The Duchess Hunt Read Free

the duchess,
pulling Sarah along with him.
    “What’s your name? Where do you come
from?”
    Sarah opened her mouth but no words would
emerge.
    “She said her name is Sarah, and she’s
from here,” Simon supplied.
    The duchess cocked a dark brow. “Is that
so?”
    “Down, Mama!” the toddler complained,
squirming. “Down, down, down.”
    With a sigh, the duchess lowered the
child, never taking her gaze from Sarah. The toddler stared at Sarah curiously
for a moment, then ran toward the cluster of boys, but Sarah couldn’t drag her
eyes away from the duchess long enough to see what was happening on the other
side of the room.
    “I don’t recall having any little girls in
residence at Ironwood House,” the duchess mused. “Do you, Trent?”
    “No, ma’am. But I’ve not been home. There
have been no new arrivals this summer?”
    “No, only the…” The duchess’s brown eyes
brightened. “The new gardener. Fredericks hired him. I had naught to do with
it. I’d wager she belongs to him.”
    Simon looked down at Sarah. “Are you the
gardener’s daughter?”
    Biting her lip and looking down at the
beautiful carpet her dirty feet had trod upon, Sarah knew she’d made a horrible
mistake. She should have stopped Simon when they’d passed the gardener’s
cottage. She should never have come into the house. What on earth had she been
thinking?
    She hadn’t been thinking.
    “Yes,” she whispered.
    Firm fingers grasped her chin, forcing her
to look up into the stern face of the duchess. Tears sprang to Sarah’s eyes.
Now was her only chance.
    “Please,” she whispered. Her throat opened
just enough for her to speak in a croaking voice. “Please don’t dismiss my
papa.”
    The woman’s eyes narrowed, and Sarah’s
heart sank so low, she could feel it beating in her toes.
    “What has your Papa done?”
    Sarah stiffened. “Nothing!”
    “Then why should I dismiss him?”
    Sarah’s eyes darted toward Simon, pleading
for help.
    “Mother,” he said quietly, “you’re scaring
her.”
    The duchess dropped her chin, leaving
Sarah with blazing cheeks.
Mother?
Simon was one of the family, too, then. Oh, she was a royal idiot.
    “I brought her here because she needs
medical attention.” A touch of irritability had seeped into Simon’s smooth
voice. “Where is Mrs. Hope?”
    “I’ve no idea.” The duchess turned away
toward the group of boys. “Mark, my love, will you go find Mrs. Hope? Tell her
to bring some of the salve she uses on you ragamuffins when you get a cut. Sam
– run and fetch the new gardener, will you? Explain that his daughter has been
injured, but do let him know it’s not serious. Bring him back to the house if
he wishes it.”
    Sarah flinched. Her father had never
beaten her before, but she had committed a severe enough infraction that she
was entirely deserving of a whipping. Hopefully he would wait until they had
some privacy. Nothing would be more disgraceful than being beaten in front of
Simon.
    “Can I go with Sam, Mama?”
    “Yes, Luke, but stay with him and come
straight back here. Understand?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Me too?” said the smallest of the boys.
“I want to go with Sam, too, Mama.”
    “All right, Theo, but do stay with your
brothers.”
    As the door swung silently shut behind the
four boys, the toddler wandered back to the duchess – a girl, Sarah thought,
deducing from the child’s features rather than her dress. Taking her plump
little hand, the duchess turned back to Sarah. “Really, child, there’s no
reason to be afraid. You’ve done nothing wrong.” A hint of a smile touched her
lips. “The duke said the bush attacked
you,
after all. You probably didn’t even encourage it.”
    Slowly, as if through a bucket of thick
syrup, Sarah turned to Simon. “The
duke
?” she whispered.
    Not quite meeting her eyes, Simon gave a
one-shouldered shrug, and Sarah’s heart began to kick its way back up her body.
    “I see he didn’t introduce