Not the Dukes Darling by Hoyt Elizabeth

Author:Hoyt, Elizabeth
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2018-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Ash led Rowan to the Fairy King and urged her to kneel with him.

“My liege,” Ash said, head bowed.

The Fairy King slowly turned. “Why have you brought a mortal to my court, Brother?”

“This woman has a boon to ask of you.”

The Fairy King stared at Rowan with silver eyes. “Speak, mortal.”

Rowan trembled with fear, but she lifted her chin. “I want Marigold back.”

The dancers stopped dancing.…

—From The Grey Court Changeling

That afternoon Freya strolled the small enclosed garden at the back of Lovejoy House, trying to think of a plan to save Lady Randolph. If she could get Eleanor out, then they might be able to use Lord Randolph’s abominable treatment of his innocent wife as leverage against the Witch Act. Even in an English society biased against women, a husband telling everyone his wife was dead but secretly imprisoning her was beyond the pale.

As she understood it from James, whom she’d ordered to watch Randolph House, the problem in freeing Lady Randolph was that the cellar had only one entrance, which was well guarded. Lord Randolph had already declared his wife dead, complete with funeral and headstone. If he was alerted in any way that there was to be a rescue attempt, he might simply murder Lady Randolph to cover up his crimes.

If Lady Randolph had a living male relative of any power whatsoever, they might call upon him to take up her cause, but Eleanor did not.

Freya trailed her fingers over a pale-pink rose, peering into the curled heart of the flower. Lady Randolph was well and truly at her husband’s mercy. He could imprison her, he could kill her and cover up the crime, and he could use her dowry to do it.

The whole thing was terrible, wrong, and infuriating.

The only way that Freya could see to foil Lord Randolph was to produce Lady Randolph herself for society and prove that she was alive and entirely sane.

But to do that they first had to liberate her.

Freya sighed. Lady Randolph’s horrific use by her husband rather gave a woman pause when it came to dealing with the male sex. Yet she’d freely lain with Harlowe just the night before.

She bent to inhale the heady perfume of the rose. Should she feel guilty for sharing herself with Harlowe?

For taking a lover?

Yes, most definitely, according to all she’d been taught growing up by governesses and vicars. A lady should preserve her virginity, even if she meant never to marry.

But her heritage was with the Wise Women. Her mother and grandmother and great-grandmother and on beyond time had been Wise Women. Any woman brought into the family by marriage was taught their ways by the de Moray women. All daughters were initiated when they came of age.

The Wise Women saw sex and marriage from a slightly different point of view. Most Wise Women were married and had children, but there were some who lived in Dornoch who remained unwed and took lovers. Some had children without a husband. Some had no need of men at all.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.