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The Duke Disguised Himself as a Footman to Meet His Bride — What He Overheard Left Him Speechless

The Duke Disguised Himself as a Footman to Meet His Bride — What He Overheard Left Him Speechless

Chapter 15

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The cook burst into tears.It took two months. They walked the frozen fields of Calderwood with his tenants. They took the coach back to Ashgrove together and read aloud to Kit by the fire. They argued about drainage ditches and novels and whether Pike should be allowed to retire to the seaside—and he was.On the first warm morning of April, in the garden at Ashgrove, Lucien Harkort went down on one knee in the wet grass. He didn't make a speech. He simply held up a plain gold band and said, "Please."Amelia looked at him for a long moment. "Two conditions," she said."Name them.""Kit goes to a real school, the way any clever girl deserves. Not tutored in a locked room—a real school with friends and books and mischief.""Done.""And every servant at Calderwood is paid on the day they're owed, and has a fire in their hall, and is never once in their life called a piece of furniture."Lucien's eyes filled. "Both of them, forever.""Then yes," Amelia whispered. "Yes, Luke."They were married in the village church in June. Kit, healthy and sunburned, carried her sister's train down the aisle. Nan Bellow cried from the first hymn to the last. Molly carried the flowers. Dr. Thorne stood beside the groom. And Ambrose Pike, retired at last to his cottage by the sea, came back for one day to dress the Duke of Calderwood for his wedding, and said it was the only morning in twelve years he'd enjoyed tying a cravat.That night, Amelia asked her husband the question she'd been saving for months: "When you stood outside Kit's door that first night and heard what I said, what did you think?"Lucien was quiet for a moment. "I came to Ashgrove to see how my future wife would treat a servant. I thought she'd look straight through me." He took her hand. "Instead, she gave me the only warm thing she had. That's when I knew. I didn't come to judge a bride, Amelia. I came to find a duchess. And she found me first."The Duke disguised himself as a servant to find out who his bride really was, and what he heard behind her door was not greed or ambition, but a woman ready to sacrifice everything for the one person she loved. Silas Crowther wanted a quiet death and a fortune; he got a prison ship and nothing at all. Amelia Hartwell was never a payment, a ward, or a prize: she was the bravest person in that house, and in the end, she chose her own life.
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The Duke Disguised Himself as a Footman to Meet His Bride — What He Overheard Left Him Speechless

15 Part