Page 2 of No Duke of Mine

The last time he’d been summoned like this, the dragon had insisted he make haste to marry. He fully intended to if he could ever leave the estate.

He found Aunt Violet in the morning room, tea, a London newspaper, a pile of fresh correspondence at her elbow, and his butler waiting to do her bidding.

She squinted at Algernon. “About time, boy.”

“You wanted to see me, Aunt?”

“Yes,” she said, and then glanced at the butler pointedly.

She did not tell him to leave, but it was clear she wished to have a private word without the butler listening in. “Seymour, would you be so kind as to have the coachman walk the horses again? I will be there as soon as I can, and we can be on our way.”

When he was gone, he glanced at his aunt with a brow raised. “We’re alone now.”

She gulped. “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Beyond giving our butler an assistant of his own?”

“I should like you to dismiss him from your service,” she announced. “Dismiss Seymour today, before you leave.”

Algernon gaped. “I cannot dismiss him. Seymour is essential to the running of the estate, especially when I am away. I thought you liked him.”

She huffed. “Oh, I do. Just not as a servant.”

Algernon stared at her in confusion. Her expression seemed vexed, and then he noticed her cheeks turning red. Embarrassment? The suspicions about his aunt and butler suddenly had her request making a strange sort of sense. “You like my butler, but not as a butler.”

Her eyes flashed with an emotion he’d never seen there before. Fear.

He and his aunt were not close. She criticized him and how he ran the estate constantly since her return. However, he was not her enemy, and Algernon debated how to reassure her of that. “What can I do?”

“Do what I want.”

“I cannot, but perhaps I could simplify matters upon my return.” He paused. “I will be making a call to the Archbishop of Canterbury to obtain a special license to marry Lady Kent while I am in London. Perhaps I could secure a second for you.”

Her eyes widened. “Yes, that is what I want most of all.”

He nodded. “Consider it done, Aunt.”

She let out a shuddering breath and smiled hesitantly. “Safe journey, boy, and a fast return.”

He bowed and swept from her presence, bemused that he was about to play matchmaker again when he returned to Ravenswood. A marriage to a butler for a noble-born lady was bound to make waves in society and in the family. But if he approved, others would not be difficult.

Surely, having two very old people marry respectably was better than sneaking around after dark to see each other and risking broken bones.

He found everyone waiting at the front door still, even his butler. He gave the older man additional instructions. “Keep a close eye on my aunt.”

“Yes, of course,” Seymour promised.

“Make sure she doesn’t become too tired with the children sitting on her knee,” he warned. “Shoo them away and lock the door.”

“There is no stopping her when it comes to the young ones,” Seymour told him.

“Find a way to keep her happy until I come back,” he insisted.

Algernon nodded to everyone else, took one last glance around him, and sighed heavily. There was nothing left to keep him from his duty now. No reason to delay in the hope of a last-minute rescue from marriage. All his instructions had been delivered and would be executed in his absence.

Algernon climbed into his carriage, resigned to leave at last. Sims, his valet, was there already. Once Algernon was settled, he waved to his family, and the driver set off for their destination.

A stack of papers was immediately passed to him—a first draft of a marriage contract between himself and Lady Stephanie Kent to review.