The Duchess by Bertrice Small Read Free Book Online Page A

balls, card parties, picnics, and teas. Mr. Trent has been kept quite busy going over all your invitations. Do you not find it amusing that although no one has yet seen either of you, you are already quite popular?”
    “I find it terrifying,” Allegra told her aunt. “My invitations are based upon my wealth. I could be as ugly as sin, Aunt, and with a face covered in warts, yet I should still be a succès fou among the gentlemen. They don't know me. They don't want to know me. They just want to marry my father's heiress. Is it possible, given my circumstances, to find a man who will love me? I think not. Whatever match I make must be made for practical reasons. But I vow that while I must go to the highestbidder, he will have to be a man with whom I can get along.”
    “Oh, Allegra, do not say such awful things!” Sirena begged.
    Lady Abbott, however, sighed. Her niece was absolutely right in her assessment of her situation. “I am glad you are so prudent, and cognizant of your situation, Allegra,” she told her. “It is possible, however, to make a match with a good man in spite of your circumstances. Often, in time, love enters such a marriage, but if it doesn't, at least affection and respect will do nicely, I think.”
    “That is terrible!” Sirena cried. “To go through life unloved by one's mate? I could not survive it!”
    “You had best become more practical, daughter,” Lady Abbott said. “Once the bloom is off the rose, and you have filled the nursery with a new generation, your husband is, in all likelihood, going to return to London, and to the little mistress he has kept hidden away in a house near the park. That is the way of the world, Sirena. Not all men are like your late father or your Uncle Septimius.”
    Sirena's eyes filled with tears, and her lower lip trembled, but she said nothing more. She was going to find a man who would love her forever. There was no use arguing with her mama about it. Mama just didn't understand at all. She never had.
    The night of the Bellingham ball came, and at a quarter to ten o'clock in the evening Lord Morgan's town carriage drew up before the door of his house. Lord Morgan and Charles Trent emerged dressed in fawn knee breeches with three silver buttons at each side of their legs, dark double-breasted tailcoats whichwere left open to reveal elegant waistcoats, ruffled shirt fronts, and beautifully tied white silk cravats. Their hose were striped black and white, and their black kid pumps sported silver buckles. They were followed by Lady Abbott who was wearing a rich plum-colored watered silk gown, a large powdered wig upon her head decorated with several white plumes sprinkled with gold dust and a diamond hair ornament. Lastly came Allegra and Sirena in their new gowns. The ladies entered the coach first, followed by Lord Morgan and Mister Trent. The vehicle then moved off.
    When they reached the Bellingham mansion on Traleigh Square, they found themselves in a long queue of carriages slowly snaking their way to the town house's front door. As each coach reached its destination, footmen quickly opened the door, lowered the steps, and aided the passengers in disembarking the vehicle. Once inside there were more footmen to take the gentlemen's cloaks, and maids to take the ladies' mantles. The house, Allegra noted, was quite fine, but smaller than her father's. Ascending the stairs they reached the ballroom where they again joined a queue waiting to be announced. As they reached the majordomo, Charles Trent leaned over, and murmured in his ear.
    “Olympia, Dowager Marchioness of Rowley, Lady Sirena Abbott,” the majordomo boomed, and then as Sirena and her mother entered the ballroom he announced, “Lord Septimius Morgan, Miss Allegra Morgan, Mr. Charles Trent.”
    Zounds! Allegra thought to herself as her father escorted her to the reception line to greet her hosts, I have actually arrived. She was suddenly very aware of the many eyes upon her, then she