Free Chance the Winds of Fortune by Laurie McBain

family, and indeed, had desperately feared being rejected by them. For she was only the daughter of an impecunious army officer, who had managed, despite himself, to die bravely in battle, and as a last, dying gesture, had left his only child a ward of his commanding officer, General Sir Terence Fletcher, brother-in-law to the Duchess of Camareigh.
    It had been while living at Green Willows, the country estate of Sir Terence and Lady Mary, that Sarah Pargeter had met Richard Verrick, Marquis of Wrainton and younger brother of Lady Mary and the duchess. With his thick red hair, he resembled Lady Mary rather than the dark-haired duchess, and his quiet demeanor and gold-rimmed spectacles made the impression seem well founded—at least until Richard Verrick was moved by amusement, anger, or passion. Then he resembled the duchess, his blue eyes flashing a fire and spirit equal to his sister’s.
    Sarah glanced around the very elegant private drawing room of the Dominick family, and she could not help but compare the fine, plaster ceiling with its birds in flight and scrolled corners, the blue and gold flock wallpaper and ornately framed pictures, the silk-covered sofas and chairs, crystal chandeliers, and damask curtains, to the shabby rooms she had lived in while traveling the Continent with her father. Their hand-to-mouth existence fluctuated with his wins and losses in card games in every gaming hall, from Vienna to London to Paris. She had never thought to find herself having tea with a duke and duchess, and in a room such as this; nor had she thought that one day she herself would be a marchioness.
    Long ago, she had given up hope of making a successful marriage, for she knew she was no raving beauty, with her ordinary brown hair and brown eyes. And all she’d had as a dowry were her father’s staggering debts—his legacy to her upon his death. Sarah sighed, for her father may not have been a good father by accepted standards, but he had loved her, that she knew, and he had tried to do his best for her. He could rest easy, she thought, for she had married well, far better, in fact, than either of them had ever hoped for, and also, she had married for love.
    â€œAnd where is Richard?” the duchess asked now as she pulled the bell for the butler. “He did promise to be here for tea. No,” she commanded suddenly, holding up a slender, bejeweled hand before Sarah could answer, “do not tell me. He is in the Library, yes?”
    Sarah nodded. “How did you know?”
    â€œWhere else would he be? He swears that he comes here to visit me, but I honestly suspect it is to spend his time in Lucien’s library. We’ve added a whole new wall since Richard was last here, so I shouldn’t be surprised if we shan’t see him for days, the ungrateful wretch,” the duchess said, allowing her voice to carry just as the door opened to admit a lanky young man, who strode purposefully into the room.
    â€œI do not know how, or why, you put up with her,” the duchess’s younger brother complained, overhearing her comments just as he had been intended to. “Such defamation of character, and before a man’s wife,” Richard Verrick complained, glancing mockingly at his sister before placing a kiss on his wife’s flushed cheek. “I swear Rina’s tongue gets sharper with age. I always understood people were supposed to mellow with age.”
    But when Richard saw the quick retort quivering on his sister’s lips, he spread out his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Pax?” he asked coaxingly as he approached the duchess and kissed her cheek. Then he dropped down on the opposite sofa beside his wife. “I suspect I’ve been outmaneuvered again, and she has me just where she wants me. I don’t know how it is that I managed to marry Sarah without Her Grace’s assistance.”
    â€œDo you actually think you did not?” the duke