Chapter One
“Your Grace, this impostor who broke into the house, like a common thief, insists that you know her.”
“He does know me!” Miss Violet Crampton snapped at the butler, who had dragged her by the elbow to the Duke’s study.
Once she was standing in front of the Duke of Attorton’s desk, she uttered the words she had been practicing all night.
“Your Grace, I need your help,” she implored, her legs trembling. “If you don’t, then my sister and I are as good as dead.”
James Bolden, the Duke of Attorton, looked up from his desk with a startled expression on his face. For several long seconds, he stared at her blankly, before recognition finally flickered in his eyes.
“Miss Violet?” he asked, astonishment and alarm coloring his voice.
“This creature is a noblewoman?” The butler frowned, scandalized by the idea.
“Leave us,” the Duke commanded before turning to her. “What are you doing here—how did you get in?!” His eyes narrowed as they took in her disguise. “And why are you dressed in rags?”
Violet looked down at the plain gray dress and white apron she was wearing then back up at him. “I snuck in through the servants’ entrance, and I borrowed these from one of our maids. I had to get out of Carfield House without being seen, and into yours without being recognized.”
“What are you talking about?” the Duke asked thunderously. “Explain yourself!”
His words reverberated through the study.
This was a big, massive mistake. Violet couldn’t make him angry. Not when she needed his help.
She steeled herself as best as she could. “Your Grace, please forgive my intrusion and the subterfuge, but I had to see you… My father has escaped from prison.”
Silence met this announcement. The Duke continued to stare at her, but whatever shock he felt no longer showed on his face. He had schooled his features back into calmness.
“I would have heard if he had,” he said, at last.
“The Crown is trying to keep it quiet,” Violet rushed to explain. “At least, that’s what my cousin, Niles, the new Viscount Carfield, said. He is one of the few people the Crown informed of the escape. Since he inherited the title when my father was stripped of it, I think they worry that my father will take revenge on him.”
“Ah, I see,” the Duke uttered slowly. “And you are afraid that he is also coming to take revenge on you?”
Violet nodded. It was thanks to her and her sisters that their father had been locked up in the first place.
“You know what he is capable of,” she whispered. “He will not hesitate to kill those he loves. He has done it before. We are not safe.”
But instead of looking sympathetic, the Duke frowned. “And why is this my concern?” he demanded. “You have a powerful brother-in-law to protect you now.”
“The Duke of Eavestone is on his honeymoon in Italy,” Violet pointed out, her temper rising. She tried to steady her voice. “As you very well know, seeing that he is your best friend.”
“If not Eavestone, then your cousin,” the Duke said dismissively, tapping his fingers on his desk. “You are his responsibility now, are you not?”
Violet tried to choose her words carefully. “Cousin Niles is a kind man, a good man. But he is… not strong enough to take on my father.”
The Duke snorted. “You are too polite, Miss Violet. You can admit that the Viscount is a weak man who is overly fond of drink. It is well known. Though surely, even he, having the full force of the law behind him, can keep you safe.”
“Well, unlike you, I don’t enjoy defaming others,” Violet snapped, then immediately regretted it. The Duke would surely refuse to help her now.
Her outburst, however, seemed to amuse him, rather than anger him.
“There’s the spirit I expected from a lady daring enough to sneak into a duke’s residence at one in the morning,” he drawled, smiling softly. “I admire it, Miss Violet.”
“I did what I had to do,” Violet said, drawing herself up. “To protect my sister and my mother. We are in grave danger until the authorities manage to recapture my father.”
The Duke studied her for a long moment, and then, finally, he nodded towards the chair in front of his desk.
