“Magic, eh?”He’d laughed. When he’d been with her, he could almost believe it. “I think it is you who carries the magic, Princess.”
“Do you Cochran Charles Bateman, Duke of Chauncey, take Lady Hannah Marie Ormond to be your lawfully wedded wife…”
Aubrey would have felt great compassion for Lady Hannah.
“I do,” he answered solemnly.
Chance had done all he possibly could for Aubrey. She would be fine. She was strong, intelligent… beautiful. Visions of her naked skin, memories of her taste flooded his memory.
“I do,” Lady Hannah’s anxious voice broke into his thoughts.
He barely knew her, and yet she was to become his wife.
“Do you have the rings?” The vicar asked. Chance turned and accepted the two gold bands Hollis held out to him. He glanced down, however, and realized he still wore the ring he and Aubrey had purchased together. As discreetly as possible, he removed it and slipped it onto his right hand.
It would not be the thing to reach out his hand to his new bride, all the while wearing another woman’s ring upon his finger.
Aubrey had believed in him and Chance had failed her. Miserably. Perhaps he could make some atonement with this poor girl. He’d take her toSecours, away from the pressures placed upon her by her parents. His young bride, his duchess, would benefit from his mother and Adelaide’s company. They would support her. It was doubtful the chit had ever known many friends. From his understanding, she’d been kept inside, away from other people, for all of her life.
He would do his best to keep her comfortable. He’d let down the woman that he loved. He would make up for it some with his new bride.
Chapter 16
Chance
Two Years and Two Weeks LATER
“Ican’t exactly walk up to her door. Hello,Princesse, remember me? So sorry I left without saying goodbye. I had to get married in order to avoid the gallows, but now I am quite free and quite alive. Oh, and by the way, I’m a duke.” Chance and Hollis had arrived three nights before and rather than go to the Chauncey Ducal townhouse on Curzon Street, they’d thought it best to take cover in Hollis’ uncle’s residence directly across the street from the Park, Hyde Park Place.
Once word got out that Chance was in London it would be impossible for him to keep a low profile. He couldn’t allow Aubrey to learn his true identity from a stranger or, God help him, a broadsheet. He’d been rather well known before his marriage to Hannah.
She was a smart young woman and could easily enough put two and two together if she were to learn that Chance Bateman, The Duke of Chauncy was in town, he might never be able to convince her of the truth.
He needed to approach Aubrey carefully, he needed a strategy and the timing had to be perfect.
“Why not show up at her door? The facts aren’t going to change. If she loves you, she’ll get over it.” There Hollis went again, oversimplifying the impossible. “She certainly can’t forgive you if you remain in hiding.”
“I need to be certain she hasn’t attached herself to anyone. I need to see her first. I need to see…” Chance trailed off. See what? If she was happy? If she was as beautiful as he remembered? If his heart responded the same as it had all those years ago?
But he already knew the answer to most of those questions. He knew he’d feel the same way. He just wasn’t ready. He needed to do this in his own time.
“You’re a blasted fool, that’s what you are.” Hollis shook his head and then reached for his hat. “Be that as it may,Your Grace.” His old friend had a way of your gracing him so that he might as well have spat at Chance’s feet. “I have some visits to make of my own, so I’ll leave you to devise this very well thought out plan of yours.” He halted at the door, however and turned around. “I’ve known you a long time, my friend, and you’ve proven yourself to be an arrogant prick at times, but one thing I’d never thought I’d see was Chance Bateman resorting to cowardice.”
Chance stared at the door long after it closed behind his pain in the ass friend.
He wasn’t a coward, by God.
* * *
An hour later,wearing clothing he’d borrowed from the gardener, a cap pulled low over his face, Chance strolled casually to the street where Aubrey lived. He knew the house, of course, as he’d organized the frenzied renovations before she’d arrived, and so had no difficulty in locating it.
He’d waited until rather late in the day but if she planned on driving in the park, he ought to get a glimpse of her. Pretending to weed a small garden a few houses down, Chance only glanced at his time piece some twenty or so times before spying activity at her front door.
A barouche had pulled up—a damned fancy vehicle—likely owned by some dandy. Chance squatted low to the ground and watched as a tall gentleman wearing lace and heels, was assisted out of the vehicle by one of the outriders. Surely, Aubrey would not go driving with such a popinjay as this?
Mr. Carrington, his own former butler, opened the door for the dandy and gestured him inside as though he was a common visitor.
Chance rose and sidled across the street and then one house closer. When the door opened again, his breath caught in his throat.
