“Alaina, you are not listening.”
Alaina sat back, turning to face her friend.
“I am. You were complaining how infuriating your father was and that he was still insistent on saying you must marry the duke when you came to say goodbye.” Alaina’s answer made Caroline groan in frustration again. “At least he came to say goodbye,” Alaina pointed out in a whisper, but these words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Alaina had seen, even if Caroline had not realized it, that as they said goodbye to the earl, he had looked pained at Caroline’s fury.
He loves her. For all the wrong decisions he has made, he is a father who loves his daughter.
The mere thought that Caroline had a family she did not treasure made Alaina bite her lip, holding back words she longed to say.
“I have never seen Hertfordshire before.” Alaina tried to change the subject, pointing out the window. “Is it not beautiful?” She leaned forward again, gazing at the golden sun and the way the rays bounced off distant green hills, making the buttercups glow like candles.
“I’m glad you can find happiness here anyway.” Caroline huffed and tore off her bonnet. The fine straw hat fell on the floor, the pale blue ribbons ending up tangled together. Alaina picked it up at once, dusting it clean and untangling the ribbons.
Saddened to see Caroline so worried, Alaina thought of a way to make her friend smile.
“What do you think?” Alaina put the bonnet on her own head and adopted a more regal countenance than she usually had. “Does it suit me? Or wait a minute …” She lifted her chin higher and pretended to look down her nose. “Now I look the part, do I not?”
Caroline suddenly cracked up into laughter from the other coach bench. She shook her head, holding a hand over her mouth to try and calm her mirth.
“You look the part all too well,” she said, then as abruptly as she had laughed, she stopped. She stared at Alaina with wide eyes.
“What is it?” Alaina asked. “Caro?” She waved a hand in front of Caroline’s face. “You’re worrying me.”
“You have given me an idea.” Caroline moved off her coach bench and came to sit beside Alaina. She reached forward and tied the bow under Alaina’s chin as if testing out the view, then she smiled. “I have just thought of a way out of this marriage.”
“How?” Alaina asked.
“Youcould take my place as we meet the Duke of Peddleton.”
There was a beat of silence, where only the birds tweeting and the carriage wheels rattling over the track road could be heard. Alaina was sure she had mistaken Caroline, that she had imagined the words, but Caroline’s broad smile argued against such a thought.
“Are you out of your mind!?” Alaina suddenly asked, much louder than she usually ever cared to raise her voice. Dumbstruck, she reached for the ribbons under her chin and tried to pull them free fast. “I cannot take your place. I’m your maid, Caro. Your maid.”
“Hear me out.” Caroline reached forward and placed a hand on the bonnet, refusing to let Alaina take it off.
“Oi!”
“Please, hear me,” Caroline begged. “I’m talking about us changing places for just a few weeks. You can meet the Duke of Peddleton in my place, and that way, we’ll see what sort of man he truly is. When we reveal our identities, and if he refuses your hand, we will see he is simply after the dowry and not the woman!”
“You are mad.” Alaina managed to snatch the bonnet off again. “Did you hit your head when you climbed into the carriage?”
“It’s perfect!” Caroline exclaimed loudly, continuing as if Alaina hadn’t spoken at all. “It will give me a chance to do what I want to do as well.”
“What is that?” Alaina was doing her best to thrust the bonnet back into Caroline’s grasp, but she would not take it.
“My father believes I am a woman who can never be independent,” Caroline said with sudden fierceness, brushing back a couple of the loose black curls from her ears. “He says I’ll always be beholden to his money or my husband’s. It’s about time I showed him that I can stand on my own two feet. I will doyourjob. I can learn to be a lady’s maid. I have seen you do it enough.” She looked up and down Alaina’s clothes. “We need to change clothes.”
“I haven’t agreed to this yet.”
“Ah, yet, so you will.” Caroline reached for Alaina’s spencer jacket, trying to pull it off her.
“Caro!” Outraged, Alaina pulled back from her. “It would never work. Listen to yourself.” She turned to face her friend boldly, no longer using the quiet voice that she so often adopted. “No one would ever believe it. No one.”
“I have never met the duke. He’s expecting a woman to turn up, but he doesn’t know who. Come on, Alaina, think about it. Truly, just consider it?” Caroline begged, with her hands clasped together in a prayer position. “You wouldn’t have to work for a few weeks. You could experience life as an earl’s daughter. Please?”
Alaina paused. A sudden curiosity burned within her. She had never wanted Caroline’s life, never asked for it, but now it was being presented to her, she couldn’t dampen the curiosity blooming.
“Only for a few weeks?” Alaina asked, her voice quiet.
