The Contract Duchess, a Regency Romance: Key To My Heart Book 1

Chapter 2 - Angela

How I wish things had turned out differently, Angela Hollins thought for the thousandth time in the carriage after the will reading. Her younger brother Theo sat beside her, his arm wrapped lightly about her shoulders to lend her stability as their vehicle swayed side to side. Meanwhile her older brother Robert gazed out at the passing streets from the bench opposite them. Neither man spoke, leaving Angie with her swirling memories and emotions.

If only I had not been so angry that day shortly after Derrick left and forced Clifton to jump that creek. I allowed my feelings to overcome my good sense, and heaven knows how I regret it. And then last year, I walked in the garden alone to spite my brothers and their suffocating rules, only to fall into the pond and nearly drown. I thought they might never let me out of the house again after the resulting pneumonia left me weaker still. If only I was less impulsive, I could have been healthy today and able to catch Derrick's eye on my own.

She shook her head quickly, as though she could get rid of the clinging "what ifs" as easily as a wayward bit of dust on her hair. She knew dwelling on things no longer under her control wasted her limited and valuable energy and so should be avoided as much as possible. Yet she could not fend off the memories of how she came to be in her current position.

Once upon a time, she had dreamed of Derrick coming home from university and falling madly in love with her. If she was honest with herself, she still dreamed about it, but the reality of her situation became clear when her brothers had announced her inclusion in the will of the Duke of Chesterton. They had tried to find her a marriage match some other way, but each possible suitor glimpsed her pale, drawn features and promptly made excuses to leave. Not even the prize of her sizable dowry, courtesy of her brothers' thriving trade business, proved adequate to slow the retreat of her would-be suitors. Once out the door, none of them ever returned, and as she grew older, the possibility of a good match became dimmer day by day.

The waves of emotion that followed her brothers' revelation about the will were as powerful as they were confusing. She hated that her brothers had accepted the Duke's plan to force Derrick to marry without speaking to her first. She hated that Derrick might hate her for participating in this manipulation of his life.

Most of all, she hated that, deep down, she hoped he followed through, even if he only fulfilled the most basic requirements of the will. She would enjoy what little time they spent together, and if he sent her away once the will was fulfilled, she would savor the memories of being his wife for as long as she lived.

So the day after the Duke's untimely death, she gazed at herself, seated before her vanity mirror as Anne, her maid since her childhood, pinned up her hair. The black gown she wore suited the somber occasion, and it set off her best attributes while accommodating the particularly stiff petticoats she needed to wear with her leg braces. As difficult and uncomfortable as her clothing could be, she never complained; she knew the braces were a blessing. Her older brother Robert had designed them, and she would be chair-bound most of the time without them.

A short, thick black veil completed her ensemble and concealed her features. She had adopted this accessory after a would-be suitor shrieked in a most unmanly manner when he first laid eyes on her pale drawn features after her bout with pneumonia. His vocal reaction remained unique in her experience, though the sentiment behind it appeared each time she met someone new while bare faced. The veil allowed her to engage in polite conversation with people without causing a scene, at least.

Veil secured to her hair, Anne rang the bedside bell to summon her brothers. They assisted her out to the carriage with an efficiency born of years of practice, and walking while supported between them, she pretended that she was healthy and normal for a moment. Less than five minutes later, all three of them were settled into the carriage, and it jerked into motion.