THE TASK
A DAY’S RIDE FROM HALLOWS BRIDGE, SURRY—JANUARY 1817
Lady Rosamund Belle was currently engaged in a staring contest with an oversized door knocker—a contest she was losing. Molded into the shape of a lion, its sharp teeth glinted down at her, its shadowed gaze cold, but that wasn’t why she was hesitating.
She wasn’t afraid.
She was nervous, but also… aware.
Aware that this was her moment. Her best—and perhaps only—chance to see the plan through.
Brighton had proved useful. Charles and Felicity had departed three days prior for one of their romantic seaside interludes, leaving the household pleasantly distracted. Rosamund had informed the servants she meant to visit Georgiana—newly married and forever in need of sisterly company. No one found that remarkable.
No one except Penelope.
Sweet, earnest Penelope, who alone knew the truth. Who had listened, wide-eyed, as Rosamund confessed the nature of her task. Who had sworn—solemnly, fiercely—to tell no one where she was truly going.
It was enough.
Inhaling one fortifying breath, she lifted her trembling hand to thebrass ornament and gave three firm knocks. The sound echoed loudly, startling in the silence of the grounds of what seemed like a forgotten estate.
Ironwood Manor.
“I can do this.”
For Papa.
For herself.
And—though she scarcely dared admit it—for the man who resided within.
Publish something under your own name, Rosa. Make it meaningful. Make a difference in the world.
Only then would she earn her inheritance. Only then would she secure the independence Papa had always insisted she was capable of claiming.
She would not marry merely for shelter. She would not rely on indulgence.
She would stand on her own.
But first?—
She had to face a duke no one in polite society dared approach.
With Papa buried and her grief still sharp beneath her ribs, Rosamund stood before the seat of the Duke of Bexley—“Beastly,” as the gossips now preferred.
Rosamund could not believe it was true. She had seen him in the village as a boy, before the war. And although she’d kept a careful distance, she’d recognized something special. He had been beautiful, noble, and… kind.
Rumors did not unmake a man.
She would see the truth for herself.
But in order to do that, she needed to actually meet with him.
Interview him.
She rapped the knocker three more times. She would wait all day if necessary. It was not as if she had anywhere else to go.
But as it happened, she did not need to wait.