Scarcely had Agnes properly grasped the implications of his words did her sisters burst in with refusal heavy on their tongues.
“Father, no! You cannot do this!” Imogen cried.
“We will never be apart. You cannot –”
“Be quiet,” their father ordered, and they fell silent immediately. He sighed deeply and went on, “Staying together will not protect you… it will not ensure that you survive without me. Agnes… Only by her marriage to the Duke would you stand a chance to be reunited.”
Agnes leaned forward in an attempt to appeal to him to change his mind,
“But, Father –”
“Roger,” he called out to his butler, and the man stepped through the doorway. “Bring in the footmen and maids.”
Roger nodded and came into the room fully, followed by three footmen and three maids. The Earl of Lockheart gave his daughters one last look of fondness and shifted his gaze back to the servants.
“Take good care of my dear girls.”
“Father –” Agnes tried to plead but was stopped as a hand wrapped around her wrist and tugged her away from his side. “Wait – no –”
She tried to struggle but was distracted by the panicked screams of her sisters as they were pulled out of the room and in different directions. Agnes fought at the hands on her and managed to escape the room but stopped in the corridor, torn on who to go to as Imogen was being dragged to the left and Prudence to the right.
Someone gripped her arm and tried to drag her forward, and she screamed, promising from the very core of her soul.
“Imogen! Prudence! I-I’ll do it! I’ll get married, and I will come and find you both. I promise!”
She didn’t get to hear them and did not know if they believed her or responded to her decree. But she never forgot it.
Chapter One
“And remember, Agnes, the young woman’s guide in the magazine instructs that in order to make a man fall in love with you, you must win him with a smile.”
Agnes hummed at Lady Anna’s words, her mind certainly not thinking about how to charm a man she was about to meet for the first time with a meager smile.
It had been two years since the passing of her father. Two years since she had seen her sisters. On some days, she wondered how she had survived without Prudence’s calming warmth and Imogen’s bright energy, and on other days, she strived to keep going because she was all too aware that this was the only way to reunite with them.
She cared for not much else besides her sisters, as they had been her responsibility since they were but little children, and that was never going to change. She did not care what it took; she would get them back.
“Do not fret, Godmother. I plan to ensure that this madness will be a success because it is only by becoming a duchess that I will have the power to reunite with my sisters.”
Lady Anna sighed, momentarily taking her eyes off her pamphlet to regard Agnes with a weary expression.
“Darling, I really wish you would focus more on yourself. Your sisters have been taken care of and are doing well in their respective places. Your primary focus should be targeted towards getting the Duke to fall in love with you.”
Agnes shifted uncomfortably, feeling relieved when her godmother dropped her eyes back down to the paper in her hands.
She did not know what to think or feel when it came to such grand emotions as love. It was not as though she did not believe in it. On the contrary, there was a time she wanted nothing more than the love shared between her parents. Her father loved her mother with everything he had, and when she passed, he loved his daughters until he met his end. There was not a day that went by that he did not think about her or miss her.
And she had wanted that, a love so deeply fulfilling as it was consuming, to be loved and adored with every breath.
But things were different now. She was only doing this because it was necessary, and she had not been left with any other choices. That being said… if she needed to charm the Duke to get his help in reconnecting with her sisters, then so be it.
“Oh! There’s a passage about your future husband in here!” her godmother said suddenly, her eyes alight with excitement as she read, “The Duke of Forestwood, one of theton’smost elusive characters, has been shrouded in mystery. Although, most think it is merely a ruse to keep people from seeing the truth, that he is merely a cruel and lonely soul – what absolute nonsense. These are all lies and slander.”
Lady Anna flung the pamphlet aside and stared straight at Agnes.
“My dearest friend – the Dowager Duchess of Forestwood has told me countless times of occasions where His Grace aimed to help the less fortunate. In fact, he once saved a young orphan from starvation, and the boy now lives with him in his home. These people do not know who he is but still go out of their way to pretend as though they do. It is so unbecoming.”
Agnes sighed and rolled her eyes at the theatrics. Lady Anna had been at this for a while now; as the time to meet her betrothed approached, she went out of her way to entice Agnes with all his seemingly remarkable qualities. It was almost as though she expected Agnes to change her mind at the last minute and run away – which was a strange notion to harbor, given how desperate Agnes was to reunite her sisters.