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Chapter Three
Leah stood among the crowd, watching her cousin dance with her fiancé. Goosebumps raised all across the skin at the back of her neck, and her stomach flipped nauseously. The way that the Duke—her Duke— was looking at Selina was rather telling.
This was the very thing that she’d feared, as soon as her mother had announced that her cousin would be arriving.
When the dance brought them near to her, she heard His Grace say, “Can you not tell me that you feel the same?” Leah watched as Selina colored, the blush on her cheeks making her look the perfect English Rose.
Her heart hammered in her chest, and she felt rage, like a wildfire, consuming her. It had happened again. Selina had shown up and taken it all: the attention, the party, the Duke.
“I’ve never seen that lady before,” a gentleman said, his breath hot against her cheek. She turned to find herself face to face with Lord Reuben Munro, the Duke’s younger brother.
“My cousin, the Lady Selina Drake,” Leah replied, bracing herself for the usual questions, her eyes never leaving the pair.
“Why are you so glum, My Lady?” Lord Munro asked, causing Leah to look over at him. He was studying her closely.
“I—” She sighed, not wanting to finish the sentence.
“Tell me,” Lord Munro said, softly. “I won’t utter a word, My Lady.”
Leah looked into his eyes—so like the Duke’s, and yet not. “Lady Selina has always been the center of attention,” she said. “It’s my engagement party. Shouldn’t it be my turn?”
“Of course it’s your turn,” Lord Munro replied. “All you have to do is steal the show.”
Leah looked at the Duke and Selina, and then at Lord Munro, who was watching them wistfully. She watched as he took a sip of his punch.
“Is that even possible?” she asked.
“Of course it is,” he replied, his eyes still following his brother.
“Do you ever wish it was you?”
“Naturally,” Lord Munro commented. He raised a finger in the air, pointing it at Leah. “Alas, Jasper was born first.”
“I know how you feel,” she said, watching as he quirked one eyebrow doubtfully.
“Do you, My Lady?” he asked. “I recall you being the Lord Kirby’s only child.”
“Shealways got everything,” she said, nodding at Selina. “She’s always the center of attention, with people fawning over her golden hair, her creamy skin and those awful freckles. Not to mention, she’sprecocious.”
“Oh?” Lord Munro looked at her with a kind smile.
“Always giving her opinions freely, whether you want to hear them, or not.”
“It must be hard to be in her shadow,” Lord Munro said.
“Extremely.” Leah glanced at him. He was so much like his brother—dark-blond hair, green eyes, but somehow, seemed lesser. And, she supposed, he was lesser. He was a lord, with nothing more than a hunting lodge on the edge of the estate. Leah certainly would never consider marrying him, even if he had been kind to her.
“If you wanted, you could take her place. After all, what does she have that you don’t?” Lord Munro pointed out. Leah looked at the Duke and her cousin.
Selina had just said something to the Duke, something which made him beam as if she’d just answered his fondest wish.
Something dark awoke in Leah’s breast as she looked back at Selina and the Duke, they were looking at each other with such tenderness. Anger, like she’d never experienced before. It wasn’t that she was in love with the Duke. It was that the title of Duchess was within her reach. Her greatest victory over Selina, who was only just debuted the year before, at seventeen.
“I am not her,” she replied softly.
“Just be yourself,” he said, then bowed low. “My Lady.” He then wandered off, disappearing into the crowd. Leah looked back at Selina and the Duke, fear kindling inside of her.
She’d wanted to be a Duchess, for as long as she could recall. When she was a young lady, she’d attended a Christmas party, here at Gillingham Manor. She recalled the Duchess, dressed in a fine cream-colored silk gown, and how everyone had called her Your Grace, and she’d smiled beatifically.
