A Marriage Made In Heaven

Chapter 1 1827-2

“Get married!” Margaret added unnecessarily.

The Duke was already aware that this was what they were insinuating and now he walked away towards the window to gaze out into the garden at the back of the house.

It had been skilfully laid out to make the best possible display of flowers, shrubs and trees in the limited space available, but what he saw was not the gold of the daffodils or the first white and purple lilac blossom, but the great trees in the Park at Buckhurst.

Behind them stood the house, which, redesigned and redecorated by his grandfather fifty years earlier, had existed on the same foundations for four centuries.

There had been members of the family who had served their country as Statesmen and many more who had been great Generals and distinguished Admirals.

But while many of them had been rakes and roués too, none had ever in the history of the family made somebody like Lottie Linkley his wife and the thought of her taking his mother’s place was to the Duke abhorrent.

In the silence behind him he knew that his sisters’ eyes were watching him and they were almost holding their breath, waiting for his reply. He could not help thinking resentfully that Edmund had dealt them a trump card.

He had lost count of how many times Elizabeth and Margaret had begged him almost on bended knee to get married and start a family.

He had always been able to laugh at them and tell them that there was plenty of time and anyway he preferred being a bachelor and would doubtless remain one until he died.

It amused him to publicly defy them, saying that marriage was not for him and that no woman would ever get him to the altar. In fact it had become a regular joke to refer to him as ‘Buck the Bachelor’!

There had even been talk of starting a ‘Bachelors Club’, with him as the Chairman.

Now he realised too late that while most of his friends had known he was only joking or rather putting off the evil hour when he must take a wife, Edmund had taken him seriously.

‘It is just the sort of thing he would do!’ the Duke thought irritably to himself.

Then he thought that only Edmund would marry somebody like Lottie and imagine that if he did inherit the title, people would accept her as the Duchess of Buckhurst.

Yet, he knew that once Edmund was the Duke, he would not worry about the social scandal he caused, secure in the knowledge that the estates and possessions entailed onto the heir to the Dukedom must become his.

Edmund had always been obsessed by money and, although he had quite enough on which to live comfortably as an ordinary young man-about-town, he had been almost insanely extravagant, confident that rather than accept the scandal of his being dunned and taken to prison, his cousin would pay up for him.

The Duke had paid and paid again and the last time, which was a little over a month ago, he had said to Edmund categorically,

“You must understand that this is the last time! I have no intention of providing you with one more penny to throw down the inexhaustible drain of your expenditure on wine, gaming and women!”

“It is what you enjoy yourself,” Edmund had replied impertinently.

“Whatever I do or do not do,” the Duke said sharply, “I can afford to pay my own way. But remember that as Head of the Family I have to dispense the family fortune fairly amongst those who require assistance.”

He saw the scornful twist on Edmund’s lips and added,

“Good God, man! Do you not realise what the estate spends on alms houses, orphanages and pensions? The sum is astronomical! At the same time it is our duty to provide for those who have served us in the past and I don’t intend to allow you to deplete the exchequer for your own selfish ends.”

“Really, Cousin!” Edmund replied. “I cannot believe that you, of all people, are preaching to me! Do you realise what your reputation is and what people say about you behind your back?”

“I am not in the least concerned with that,” the Duke said loftily, “and my extravagances are not entirely concerned, as yours are, with losing money in cheap gaming houses and spending it on women whose profession it is to leave your pockets empty.”

“High flown words!” Edmund jeered. “We did not all start life with your advantages.”

The Duke realised that there was no use talking to his cousin any further.

He merely repeated that this was the last time he would bail him out and the next time he got into debt he would have to sell up or go to the debtors’ prison and he would do nothing to help him.

Edmund had not even expressed any thanks for the very large sum of money he received to settle his outstanding debts. Instead, he had struck back in a way that the Duke thought none of them could have anticipated and it was undoubtedly very effective.

He had suspected for some time that Edmund was trying to borrow money on the security that he was the heir presumptive to the Dukedom, although seeing that the Duke himself was still a young man, the money lenders would not be over-anxious to lend on what was no more than an outside chance.

But there were always those who would gamble on the fact that he had declared he preferred to remain a bachelor and was never seen in public or at private parties with a girl who might be considered a suitable wife for a Duke.

Now the dreaded moment had come and he knew, without his sisters putting it into words, that he would have to do something about it.

Just for a moment he thought he would be damned if he would conform just to please them or to defeat Edmund.

Then he pictured Lottie Linkley sitting in his mother’s place at the end of the table, wearing the Buckhurst jewels and sleeping in the bed that had been occupied by the Duchesses of Buckhurst for centuries and he knew that it was something he could not allow.

Quite apart from anything else, the Duchess of Buckhurst was by tradition a Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen.

The silence in the room behind him had become oppressive and the Duke turned round.

“Very well,” he said, and his voice was harsh. “You win! I will get married!”

Elizabeth Hull gave a cry of delight, sprang to her feet and, running to her brother, threw her arms round him and kissed his cheek.

“I knew, dearest, you would see sense!” she cried. “Although I am aware you have always hated the idea, I am sure you will find somebody beautiful to be your Duchess and you will be very happy with her.”

The Duke took her arms from his neck and walked once again to the table to pour another glass of champagne.

“I will not find her,” he said. “As this is your idea, I have no intention of having any part in it.”

“What do you mean?” Margaret asked, puzzled. “I don’t understand.”

The Duke filled his glass before he answered,

“Let’s be practical, if nothing else. I cannot remember when I last met a young girl whom I imagine you would consider suitable as the future Duchess of Buckhurst and I have neither the time nor the inclination to go looking for one.”

“Then how are you to be married?” Margaret enquired.

‘That is your business and yours alone,” the Duke answered. “You have all been nagging me to find a wife for the last five – or it is ten – years. Very well, find one!”

“B-but how can we – ?” Margaret began, only to be interrupted by her sister.

“Are you really saying,” Elizabeth asked, “that you intend us to choose the woman you will marry?”

“Either that or Edmund can install Lottie Linkley at Buckhurst Park and here and doubtless enjoy racing my horses at Newmarket.”

Elizabeth gave a cry of horror as she said,

“No, no! Of course that must not happen! Of course, dearest, we will help you in your quest in every way we can.”

“It is not a question simply of help,” the Duke said in a hard voice. “You have told me it is my duty to marry and I suppose in the circumstances there is nothing else I can do. But I will have no part in it! You will find my future Duchess and I will marry her to ensure the succession, but apart from that I intend to live my own life as I always have!”

His sister gave a little cry of horror.

“Oh, Buck, you cannot mean that!”

“I do mean it! You know as well as I do that the very idea of marriage has always appalled me as an intolerable restriction and an unmitigated bore.”

“It need not be – ” Elizabeth replied.

The Duke laughed, but there was no humour in the sound.

“My dear Elizabeth, look round you. How many of our friends do you think are really happy and how many wives with any pretentions to looks are faithful to their husbands?”

As he spoke, he thought of all the married women who had fallen all too eagerly into his arms, apparently without one thought for the man to whom they were married or for the breaking of their marriage vows.

One reason why the Duke was so firmly opposed to marriage was that he despised the men who were cuckolded by their wives and he felt that the humiliation of it was something he would never subject himself to.

Every time he left another man’s house, having made love to his wife, he was aware that he had insulted and degraded a member of his own s*x. Although he knew that most of his contemporaries would laugh at him for having such ideas, he had always been determined that he would never be in such a position himself.

If he married and found that his wife was unfaithful to him, he thought he would throttle her and kill the man who had seduced her.

“There is only one thing I insist on,” he said now, “and that is that the girl I marry is very young and, as far as can be ascertained, pure and untouched by any other man.”

“But of course! That goes without saying!” his sister Margaret remarked.

The Duke’s lips curved in a cynical smile.

He was thinking of the number of women to whom he had made love who had told him how they had first been seduced either by their riding masters or their music teachers.

Others had admitted quite frankly to a number of lovers with whom they had deceived their husbands long before he had come into their lives.

Such confessions had given him a low opinion of women, even while they fascinated and at times infatuated him, but he put them only one step above the ‘Cyprians’ and ‘Bits of Muslin’ who sold their favours.

In fact, he often told himself that the latter were more honest than those who practiced deception with an agility that seemed to have been born in them.

“Are you really saying,” Elizabeth asked, as if she wanted to have it clear in her mind, “that Margaret and I, with of course Arthur’s help, must find you a suitable wife who is not only well enough bred to marry into the family but is also a young and innocent girl?”

“The answer to that, putting it concisely, is ‘yes’!” the Duke replied. “I don’t want to be worried with her, I have no intention of courting her and I suggest that as it is now the 2nd of May, you arrange the wedding to take place on the 2nd of June. That will leave me plenty of time to take my horses to Ascot and win, as I intend to do, the Gold Cup this year.”

There was a silence of sheer astonishment. Then the Marquis enquired,

“Surely that is hurrying things unnecessarily?”

“Not if we want to prevent Edmund from borrowing even more money on his chances of fathering the future Duke and Lottie from making it very clear that she is now a member and a very important one, of our family.”

He looked at the Marquis as he spoke and he, as a man, was well aware of the way in which Lottie would behave now that she was Edmund’s wife.