The Duchess Read online

  Dear Reader,

  For centuries, British inheritance laws favored eldest sons to the detriment of younger sons, and daughters. It often created dire situations of wealthy eldest sons and younger children desperate for enough to live on, with the money and estate given to a sole inheritor. Even today, in other countries, not just England, inequities in an inheritance can cause desperation for some, and strife among siblings.

  The Duchess was fascinating to write, because of both the history and the human dramas involved in unexpected situations and unorthodox solutions. A young girl is cast out of her safe, familiar, extremely comfortable world, even her adoring father unable to protect her from the laws of the land and her cruel older brother. What do you do when everything you know is lost to you, and you have nothing, and no one to help you? Where do you go when all the doors close resoundingly behind you? And then yet another door closes and the ledge you are standing on, delicately balanced, becomes even narrower. What do you do, faced by a family member who has all the power and chooses to use it against you? And when an employer falsely accuses you, and you have nowhere to turn, and lose the job you relied on? The young duchess loses everything and everyone she had to protect her.

  The resourcefulness and courage of the human spirit have always fascinated me, and I love to write about it. The duchess chooses the most unfamiliar, unimaginable path and creates a world beyond her own imagining, and even ours. A fascinating world, full of powerful men and important people, and she moves among them, untouched, unharmed, in control of her own destiny, and even helping others. Where life leads her will intrigue you, I hope. And beneath it all is my belief that good triumphs over evil, and certainly should. The way is not clear at first, as it isn’t for any of us, and the road to salvation can be a very bumpy one, but it is my hope that the good, the brave, the honest, and the strong prevail in the end. The story could be just as true in our modern day. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  Love,

  Danielle Steel

  The Duchess is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Danielle Steel

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  DELACORTE PRESS and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Names: Steel, Danielle, author.

  Title: The duchess : a novel / Danielle Steel.

  Description: New York : Delacorte Press, [2017]

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016038517| ISBN 9780345531087 (print) | ISBN 9780425285367 (ebook)

  Classification: LCC PS3569.T33828 D83 2017 | DDC 813/.54--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2016038517

  Ebook ISBN 9780425285367

  randomhousebooks.com

  Book design by Virginia Norey, adapted for ebook

  Cover design: Derek Walls

  Cover photograph: © Jeff Cottenden

  v4.1

  ep

  Contents

  Cover

  Author's Note

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Epigraph

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Dedication

  By Danielle Steel

  About the Author

  Courage is not the absence of fear or despair, but the strength to conquer them.

  Chapter 1

  Belgrave Castle sat in all its splendor in the heart of Hertfordshire, as it had for eleven generations and nearly three hundred years, since the sixteenth century. And aside from some more modern features that had been added, and a few decorative touches, very little had changed in its history. And its owners followed the same traditions they had for more than two hundred years, which was reassuring. It was the family seat of Phillip, Duke of Westerfield. The Latham family had built Belgrave Castle, it was one of the largest castles in England, and due to the duke’s fortune, one of the most beautifully maintained.

  The land around it was extensive and stretched as far as the eye could see, with forests, a large lake—which the groundsmen kept well stocked for fishing—and tenant farms, which were run by farmers whose ancestors had been serfs. The duke had overseen all of it since his youth, when his father died in a hunting accident on a neighboring estate. And under his diligent care, Belgrave and all its land and properties had prospered. At seventy-four, he had been schooling his eldest son, Tristan, in the management of the estate for several years. Phillip felt that his son was ready to take it on, and handle it responsibly, but he had other concerns about him. Tristan was forty-five years old, married with two daughters. The duke’s younger son, Edward, was forty-two years old, had never married, and had no legitimate children, though countless illegitimate ones. No one knew just how many, not even Edward himself. And he was given to strong drink and gambling, and every kind of indulgence one could imagine, preferably if it involved fast horses or women. It would have been a disaster if he had been the eldest, but fortunately he wasn’t, although neither of Phillip’s sons had produced a son and heir.

  Both men were the sons of the duke’s first wife, Arabella, the daughter of an earl, and Phillip’s second cousin, with a handsome fortune of her own. She came from an irreproachable family, of aristocratic lineage, and she had been young when they married. It had been a union both families had approved of, Phillip had been twenty-eight, and Arabella barely seventeen, and strikingly pretty. She had been the star of her first London Season, where she had been expected to meet her future husband, and she had done so very successfully. But Phillip had discovered that she had a cold nature as she grew older, and she was far more interested in social pursuits, and enjoying the benefits of being a duchess, than she was in her husband, and she had even less interest in her children. She was a very self-centered woman, though greatly admired for her beauty. She had died of influenza when the boys were four and seven, and with the assistance of governesses, the large staff he employed, and his mother, the dowager duchess, who had still been alive at the time, Phillip had brought up his boys alone.

  The young women of neighboring families, and the London hostesses who entertained him when he went to town, did their best to catch his interest in the ensuing years. But the boys were in their twenties before Phillip met the woman who enchanted him totally and became the love of his life the moment he met her. Marie-Isabelle was the daughter of a French marquis, first cousin of the late French king who had died in the French Revolution. She was a Bourbon on one side of her family and Orléans on the other, with royals on both sides. She had been born during the first year of the Revolution, and her parents had been killed shortly after, their château burned to the ground and all their possessions stolen or destroyed. Sensing what was coming, her father had sent her as an infant to stay with friends in England, with provisions made for her, should the worst he feared happen in France. She had grown up happily in the bosom of the English family w
ho had agreed to take her in, and doted on her. She was an enchanting young girl of striking beauty, with almost-white blond hair, enormous blue eyes, an exquisite figure, and skin like fine porcelain. And she had been just as taken with the duke, when she met him, as he was with her. They were equally well born, both related to monarchs, and Marie-Isabelle had fallen in love with him immediately. They were married four months later, when she was eighteen, and for the first time in his life, Phillip knew true happiness, with a woman he adored. And they made a striking couple. He was tall, powerfully built, and elegant, and Marie-Isabelle combined the aristocratic habits of the English, among whom she had grown up, with the charm of the French, through her own ancestry. She proved to be a wonderful addition to his life, and loved Belgrave as much as he did, helping him to add beautiful decorative pieces to his existing heirlooms. The castle shone with her presence, and everyone loved her, with her bright sunny ways, and obvious adoration of her husband. He was fifty-five when they married, and felt like a boy again when he was with her.

  Their life together was like a fairy tale, which ended all too quickly. She conceived a child during their first year of marriage, and died two days after giving birth to a daughter they named Angélique because she looked like an angel, with the same white-blond hair and sky-blue eyes as her mother. Bereft without Marie-Isabelle, Phillip devoted his life to his daughter, who was the joy of his existence. He took her everywhere with him, and taught her as much as her brothers knew about the estate, perhaps more. She had the same passion for their land and home that he did, and the same innate instincts for it. They spent many long winter nights talking about the running of Belgrave, and the farms, and in the summer they rode out on horseback together while he showed her changes and improvements he had made, explaining to her why they were important. She had a complete understanding about how the estate worked, and a good head for figures and finance, and gave him sound advice.

  Angélique was tutored at home, and spoke fluent French, taught to her by a French governess Phillip had hired for her. He wanted her to speak her mother’s language as well. Marie-Isabelle had spoken both too, thanks to the attentions of the family who had raised her.

  And as Angélique grew older, she took perfect care of her father, watched him attentively, worried when he wasn’t well, and nursed him herself through any illness. She was the perfect daughter, and Phillip felt guilty for not taking her to London more often. But it tired him to go there, and he had long since lost interest in attending balls and major social events, although he had taken Angélique to his cousin King George IV’s coronation when she was twelve, at Westminster Abbey in 1821. She had been one of the few children there, but due to their close relationship, the king had allowed it. Angélique had been agog at all the pomp and circumstance, and the festivities afterward. Sixty-eight by then, and in failing health, Phillip had been relieved to return to the country but happy he had taken her. She said she would never forget it and talked about it for years afterward.

  Since then, the duke had often thought about Angélique’s first Season, the ball he should give her at their London home in Grosvenor Square, and the men she would meet there. But he couldn’t bear the thought of exposing her to the world quite so soon, and losing her to a husband, who would surely take her away from him. She was too beautiful for that not to happen, and he dreaded it.

  Several years earlier he had allowed Tristan and his wife and their two daughters to move into the London house, since he no longer went there. He was more comfortable and at ease at Belgrave, and he found London and the social whirl exhausting. And Angélique always insisted she was happy in Hertfordshire with him, and had no need to go to London. She preferred to be at home with her father.

  Tristan’s wife, Elizabeth, could easily have taken over the duties of escorting Angélique through her first Season, and even arranged a ball for her, which the duke would have paid for. But Tristan had been consumed with jealousy of Angélique from the day she was born, a feeling that had started with his hatred of her mother, and anger over his father’s second marriage. Despite Marie-Isabelle’s royal ancestry, Tristan and his younger brother had referred to her as “the French whore.” It was not unknown to their father, and caused him untold grief. And their open hostility to their sister once she was born caused him greater concern with each passing year.

  According to the law, the title, his estate, and the bulk of his fortune were entailed to Tristan, with some considerably lesser provision for Edward, as younger son. Edward was to inherit the Dower House on the estate, which was a handsome sprawling manor, occupied by his grandmother for many years until her death. And Phillip had settled an income on him, which would provide well for him, if he didn’t indulge all his follies. But if he did, Phillip knew that his older brother would take care of him, as the two brothers had always been close, and Tristan would never allow him to be ruined. But Phillip could leave nothing to his only daughter, other than a dowry if she married. He had several times expressed the wish to Tristan that she live in the castle for as long as she wanted, and in a house on the estate they referred to as “the Cottage,” when she grew older, if she chose to, even if she married.

  The Cottage was almost as large as the Dower House, and similarly required a large staff to run it, and her father knew she would be comfortable there. But the ultimate decision would be up to Tristan, and how generous he wished to be with her. He was under no legal obligation to provide for his sister. Her father had also requested that Tristan support her financially, and settle a proper amount on her when she married, as befitting their position in the world, and her noble birth. He did not want Angélique to become penniless, or pushed to the side at his death, but according to the law, there was no way he could prevent it. She would be at the mercy of her brothers, and could not inherit from him directly. He had spoken of it to Angélique often, and she insisted he not worry. She didn’t need a great deal to be happy, and as long as she could live at Belgrave forever, it was all she wanted and could imagine. But knowing the ways of the world better, the dangers of the estate being entailed to an oldest son, the hardness of Tristan’s character, and the greed of his wife, Phillip spent many sleepless nights worrying about his daughter. And even more so recently, as he got older and his health continued to fail.

  Phillip had been ill for the past month, with a lung infection that had been worsening steadily, and Angélique was very concerned. She had had the doctor in to see him several times, and for the past week he had been running a fever. It was November, it had been unusually cold, and she had had the maids keeping the fire bright in her father’s bedroom to keep him warm. Belgrave had a tendency to be drafty in winter, and the weather had been bitter cold this year, with snows since October, and she could hear the wind howling outside as she sat at his bedside and read to him. He had drifted off to sleep several times that afternoon. Whenever he woke, he seemed agitated, and his cheeks were bright with fever. Mrs. White, the housekeeper, had been in to look at him while he was asleep, and she agreed with Angélique that they should send for the doctor again. His valet, John Markham, thought so too. Markham had served the duke since long before Angélique was born and was nearly as old as his employer, whom he was deeply devoted to. None of them liked the turn this illness was taking. The duke had a deep, racking cough, and he wished to neither eat nor drink, although Markham had brought several trays to his room.

  A butler named Hobson ran the house, and often vied with Markham for the duke’s attention, but for now, with the duke feeling so ill, Hobson allowed Markham to tend to him without interference. Angélique was grateful for their devotion to her father, who was well loved by all, and a kind man, who cared for each of them as an attentive and responsible employer. And he had taught Angélique to do the same.

  She knew each of their footmen and housemaids by name, their histories and something about their origins, as well as the groundskeepers and grooms in the stables, and the tenant farmers and their families. She spo
ke to them as they crossed paths in the course of a day, as she went about her tasks around the castle, checking the linens with Mrs. White, or listening to problems in the kitchen. Their cook, Mrs. Williams, was a fierce but good-hearted woman who ran her kitchen with an iron hand, and ordered the kitchen maids around like an army sergeant, but the meals she produced were delicious, and worthy of any grand home. She was trying to tempt the duke with some of his favorite meals at the moment, and the trays had come back untouched for three days. She cried when she saw it, and feared it was an ominous sign, as did those who had seen him. He looked desperately sick, and Angélique had observed it too. At eighteen, she was mature for her age, knew how to run her father’s home, and had nursed him many times in recent years. But this time was different. He’d been ill for a month, with no sign of improvement, and after nearly a week of fever, he was not responding to the care and good nursing being lavished on him. And all he wanted to do was sleep, which was very unlike him. Even at seventy-four, he was a vital man, and interested in everything until now.

  The doctor came again when he was sent for, and said he wasn’t pleased at the turn things were taking. And after he left, Angélique tried to coax her father to eat the broth Mrs. Williams had made him, with thin slices of poached chicken on the side, but he wanted none of it, and waved it away, as Angélique watched him with tears in her eyes.

  “Papa, please…just try some of the soup. It’s delicious, and you’ll hurt Mrs. Williams’s feelings if you don’t at least take a little.” He coughed for five minutes then, when he attempted to argue with her, and sank back against the pillows, looking exhausted. She noticed that he seemed to be shrinking, growing thinner, and losing strength, and there was no denying that he had become frail, although usually she tried to pretend otherwise. He drifted off to sleep then, as she held his hand, and sat watching him. Markham came and went several times, glancing in from the doorway, and then leaving on silent feet.