Free The Duke's Secret Desire (Regency Romance) (Regency Lords Book 4) by Regina Darcy Page B

British widow, and there were expectations from that quarter as well; her mother, an Englishwoman, had raised her according to English propriety so that she would not disgrace her place in British society.
    But her mother had died six months ago, and her husband had just taken his last breathe in a sickroom to which she was denied access.
    She must not risk the life of her unborn child, her father had proclaimed. He had emphasised that this was not a time for sentiment. This was a time when the ties between Great Britain and the Indian kingdom of Bharatpur needed to be strengthened.
    She felt remiss in her duty, neglecting her husband in his final hours. She could not have said that she loved him; her mother had told her that people of her station did not marry for love. Love for people of consequence was a mere whim, not something to be indulged. The lower casts might do so because they had nothing at stake: no alliances to build, no vast tracts of land to join, no family histories to unite. But during their one year of marriage, she had grown fond of him and her heart ached at the thought of his passing.
    As she sat in her bedchamber, while all around her the household made preparations for the funeral, she was aware that her father would have plans for her. Those plans would make no allowances for her preferences. She was a daughter and not a son, her wishes deemed irrelevant. She was, he would tell her, an insignificant link in the greater golden chain of destiny. She was certainly more valuable now that she was carrying the Baron’s heir and that value meant that her future had to be carefully considered to determine where she could be of the most use. Britain and Indian Bharatpur; she must never lose sight of that greater marriage, that powerful alliance, to which she owed her allegiance.
    When her father had told her that she was to marry the Baron, she had not questioned his decision. The Baron was young, wealthy, the heir to English lands that she had never seen; he had been a good man, a faithful husband, mindful of his duty as an officer and as a husband. Their wedding was a magnificent event to which the high-ranking British government officials and East India Company representatives, as well as the members of Indian royalty, had been invited. Her father had spared no expense to ensure that his daughter’s marriage was counted as the social affair of the season. There had been balls leading up to the ceremony; there had been tiger hunts for the gentlemen; there had been suppers and parties, so that all of India could behold the affection between the Maharajah of Bharatpur and the British Empire.
    Arya, only eighteen, had meekly done as she was told and if she felt lost in the swirl of gaiety which accompanied the engagement, she was wise enough to say nothing of her feelings to her mother, who had painstakingly coordinated the domestic preparation for the celebrations. Or to her father, who made sure that his only daughter was married off in a style which would put the British peerage to shame.
    Of course it was a British wedding; the Baron had insisted and the Maharajah had concurred. Arya had followed through with the practices which were somewhat foreign to her because, even though she was half-British, her life was lived following most of the Hindi customs. But a British wedding it had to be, and she had gone down the aisle on her father’s arm, in the Church of England ceremony where her husband awaited her. Beside him were his groomsmen and his best man, all officers in their vivid redcoats and martial bearing, their posture unyielding and their faces impassive. All except for one. As she approached the altar, the Duke of Middleton, her husband’s best man, had grinned at her and winked. She had been so startled by his departure from decorum that her face alighted in a broad smile. Everyone assumed that she was smiling at the Baron; the Baron himself had assumed as much. But everyone was wrong. She had