
“A disaster of mass proportions, that is what it is!” her husband remarked sharply. His brows were drawn together in anexpression of simmering fury that it was a wonder he was able to sit still. “One so preposterous that one cannot help but wonder how a supposedly respectable publication could print that out without so much as a care!”
Phoebe tucked her trembling hands into the folds of her dress as she sat down with a dazed expression. Never in all her three years had she faced such a crisis, and she had had her awkward moments.
In the pensive silence that hung over their entire family, it was Daphne’s soft, plaintive voice that struck daggers into her heart.
“What about the dinner with Lord Brunswick tonight?” she asked their mother. “What shall we do about that?”
Phoebe saw her mother gently reach out for her youngest daughter’s hands.
“You shall have to send word that you are currently indisposed, my dear,” Lady Townsend sighed. “There is nothing that can be done about it. We shall have to wait until it all passes over, but…”