The Duke who Saved Me [EBOOK]

Prologue <br>
The gentle swaying of the boat was captivating, the motion smooth but fast at the same time. And looking out over the rail only made it better. Nothing but blue water and blue sky to be seen for miles.<br>
At the end of this voyage, she looked forward to a world of new experiences. A world where she would never again need to be the prim and proper Miss Henrietta Robinson. Where she could simply—<br>
"That is the last I wish to speak of it, Dorothy." A sigh broke through as she was torn from her dream, from staring at the beautiful painting of the ocean voyage, by her father's gruff voice. Ah, Dottie. In trouble yet again. Another sigh, as she moved to the bedside table to ring for Elizabeth. This would require some tea.<br>
No sooner had the maid left the room than Dottie could be heard racing up the stairs. Their father would no doubt have had something to say about that, if he had not been the one to send her scurrying away in the first place. For now, he seemed inclined to ignore it, and, instead, it was Henrietta who was left to calm her oh-so-frantic sister.<br>
"Oh, Hattie!" There was no time to even prepare herself before Dottie threw herself into the room and into her arms. "Hattie, he just does not understand!" She practically wailed, and Henrietta tried to offer a sympathetic look.<br>
"Dottie, you know well that Father never understands us."<br>
"I thought for sure . . . I thought he must realise I am not like those other girls. But is that so wrong, Hattie? Is it so bad, not to be like them?" Dorothy pleaded.<br>
"Not at all, dear. It is not wrong. But Father cannot see it. He cannot understand it." Henrietta gently brushed her sister's hair back, attempting to soothe her, but Dorothy was in no mood for that.<br>
"What shall I do?" She paced back and forth across the room.<br>
"What was the trouble this time?" Henrietta asked.
"Oh, the servants were telling jokes in the kitchen, and I had joined in. Father was furious. He said . . . he said . . ." She dissolved into sobs again, sinking into a chair, and, at that moment, Elizabeth returned with the tea tray. She seemed startled for a moment, before regaining her composure and studiously ignoring Dorothy, as she poured out a cup of tea for each sister.
"You may leave, Elizabeth. I can manage from here," Henrietta instructed distractedly.<br>
"As you wish, Miss." With a quick curtsy, her eyes downcast, Elizabeth left the room as quickly and quietly as she had entered it, closing the door softly behind her. No doubt she would go to whisper with the other servants about what was happening to Miss Henrietta and Miss Dorothy.<br>
"Now, tell me what Father said, Dottie." Henrietta insisted as she set a cup of tea before her sister. A sip of the hot liquid seemed to help her sister's resolve, and she managed to sit up straighter and not to sob quite so hard.<br>
"He said that is likely why I am not yet married. And that . . . that I may end up a spinster because of my ways." She sobbed again. "Oh, Hattie, what if he's right?"
"What if he is?" Henrietta retorted, indignantly. "What is the matter with being a spinster anyway? Why are we worth only what we can get through marriage?"<br>
"Oh, but, Hattie, I do so want to be married," Dorothy wailed yet again.<br>
"Why? Dottie, there's so much more out there. So much that we could do . . ." She gestured toward the pictures on her walls. "But, with a husband . . . how will you ever do any of those things?"<br>
"I have never wanted these adventures as you do, Hattie." Dottie looked around the room at the array of treasures Henrietta had managed to gather. "I want a home. A husband. A family. And what if all that is denied to me? What if I am not to have any of it? What if . . ." She trailed off, hiccupping back even more sobs.<br>
"Because you enjoy telling and listening to jokes, you shall never have those things? Ridiculous." Henrietta barely refrained from snorting at the thought. Father truly would be furious if he heard that. "Father is being preposterous. You will find a husband, Dottie. If that is what you wish for."<br>
"Oh, Hattie, I do hope so." It was now Dorothy's turn to stare deeply into the ocean-going scene, but Henrietta knew Dorothy saw something entirely different there than she did.<br>
"But how dare Father imply we are good for nothing else—that a daughter is only good for marrying off and bearing children. There is so much more to life than either of those things."<br>
"But do you not want to get married one day?" Dorothy asked, her voice almost dreamy as she thought of it.
"Never," Henrietta said, her mouth in a firm line. "I will never marry, if only to spite Father. He uses us as if we have no worth, as if our only value is who we can ensnare to strengthen his connections. And what we want is of no matter. He cares not at all about how we might feel about the match, only that it will benefit him. Well, that will not be the case for me. I shall refuse any suitor he puts in my path." With a sharp nod of her head, Henrietta resolved herself to that fate.<br>
"But, Hattie, what if he never brings a suitor for me? What if there is no one who wishes to marry me? Even for the dowry Father has set?" Now Dorothy was frantic yet again, the hard-won calm vanishing quickly, considering this new thought. Her eyes were wide, as she thought of what it could mean to be the only woman of her age not to even receive an offer of marriage.
"There, there, Dottie. There will be a man who wishes to marry you," she said, her spite fading slightly at her sister's plight. "There will be several. Do not listen to Father. He knows nothing of what a suitor would have in a wife."<br>
"But I am getting too old for a suitor. If one were going to come . . . why have they not come yet?" The poor girl was most upset, but really, was it so bad to not have a suitor?<br>
"Twenty-four is not so old."<br>
"Oh, Hattie, it is. Most of the women my age are already married, and many have their first babes already. And yet . . . I have not had even one serious suitor." There was the melancholy again, and Henrietta passed her sister one of the biscuits from the tea tray. At least eating it would give her something to do and, hopefully, calm her.<br>
"You will, dear. You will have a suitor and one who will love everything about you. One who will enjoy the fact you laugh at his jokes."<br>
"Do you really think so?" A small amount of hope dawned on Dorothy's face.<br>
"Of course. The right suitor has not yet found you, Dottie. That is why you are still not wed." A smile lit Dorothy's face then. A small one, admittedly, but she clearly felt better, and she scrubbed the tears from her eyes.<br>
"Yes. A tall, strapping suitor, who tells lots of jokes and loves to laugh," she filled in.<br>
"The perfect man for you," Henrietta said.
"There is a perfect man for you as well, Hattie," Dorothy said to her, but Henrietta pursed her lips and shook her head.<br>
"No. I will not find a perfect suitor. I will not even look for one. And if Father finds one, I shall send him away." She finished this with a wave of her hand, as if banishing an imaginary suitor from her sight.<br>
"You truly will never marry?" Dorothy was incredulous at the thought.<br>
"Never," was the stout reply. "If marriage is all Father thinks we are good for, then I will deny him that. It is the one thing I can do."<br>
"But then what will you do? Live out the rest of your years as a spinster?" The word came out in a whisper, as though it was a forbidden word and not to be spoken.
"What is the matter with that? Why, I could do whatever I wanted, Dottie. That is just it—I can do whatever I want once I am too old to be considered fit for marriage.<br> Travelling to the West Indies, sailing across the ocean . . . all my adventures."<br>
"I could never do it. Leave everything behind to sail to another world, one filled with . . . danger." Dottie shivered.<br>
"That is exactly what is so exciting about it. I cannot wait to see the world. To enjoy every bit of it." Her eyes were as dreamy as her sister's as she gazed over the ocean scene again, but she was seeing it for what it was.<br>
Yes, one day. One day, she would be able to enjoy all those things for herself. With no man to tell her she could not<br>