Deceived Read Free Page A

you off, Aurora. You had best be more careful.”
    â€œNo pirate ship could get into my cove,” Aurora said smugly, “and there is no one else about to see me, Cally, isn’t that right, George? George knows my little cove, don’t you?”
    â€œIt’s safe enough,” her stepbrother agreed.
    They sat down at the beautiful mahogany dining table, Oralia at its head, her son to her right, and her daughters on her left. A servant ladled clear turtle soup into their dishes. Beyond the table the French doors were opened, the light muslin hangings blowing in the trade winds. The sea, calm, and blue-green, spread itself before them.
    Calandra gobbled her soup, then said eagerly, “What was in the letter you received from England today, Mama? Who wrote to you?”
    Oralia was not surprised by her daughter’s question. Calandra’s servant, Sally, had undoubtedly seen Captain Young arrive. “The letter was not addressed to me, but to your father,” she told her daughter, keeping her voice calm and well modulated. “It seems that Robert made an arrangement with an old friend in England many years ago that his son and Aurora marry one day. The young man is on his way from England now, and will arrive on the Royal George in a few weeks’ time.”
    â€œHe’d best not get off the boat,” Aurora said fiercely.
    â€œAurora, this is no younger son coming to wed you because you are an heiress and he needs a living. This young man is Valerian Hawkesworth, the Duke of Farminster. He is wealthy, and just the sort of man the heiress to a sugar plantation should marry.”
    â€œMy God, Aurora!” Calandra’s eyes were wide, and not just a bit envious. “You are going to be a duchess!”
    â€œNo, I’m not, Cally,” came the stubborn reply.
    â€œAurora, I realize this is a shock to you,” her stepmother said. “It was very foolish of your father not tell us of this arrangement at all, particularly before he died so suddenly.”
    â€œPapa’s horse threw him, Mama,” Aurora reminded Oralia. “He could have hardly anticipated that.”
    â€œNo,” Oralia responded, “he could not have anticipated it, but the marriage contract says you are to marry when you are seventeen. You will be seventeen on the sixth of April. Robert might have said something. I do not know when he expected to tell you, my dear, but he is gone, and the duke is on his way to St. Timothy expecting to marry you. Now you know, and we will not discuss it again for a few days so that you may get used to the idea of of it all.” She smiled at her children, and then said, “Serve the chicken now, Hermes.”
    â€œI am not going to get used to it, Mama!” Aurora protested. “I have absolutely no intention of marrying an English duke I never met, and probably won’t like anyhow. And I shall have to live in England all the time, and probably go to court to meet that German king. I do not like Germans, Mama. Do you remember that German overseer we once had? He was a horrible man!”
    â€œOne cannot judge an entire nation by one man, Aurora. I thought I had taught you better than that. Besides, the king is an old man and will probably not live much longer. His son, Prince George, is said to be kind and lovely. A real Englishman. It will be a young and delightful court that you join, my dear.”
    â€œNot I,” Aurora said ominously.
    â€œWe will discuss it in a few days,” Oralia said.
    â€œWe will discuss it now, Mama,” came the reply. “I am not going to marry a stranger and go to live a life that I should hate in a wet, cold country I have never even seen.”
    â€œI would,” said Calandra. “To marry a duke, and go to court, I would marry the devil himself! You really are a fool, Aurora. What an opportunity your father has given you, and you are not one bit grateful. If Papa had betrothed me