The Duke's Daughter -Wattys2014 Collector's Dream Award Winner-

Chapter Fifty Five

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The Duchess made her way below deck to await her meeting with Lord Trent. As her eyes adjusted to the glow of the wall sconce in the hallway outside her cabin, she realized she was not the hallway's only occupant. Her daughter stood, with her back to the Duchess, near a cabin boy who knelt before the captain's cabin door.

"This ain't right, your lady." The boy mumbled, as he jiggled the door handle, working what appeared to be a hairpin in the lock below.

"If you do not want to help, Mickey, I am sure I can manage on my own." Arianna huffed, switching her weight from one hip to the other.

"And have ya get dirt under yer finger nai-" The boy stopped, as he looked up at Arianna and saw the Duchess standing behind her.

"My Grace." Mickey nodded, rising to his feet with a shallow bow. The poor boy was obviously flustered in the presence of the Duchess.

Arianna whirled around, looking guiltily at her. "Mother!" She exclaimed, her tone louder than normal. "We were just..." Arianna cut off her excuse, as she looked at Mickey and realized it was quite obvious what they had just been doing, "Attempting to access the captain's cabin." A flush spread across the bridge of Arianna's nose.

"I see that, daughter. Would you join me in my cabin for a moment?" The Duchess replied.

"Certainly."

Mickey clicked his heels together in another bow to the Duchess. "If you'll excuse me, My Grace." Arianna closed her eyes and clamped her lips to keep herself from correcting his mistake for the umpteenth time. The boy maneuvered around the ladies' skirts, then made his way back onto the deck. Arianna watched him go with a glare. Deserter, she thought, as she turned to face her mother alone. Never mind the fact that it had been completely her idea to begin with.

The Duchess raised a brow at her daughter, and despite her current predicament, Arianna smiled at the mannerism that she had thought was merely a habit the week before. She had always felt at odds in her home, with her father, as their personalities differed so vastly. She now understood why certain things she did had pained her father, with a frequency that had always left her questioning exactly what she had done to upset him so. She now understood that she had more in common with her mother than the portrait in the drawing room of the family estate implied.

"Arianna." The Duchess wore a small smile now too, finding her daughter's grin contagious.

"Right!" Arianna spun on her heel and preceded her mother into the Duchess' cabin.

Arianna stepped past the door allowing her mother to enter, and stood in the middle of the floor with her hands folded before her, feeling very much like a child who had been caught redhanded.

"What do you hope to find in the captain's cabin?" The Duchess asked, a teasing tone accompanying the smirk upon her face.

Arianna felt her face heat. "His betrothal contract. I found a letter from his father when I was looking for a hairbrush, it said his betrothal contracts were enclosed. I know it is not my right to search his cabin, mother, but I have to know." Arianna realized she was babbling and quickly pressed her lips together to refrain from continuing.

"Why do you have to know, Arianna?" The Duchess prodded, all traces of humor gone from her face.

"Because.." Arianna turned from her mother's direct gaze and paced the floor space. The Duchess took one of the chairs at the table, hoping to remove herself from her daughter's thoughts and allow them to flow freely.

"I have to know." She said softly, before she turned to face her mother again.

"I have to know." She said again, but stronger. "Perhaps if I see a name printed across parchment, the sanded signatures, the wax seals, perhaps then I can convince myself to let go of him and commit to the betrothal father arranged for me. Perhaps then I can erase the dream from my mind."

"What dream is that daughter?" The Duchess asked, wanting to keep her daughter talking at the moment. She decided she would ask Lord Trent why her daughter had been looking for a hairbrush in his cabin at a later time. The man had said his intentions were honorable.

"The dream of... having him for my own. It doesn't seem fair. I finally find a man I want and I can not have him because father gave my hand away to another for his own ends."

The Duchess' brow raised once more, but she simply tucked the thought away for further evaluation as well, and focused on her daughter.

"You could convince him to elope with you. I would help."

Arianna's eyes snapped to her mother's. "I would never dream of trapping him."

"'Tis not what I meant to imply. I was implying that you tell him how you feel. You might be surprised, daughter."

"I don't know what I feel!" Arianna exclaimed. "I just know that when I am with him, my heartbeat is uncontrollable. I just know that I enjoy his company and his simplest touch sends shivers across my skin."

The Duchess smiled. "If he walked on deck with another woman on his arm, how would you feel?"

A murderous light formed in Arianna's eyes as her jaw tightened. "He has done exactly that."

The Duchess' brow lifted in surprise, "He has?"

"Aye, before I was taken by Miser. I was supposedly dead, and he acquired a leech, in the form of the only other unmarried young woman aboard the ship. He even allowed the twit to stand with him while he saluted me before the crew."

The Duchess' mind spun. "And what did you do?"

"Well, I was a cabin boy at the time, so I filled a tray full of tankards and spilt them all down her gown."

The Duchess laughed heartily, "Oh, daughter, you truly are my blood." She finally managed to say as she caught her breath. "You love him, child. It is alright to admit that. They say it is better to have loved and lost than to have never tried. Who knows, he may just elope with you."

Arianna shook her head, "I still cannot bring myself to disappoint father in such a way."

"He loves you, Arianna."

Arianna smiled, before she glanced down at her hands, lost in her own thoughts. The Duchess knew Arianna had misunderstood her. Arianna thought she had meant that her father loved her, but she had been speaking of Trent.

"If you are going to attempt to access the captain's cabin again, you should do so after I have coffee with him."

"Coffee?"

"Aye," The Duchess replied, rising from her chair and smoothed out her skirts. "And I must go before I keep him waiting."

Before Arianna could form an intelligent reply, her mother slipped from the cabin, shutting the door quietly behind her. Arianna sank into the chair her mother had vacated and simply stared at the closed door. She drew the corner of her bottom lip between her teeth as her brow knit. Why was her mother having coffee with Derek?

Better yet, why was Derek having coffee with her mother?