She and Robert. Well they were barely past the point of being strangers. Barely knew one another. Last night had been a mistake, but a marriage between them would be an utter disaster.
Victoria had just reached for her whisky with the intent of swigging it down when the door of the study opened again, and the duchess returned. She stepped into the room and stood for a moment at the end of the two couches, her gaze shifting from her husband to her daughter. Lady Anne came and sat beside her husband.
“I am surprised and delighted that you managed to smooth things over with the duke. When you and he had that disagreement the other evening, I was worried that you had blown any chance you might have had with him, but I see I was mistaken. My wonderful girl is about to become a duchess.”
The smile on her mother’s face had Victoria on the verge of tears. The duchess was so happy, so relieved that her daughter had secured the hand of one of London’s most eligible bachelors.
“I promised you I would do my best to ensure that our family was welcomed back into thehaut ton. Marrying a duke seemed the best way to do it,” replied Victoria.
Her mother rose from her seat and embraced Victoria. She hugged her daughter tight, whispering over and over, “Well done, my clever, clever girl.”
There was nothing else she could do. Victoria wrapped her arms around her mother and hugged her back. Her father was smiling. Both her parents were thrilled that their middle daughter was about to become a duchess.
Victoria closed her eyes and held on tight. Like it or not, she was going to have to marry Robert Tolley. Her feeble jest now came back to bite her firmly on the ass.
She was soon to become the Duchess of Spice.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tolley House, London
Robert leaned over the washbasin and caught a glimpse of his reflection in the water. A soon to be wedded man stared back at him.
His valet would be here within the hour to give him a close shave and trim his hair, making him perfect and ready for church, but first he wanted to wash. To scrub away the traces of the spices which coated his skin. He and George had been moving crates until the early hours, hiding the evidence of their latest highway haul.
He was getting married.
This was a complication Robert hadn’t seen coming, but one he knew he had to handle. Tying Lady Victoria up had been a mistake. Kissing her had been a mistake. Everything about that night had been a mistake, right up until the moment she had fractured in his arms. His name, torn from her lips as she climaxed, was the sort of thing a man could only dream of experiencing with a woman.
While Victoria had waited for him in the kitchen, Robert had dealt with his own sexual needs in the privacy of his bedroom. Only then had his lust-fueled mind finally cleared.
He’d been ready to take her home, put it all down to a moment of temporary insanity, but the second he’d seen Victoria standing next to the open cellar door, he knew his fate was sealed. The only way he could protect himself from this inquisitive young woman was to make her his wife. His duchess.
The conversation he’d had the following afternoon with her father was one he never wished to repeat. Explaining to the duke that he had ruined the man’s daughter while at the same time not revealing too many details had taken some carefully chosen words on his part. The Duke of Mowbray wasn’t a fool, but he hadn’t pressed for more information, instead he had quickly agreed that a marriage between Victoria and the Duke of Saffron Walden was the only way to resolve the matter.
I had to marry at some point; the title must have an heir. Making her my wife solves that problem and in doing so will ensure she keeps quiet.
His bride-to-be was opinionated, dare he say annoying, but there was something about her that had him wanting. Wanting her in his bed, beneath him, sighing with pleasure as he sank his cock deep in her glorious wet heat.
Robert splashed the cold water onto his face. When that wasn’t enough, he slapped his cheek hard and muttered, “For heaven’s sake man, pull yourself together. It’s only your wedding day.”
“Oh god, it’s my wedding day,” whispered Victoria to her reflection in the mirror. By late this morning, she would be the Duchess of Saffron Walden. The Duchess of Spice.
She glanced at the ruby ring on her finger. Robert had arrived at Mowbray House the morning after he had been to see her father and presented Victoria with the ring. It had been his mother’s, a beloved family heirloom. And now it was hers.
Their wedding was to be at St. Georges, with a common license. A special license would have afforded a wedding at home, but her mother was insistent on the nuptials taking place in front of a church full of guests, with the wedding breakfast held here at Mowbray House.
Her maternal uncle Ewan Radley, the Duke of Strathmore, had offered them the use of one of the grand ballrooms at Strathmore House, but after Clifford and Anne had fought loudly over that, the duchess had uncharacteristically yielded and agreed to host the reception at home.
In the months since her return from Rome, Lady Anne seemed at pains to not turn every disagreement with her husband into an all-out war. After many years where the family home was often a battleground, peace and quiet was finally settling in.
And now I am leaving. Going to my new home. With my new husband.
“But not yet,” whispered Victoria.
She turned to Coco, who was seated on the end of Victoria’s bed, and smiled. Along with their mother, her younger sister seemed to be treading carefully these days. In the two weekssince she’d abandoned Victoria at the rear of the Duke of Spice’s home, Lady Coco Kembal had been every inch the doting sibling.
Victoria could only hope that the panic Coco had said she’d experienced when she and the viscount returned to the laneway and found her sister gone had been enough to shock some sense into her.
