Chapter One
Young ladies should not, definitely not, fling themselves through a duke’s window.
It was a fact accepted throughout society, after all.
However, Lady Jacqueline Peabody was an excellent climber, and at present? Her motivation was perfectly reasonable by all her accounts.
She had the skill and the need.
Jacqueline had perfected her tree-climbing skills over years and years of romping about her family’s estate, scaling oaks, ash, and every possible tree that one could imagine. If it ascended into the sky, she climbed it, easily swinging from its limbs.
Such endeavors had been completely acceptable until she’d turned nine. And then much discourse had been made about the continuance of such endeavors in a girl who, by society’s dictates, should begin training to be alady.
To her good fortune, her mother and father had indulged her wild ways. For they were not bogged down by the boring dogma of society that a lady should always be, well…boring.
So, she had never been shunted into the school room to be restricted by stays, needlepoint, and banal conversation. No, she’d been encouraged to get as much exercise as possible with her elder brother, Alexander, and his friend James, the future Duke of Stone, as they had romped over the countryside.
Perhaps such attitudes were a mistake in the end, for it seemed the Peabody mantra of fortitude and adventure had got them all in a right mess.
And now the stakes were quite high. Hence, her staring at a ducal window in the west of London—a ducalbedchamberwindow—gauging the distance and contemplating gravity.
Yes.She nodded to herself, affirming her wild plan as just. This flinging of self was necessary. Imperative. Absolutely vital to her future and the airing of her fury.
Given her current state of affairs, it did not matter that the oak tree outside the Duke of Stone’s townhouse window was quite tall, quite ancient, and sprawling skyward.
The window, with its yellow rectangle of candle glow, beckoned. Thankfully, the unseasonably warm spring air meant that most houses had their windows open. The duke’s was no different.
And it was a good thing. For she could not simply call upon him by herself. She certainly wasn’t about to tell her dear mama that she wished to berate a duke.
But there was no escaping her fate now. For Stone had had the temerity to find her older sister, Louise, ahusband.
It was true that generally the finding of a husband for one’s sister should be a glorious thing. Especially if the fellow was a good man. Deptford certainly was. There was no denying it.
And Louise washappy. The two were a perfectly matched couple. They were going to be ridiculously content together. After all, they suited each other in every way.
There was but one dilemma.
Lord Deptford, youngest son of the Marquess of Scollingford, had only his living as a vicar to sustain him. It was a good living, but nothing remarkable. She should have been pleased for her sister. But this lack of fortune was a coil indeed for Jacqueline.
Because, now,shewas the one who had to marry for money and position.
Louise was beautiful, charming, and adored balls. Jacqueline was fine to look upon but nothing notable, and she far preferred her pianoforte to people. And trees. She preferred trees.
Truthfully, all Jack wished to do was spend her hours at her music and strolling through nature. It sounded terribly cliché, but music was her life. She’d been so certain she was going to be able to devote her life to it.
But when the family coffers needed shoring up? Needs must. She could not deny her sister her marriage. She would never be so selfish. She could, however, shower the duke responsible with her wrath.
Drawing in a steadying breath, Jacqueline focused on Stone’s open window, gauged her weight, gauged the limb above her, grabbed hold of its rough branch, and swung herself forward through the frame.
The pale curtains danced about her like merry ghosts as she glided in and landed upon her booted feet like a cat upon the ornately woven Aubusson.
As she stared at the rug, taking a moment to center herself, she felt a moment of perfect shock at her own daring.
This was a rather unexpected thing to do, but the stakes were exceptionally high. The truth was, she had attempted to make Stone’s acquaintance several times in the last week at various functions.
Acquaintance.
What a terrible thing to be relegated to when once she had roamed about hills and valleys with him and her brother, happily a part of their wild antics, their chosen mascot.