The Princess Stakes by Amalie Howard

Author:Amalie Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-04-22T00:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

“Tell me the truth, Embry, she’s the girl, isn’t she?” the dowager duchess demanded.

Rooted in her tracks en route to the morning room where she was to meet Ravenna, Sarani felt her skin go hot and then icy cold. Her Grace’s voice was hard and insistent, drifting from the open door of the study. Sarani wanted to cover her ears and flee. She abhorred eavesdropping, but her stubborn feet refused to move.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she heard Rhystan say, his voice laced with irritation. “What girl?”

“The one from Joor,” came the acidic reply. “Lisbeth’s colored daughter.”

Sarani flinched, though she was more than familiar with such a descriptor. She’d heard them all at some point or another. More importantly, though, the duchess knew. Or suspected, rather. After all, one did not show up with a female of unknown origins on one’s ship returning from India and declare that one was to be married to said female. Especially when one was a duke.

“You are mistaken.” Rhystan’s voice was hard.

“I am not. Do you know what this will do to our family? The scandal it will cause? How could you bring her to London? Bring her here as your bride?”

Sarani’s heart clenched, the familiar bitterness wrapping its barbed fingers around her. She’d known the duchess could be brutal, given that Sarani was ruining her grand plans, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear the obnoxious sentiments.

“Rhystan, be reasonable,” the duchess went on. “You are a duke. She is not suitable.”

“Enough!” And then more softly. “Enough, Mother.”

They did not speak for a long moment, and Sarani had almost coaxed her limbs to respond when a masculine throat cleared.

“Why did you not tell me about Roland’s and Richard’s debt?”

Dead silence ensued, but Sarani frowned, listening for the duchess’s reply. “It was not your burden to bear.”

“I’m not duke only when it pleases you, Mother. If you had informed me, the interest alone on the defaulted loans could have been avoided. Hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

“Which is why you need to marry an English heiress. Restore our name, not drag it through the mud. A woman of her character cannot—”

Suddenly, Sarani could not take any more. Cursing her uncooperative feet, she ran toward the back of the house and into the gardens beyond. The slight chill in the morning air was bracing enough to douse the heat billowing through her veins. She did not stop until she came to the large elm buttressing the perimeter wall at the very back of the garden.

How dare the duchess impugn her character? She was not a woman of poor integrity or lacking in moral fiber. She was proud of who she was. Her exterior—or happenstance of birth—she could not control. And besides, that should not bloody matter!

Sarani bit back a sob, covering her mouth with a fist. She wrapped her arms about herself, remembering how precious she’d felt last night at the ball. How magical it had been for a handful of moments—until Rhystan

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