Page 85 of The Duchess He Couldn’t Resist

Not long after, she was in a carriage that rode through the City of London straight to where she came from. It seemed that it was always her fate in that house. She saw Cove Manor, and her heart constricted.

She knocked on the door, and Alfred opened it. His strict, tired face lit up the moment he saw her.

“My Lady… I mean, Your Grace,” he said.

“It is quite all right, Alfred. Call me whichever way you want,” Marigold smiled bitterly. “We have been through a lot, you and me.”

But before she had any more time, her mother appeared at the door. Her first reaction was to regard her with surprise, and then her face melted into cruel delight.

“Marigold,” her own mother hissed at her sight. “Well, isn’t that quite a twist?”

“May I come in, Mother?”

“And pray do tell, Your Grace,” Clair scrunched her face, calling her by her title, “what brings you to my doorstep?”

“I just really need a place to stay for a night.”

“Oh dear,” Clair said with a sharp smile. “Didn’t I warn you? I warned you to tie yourself to the Duke by giving him an heir. Why else would he keep you around?”

Marigold knew her mother was cruel. After the way Marigold had treated her, she would be spiteful and vengeful. It was still quite the disappointment to see her spit her venom, leaving Marigold standing right outside the door of the house that she had made sure still stood.

“May I come in?”

“First you scorn me,” her mother stood there blocking her entrance, “then you humiliate me and throw me away. And now that the Duke caught on how useless you are, you come crawling back.”

Marigold had survived worse. It was not the first time that her mother insulted her. But thinking for a moment that her way of seeing her was the way he saw her drove a knife through her stomach.

“If I could just…”

“Look at you…” Clair’s voice dripped with contempt. “You thought you were so clever, didn’t you?”

Marigold said nothing, just stood there, ready to withstand the arsenal of insults her mother had in store. And to think that standing up to Clair was what made Brandon so proud of her. Never mind the reward he had reserved for her.

“You thought you could rise above your station,” Clair continued. “You really believed you would be a respected and powerful duchess. But you are nothing but the useless, stupid girl you’ve always been.”

Marigold looked up at her mother. And she knew part of what her mother said was true. It was naive of her to come here, thinking there was still an inkling of motherly love that would make Clair set aside her own selfish view of the world and just comfort her daughter in her hour of need.

“Did he throw you out with just the clothes on your back?” Clair demanded.

“It is just for one night, Mother,” Marigold said, looking around at people passing by, witnessing the scene.

“You should have given me the money when you had the chance, Marigold,” her mother hissed. “Now that you don’t have your husband’s backing, go crawl into whatever hole you will find.”

Marigold decided that her mother would not change her mind, and she was making more of a scene by standing there, so she took a step back. Right at that moment, a figure appeared behind Clair, a man, well-dressed with a stern expression.

“What is going on here?” he demanded.

Marigold’s heart leapt with hope. That was certainly Charles, her cousin. He was the real lord of the house, and perhaps he would be more prone to allow her to stay and protect her from Clair since it was she who helped him come back from the colonies and claim his title.

“Lord Covington,” Marigold said, “I am your cousin Marigold.”

Charles’s expression did not soften. An icy suspicion crawled up her spine.

“I know exactly who you are.”

“I only need a place to stay, just for one night.”

Charles looked at her with cold, appraising eyes before he turned his attention to Clair. Marigold saw the same thing unfold which she had witnessed for many years. Her mother’s poison got hold of her cousin.