Chapter 2

I don't sleep well that night. Instead I spend hours tossing and turning without being able to settle into a peaceful sleep despite knowing that I'll need to be rested for the Duke's return in the morning. My apprehension over the visit is likely what caused my lack of sleep though as every time I closed my eyes new terrible scenarios played out before me.

As dawn came around I gave up getting any sleep, in favour of preparing for the day. I pick out a dress for the day selecting a white dress with light blue details along the top, it's simple and delicate which is just what I want for this meeting. Hopefully by selecting something understated I'll give the Duke a better impression of me than last night's, I need to do something to improve his opinion of me.

Luckily the dress is simple enough that I'm able to get dressed without the assistance of a maid, something that I'm more than used to. At home to save money Humphrey kept as few servants as possible to save money and a ladies maid for me was not important enough for him to waste money on. I'd gotten very used to dressing and doing my own hair which most young ladies of my station don't have to.

Aware that Lady Anne will still be angry after what I did last night once I'm dressed I sit down with a book waiting to be called downstairs. Venturing downstairs before she calls for me would likely make things worse and I need Lady Anne in the best possible mood for when the Duke arrives. When she arrived to bring me to London for the season Humphrey made her my legal guardian and as I've not yet turned 21 I need her permission to marry.

I end up waiting almost two hours before a maid knocks on the door. The time had passed slowly as I waited and even though I'd thought a book would help pass the time I couldn't concentrate on it. It had laid on my lap for most of the time and I'd barely read a full page.

"Miss Turner, Lady Harris is calling for you. The Duke of Dorset just arrived," The maid informs me once I give her permission to enter. Letting out a shaky breath I stand up and follow the maid downstairs, trying to prepare myself for the conversation ahead of me.

By the time I'm standing in front of the doors to the sitting room I've managed to calm myself down enough to at least put up the appearance of being relaxed. The last thing that I need is for either of them to see weakness, Lady Anne and likely the Duke know that I'd planned the compromise although they haven't seemed to realise that my plan had gone wrong. And I'm sure that if the Duke finds out then everything will get worse.

"Miss Turner, your Ladyship. Your Grace." The footman at the door announces as he opens the door for me. Holding my head high I walk inside the sitting room where Lady Anne is already seated on a settee while the Duke has likely refused a seat and is instead standing tensely across from her.

"Sit down," Lady Anne tells me with only a glance in my direction. Just like last night the Duke won't even look at me. "His Grace and I were just about to begin discussing the consequences of last nights… incident."

Silently I obey her sitting myself down next to Lady Anne, carefully avoiding making eye contact with the Duke as I notice him somehow become even tenser since my arrival. I hadn't thought that it was possible for someone to stand so stiffly yet the Duke's perfect posture is held so tightly that he could be mistaken for a statue.

"Now last night I proposed that a marriage would be the quickest and simplest solution to the situation we find ourselves in. Have you given my suggestion any further thought your Grace?"

"Yes. After some consideration I concur that a marriage is the best way forward," The Duke replies his voice every bit as tense as his bearing. Then his sharp loathing filled eyes meet mine for the first time. "However I will make myself perfectly clear right now before this goes any further. I know who you are Miss Turner and who your brother is. I will not be paying off Baron Dynham's debts for the rest of my life nor will I be providing you with money directly just for it to fund his habits. Do you understand Miss Turner?"

"Yes your Grace," I reply softly trying to hide my relief as much as possible, "I understand." I'd never planned to have contact with Humphrey after I got married knowing that, just as the Duke has assumed, he'd want money. He nods decisively in reply turning his attention back to Lady Anne now that he's made himself clear on that matter.

"Well I think we've come to an agreement. I'll obtain a special license within the next few days so you can start preparing for the wedding to take place sometime next week. After the wedding I plan for Miss Turner and I to quit London to allow the… scandal to die down." With a final curt nod towards Lady Anne he takes his leave.

"You certainly got very lucky, Miss Turner." Lady Anne lets out a sigh before continuing, "After the changes you made to one of the new dresses I brought and that you have many more unworn I don't believe that you will be in need of a trousseau. If you are in need of anything new after the wedding the Duke can provide it, I've given you enough. Now you are not to leave this house until the wedding, am I understood?"

"Yes Lady Anne," I reply standing and bidding her farewell I make my way back to my room. It's clear that until I get married it'll be preferred that I stay out of her sight. At least it shouldn't be for long based on the Duke acquiring a special license for us to marry quickly. By the end of next week I'll be the Duchess of Dorset.

With little else to do while keeping out of Lady Anne's way I start looking through my wardrobe. The dresses I have it seems will have to last me for quite a while as it doesn't seem likely that the Duke will be any more willing than Lady Anne to provide me with a new wardrobe. At least with Lady Anne's standards the dresses will be suitable for a Duchess, but only barely. Not that better dresses will be needed straight away with the Duke plans to leave London after the wedding.

The only dress that I won't be able to take with me is the evening dress that I wore last night. Usually I'd repair any of my dresses that are torn and I'm capable of fixing the dress but it's likely not a dress that the Duke will ever want to see again. Nor will Lady Anne want to see it either, so it'll probably be thrown away perhaps even destroyed depending on how angry she remains. It seems likely that she's angry enough to burn it herself rather than ordering her servants to.

Time passes surprisingly fast even though I've been confined to my room most of the time. As expected the Duke is able to obtain a special license and sends word to us once he has it causing wedding preparations to continue in earnest. Lady Anne doesn't trust me to be involved though so she takes over the planning so the only involvement I have in my own wedding is adding some lace and embroidery to one of my existing dresses. Even that is thoroughly examined by both a maid and Lady Anne to make sure that the only work I do on the dress is embroidery.

In the blink of an eye I find myself walking down the aisle towards the Duke in a small church. The only guests here are Lady Anne, the Earl of Bedford and Lord Henry Drydan to witness the marriage yet every member of the ton likely know about this. Ever since the ball scandal sheets have been printing about the Duke and I, much to Lady Anne's frustration every time 'Miss E.T' or 'Duke of D' were printed in the sheets.

None of that matters now though as I stand with the Duke before the vicar to say our vows. Despite the Duke's best efforts he'd been unable to get the vicar to shorten the ceremony to just the vital sections that are needed for us to be married but by the end of today I'll be the Duchess of Dorset. It won't stop the rumours and gossip but they might calm down slightly due to our marriage. Still it will be years before this scandal fades into the ton's distant memory.

The vicar's words fade into the background for me as the ceremony starts, I'd never spent too much time thinking about God. I attend church on Sunday as expected of me but I hardly pay attention to the sermons there either as listening to them often sends me to sleep. I don't truly hear the vicar speaking until he gets to the vows.

"William Lockhart wilt thou have this Woman to thy wedded Wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honour, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?"

"I will," The Duke replies as tense as always. He's standing opposite me yet like all the other times we've been in the same room he doesn't look at me. To anyone else it might seem like he is but instead he's looking just above my head rather than at me.

"Eleanor Turner wilt thou have this Man to thy wedded Husband, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, honour, and keep him in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all other, keep thee only unto him, so long ye both shall live?" the vicar asks turning his head slightly towards me.

"I will," I reply managing to at least to sound happier than the Duke when he answered. The vicar carries on to the next part of the ceremony that will involve the Duke touching me for the first time since the ball. At the vicar's prompt he takes my right hand in his own.

"I William Sackville take thee Eleanor Turner to my wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth." He says repeating the vow after the priest. No sooner has he said the words than he drops my hand like it causes him physical pain to touch me.

"I Eleanor Turner take thee William Sackville to my wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish and to obey, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth." I vow following the vicar's words while holding the Duke's right hand in my own. The holding hands part here doesn't make much sense to me as we'd only just let go but then I had to take the Duke's hand again.

We're closed to finishing the ceremony now all with just the ring and a final prayer left before the vicar will declare us married. Usually there would be more for a wedding but the Duke it seems has paid more for the ceremony to end there rather than including the usual blessing and reading of a Psalm. Taking hold of my left hand the Duke accepts the ring from the vicar ready for the next part of the ceremony as he repeats after the vicar.

"With this Ring I thee wed, with my Body I thee… worship, and with all my worldly Goods I thee endow: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." The further into the vow he gets the more strained he sounds. At the end of the vow though he puts the ring on my finger and the two of us kneel down before the vicar.

"Let us pray. O Eternal God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, Giver of all spiritual grace, the Author of everlasting life; Send thy blessing upon these thy servants, this Man and this Woman, whom we bless in thy Name; that, as Isaac and Rebecca lived faithfully together, so these persons may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt them made, and may ever remain in perfect love and peace together, and live according to thy laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." The vicar intones leading us in prayer before joining mine and the Duke's right hands together. "Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder."

He turns his attention to our witness, few though they may be. We're near the end of the ceremony now and I can't wait to get out of here. This vicar speaks rather slowly and mostly in monotone which is dragging this out so much that my knees are aching already from kneeling.

"Forasmuch as William Sackville and Eleanor Turner have consented together in holy Wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, and thereto have given and pledged their troth either to other, and have declared the same by giving and receiving of a Ring, and by joining of hands; I pronounce that they be Man and Wife together, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." He declares to them and we're officially married. By the Duke's request the ceremony ends there and the vicar leads us to a private room so that we can sign the register making our marriage official by law.

The wedding ceremony now over we return to our witnesses the Duke wasting no time in separating from me to talk with the Earl of Bedford and Lord Drydan. Leaving me to face Lady Anne alone. As I approach her expression in neutral but she can't hide her loathing of me in her eyes.

"Your Grace," She greets me with a small curtsy as though the words and action cause her physical pain. It does give me some pleasure knowing that from now on I have the greater rank and she will have to greet me in this way until she dies.

"Lady Anne," I reply nodding my head slightly in acknowledgment, revelling in the feeling of being above her in rank after the never ending humiliation that she's shown me.

"I suppose I should say congratulations. But from what the Duke has told me you won't be celebrating your victory for long," She pauses just long enough to see the confusion on my face at her words, "Good day your Grace." Without another word she turns and leaves the church.

Her departure leaves me standing alone pondering her words while my husband still talks with his friends. What could the Duke have decided would happen now that we are married?

"Wife," My husbands deep voice says startling me from my thoughts, "Come we're leaving." Despite this he doesn't wait for me before stalking towards the church doors giving me no other choice but to almost run to catch up with him.

Outside a carriage is waiting and as I walk over to it I'd assumed that the Duke would be joining me inside. Instead he walks over to were a servant is holding a horse's reins and swiftly mounts up, I'm to ride alone. Not just that though but alone with no knowledge of my destination as at the back of the carriage I'd noticed trunks so we can't be going anywhere close by. As I settle into the carriage I receive an answer to the questions burning in my mind.

"To Knole House." The Duke calls out riding out ahead of the carriage. We're leaving London.