Page 1 of Stolen By the Duke of Stone

Chapter One

“Rebecca?” Jessamine asked softly. She pushed slowly at the thick wooden door, the bottom whispering across the carpet.

Inside, Rebecca Dunston, the Dowager Countess of Cartwell, lay propped up against pillows, a soft bundle in her arms. To one side, a physician washed his hands in a bowl of steaming water.

Jessamine ignored him, paying attention only to her friend. Rebecca’s face was pale—paler than Jessamine had ever seen it—with eyes red-rimmed with exhaustion and a gentle, contented smile on her face.

“It’s all right,” she said, turning that smile to Jessamine. “You may come in.”

Jessamine crossed the room to her side in an instant. “How do you feel?”

She couldn’t forget the echoing sounds of the screams. The entire Minerva Club had been listening, all the ladies sitting downstairs and doing their best to calm themselves through the inevitable worry that attended childbirth.

“Well,” Rebecca said. “Tired, but well.”

She tilted the blankets in her arms, revealing a small, red face. Jessamine’s heart pinched at the sight of his tiny, closed eyes and pinched lips. He slept peacefully, untroubled by the world he now found himself in, held by his mother.

“He’s beautiful,” Jessamine breathed.

“I hope he resembles his mother more than his father.” For an instant, Rebecca bit her lip.

Jessamine rested her hand over Rebecca’s. “He will. After all, his father… My father…” she added, for the baby in Rebecca’s arm was her half-sibling, “is no longer here. And he will have the very best of mothers to take care of him.”

“And the very best of godmothers.” Rebecca sat up a little further, her mouth in a firm line now. “Say you will be his godmother, Jessie.”

Jessamine’s heart squeezed so violently she thought she might crack a rib. Her nose stung. “Are you quite certain?”

“You accepted me when I told you the very worst thing I had done. What else can I do but want you in my son’s life forever?”

“A little boy,” Jessamine said in wonder.

“He is that,” Rebecca confirmed with a proud smile. “I’ve decided to call him William.”

“It’s a fine name.” Jessamine reached out, brushing just one fingertip across William’s wrinkled forehead.

He was truly the most precious, wondrous of beings, and even though he was not technically hers, she felt as though she had been loving him long before he was born, and now that love finally had somewhere to be.

“Of course I will be his godmother,” she answered at last. “I would be honored.”

“Thank you.” The sternness on Rebecca’s face fell away, and she looked back down at the bundle in her arms. “He’s so tiny and so precious. And the world can be so cruel. What if—” Her lip trembled.

“Nothing will happen to him,” Jessamine said, more forcefully this time. “You are a countess. And my brother-in-law is a duke. We’ll help you through everything.”

“Thank you… Thank you, my friend.” Rebecca tucked her finger through the baby’s minuscule hand, an expression of adoration crossing her face as William held on. “I love him so, Jessie. More than anything I’ve ever loved in my life.”

“Yes, I know.” Jessamine leaned forward and kissed her friend on the forehead. “Just enjoy being with him.”

“Yes, but—” Rebecca coughed, the motion shaking her frame, and her skin paled even further.

Red dampened the sheets by her legs.

The physician moved from where he had been keeping watch at the side of the room. “Lady Jessamine,” he said with the cultured yet urgent voice of a man who required immediate obedience. “Please leave the room.” He took the child from Rebecca, handing her to a nearby maid, and drew the covers up. “Be still, Lady Cartwell,” he said with far more gentleness. “It will be all right.”

Rebecca let out a wail of desperation, as though she had communed with the gods and knew something Jessamine did not.

Jessamine hesitated in the doorway, torn between a desire to obey the physician and her need to be there for her friend.

The physician looked up at her, his face tight with strain. “Now, Lady Jessamine.”