The Scandalous Duke Takes a Bride by Tiffany Clare Read Free Book Online

was wandering around the house in nothing but a thin night rail.
    He grabbed his jacket from the end of the sofa and checked the bathing room before heading downstairs. An unbolted door was slamming in the frame at the back of the house, where a small garden was situated. He ran in that direction. He found Jez out of doors and underdressed for the weather. Her slender silhouette stood tall in the summer rainstorm that raged outside.
    Her night rail blew this way and that in the strong wind; it flapped around her ankles like the sail on a boat picking up speed. Her hair was loose and whipped around her shoulders and lower back like the wispy branches of a weeping willow caught in the gale of storm. She cradled something swathed in linen in her arms and stared at her rosebushes lining a tall fence that marked the border of her property. There was a beautiful starkness in the way she stood so silent, so still.
    He was running toward her as she fell to her knees in the wet grass. He heard her heart-wrenching sobs the closer he got. Wailing, broken sobs as she hummed to the bundle of cloth in her arms.
    Hayden swallowed back against the lump of desolation and pain that had built in his throat. By God, he knew what she held. He knew it with every fiber of his being. She needed him in this moment more than she had ever needed him in all her life. And he would not turn his back on her.
    She didn’t acknowledge him, but she knew he was there. She put the bundle of cloth in her lap, hunched forward, and plowed her hands deep into the damp ground with a growl of frustration. Her fingers came away slimed with mud and grass. She repeated the process until a small hole was dug.
    He put his jacket around her shoulders and wrapped her tight in the safety of his arms as he dropped to his knees behind her. She fought him with tears on her face and nothing more than sorrow and sobs in her voice. Her fists pounded at his arms, his hands.
    But he didn’t let her go.
    He couldn’t.
    “Hush. It’s all right. I’m here for you.” His voice was jagged, raw with emotion.
    Fat drops of rain spat down from the heavens as he held her on the ground.
    “I’m so sorry, Jessica. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” He cradled her head on his shoulder and smoothed her hair away from her face in calming strokes as he rocked her back and forth. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that I can’t express it deeply enough. Shh…”
    What did you say to a friend who had lost everything? There were no words that would lessen her sorrow. Her grief. So he did the only thing he could: he held her and didn’t let her go until the sobs finally receded. Even then he didn’t want to let go, so he held her for a while longer, letting the rain drench them as he vowed never to let this kind of despair strike her down again. He alone would keep her safe. She was his to cherish and protect and he wouldn’t let her go.
    When she could do no more than stare back at him broken and silent, he found a spade and dug a hole deep under the arbor of roses for Jessica.
     
    Chapter 5
     
    Where does the dowager countess hide? Nary a word has come from her townhouse. One must wonder what society’s most daring lady is planning. Considering the state in which she arrived at her husband’s funeral, it’s doubtful she’s donned widow’s weeds to properly mourn the late earl. While it’s no secret that I despise the woman, the question is how to properly taint and mar her image for good. Mayfair Chronicles, July 1846“Where is my ruby hat pin?” Jessica’s palm smacked hard against the white-painted vanity; her voice was shrill even to her own ears. “I can’t bloody well find my ruby hat pin, Louise.”
    Jessica’s maid’s face was downcast as she knelt to pick up the accoutrements that Jessica had swept to the floor in her rage to find the hat pin her mother had given her.
    Jessica slid off her stool to her knees, picked up the tray that held her perfumes, and started