The Duke's Fight For Love

The Duke's Fight For Love

Vennyjnr

5.0
Comment(s)
59
View
48
Chapters

Blurb: Juliet meets Duke Jackson when she comes to love with her Aunt Elizabeth. There is a lively banter between the two and their sharp tongues are put to work. Eventually, they end up falling for each other. On the other hand, Jackson's relationship with Juliet is an abomination and cannot be allowed to continue because Juliet is not from a royal family. Already engaged to Lady Agnes, Jackson rejects her and chooses Juliet instead, turning everyone in his cabinet against him. Even his mother. Juliet is attacked in her own home and her aunt's living is threatened by the Duchess for being with Jackson. She has to make a choice between saving her aunt and loving Jackson. What will Juliet sacrifice and who will she give up? Or will she end up salvaging the both?

Chapter 1 Her Arrival

CHAPTER 1

Her Arrival

Juliet's POV

The flimsy shrivel air rushed freely to my face, as I walked along, dry hay crunching underneath my feet. I pulled out the piece of paper from my pouch where I stuffed it earlier; the piece Aunt Elizabeth had scribbled down the directions to her home. The route was still a bit further, my feet ached in my shoes, the heavy bag in my hands weighed my left shoulder and my throat longed for moisture. I would do well with rest and a warm meal. I dropped the bag from my grip, if it was an animate it would have felt that the heat was like that of a blacksmith furnace. I turned backwards facing the direction of where I had come from but I saw no one, no carriage at any distance, only the bowing stems of the tall hays by the paths. Tiny brown leaves rolled across the road in the direction of the wind, a sign of a lonely and abandoned route.

I continued the walk, in the same side that I had been walking for the last hours something I learnt to do after a dreadful circumstance occurred.

**

About a decade ago, as a lass walking home from church with mother, I would choose no path. My childlike self thought to be partial to nature if I decided on getting a favourite spot on the side of the road. I still like the warm feel of the midday sun on the sands, burying my shoes that I got the itchy bits of sand on my skin. I would watch the wind bring the dust on my footprints. I loved holding my dress so I do not get dust on it. Mother always warned; yelling with no iota of modesty to the point of using cuss words when any carriage came passing by. And then, the carriage came, the one that changed my life. I did not see it behind me_ the brownish, fairly polished wagon with its rider on the black horse. The gallops and neighs or mothers words were all inaudible to my tiny ears. I fell admits being hit, I saw the running hoofs of the horse beside me before I buried my face in the hot sand. Blood and tears gushed out of me by the time mother pulled me up.

**

I stopped walking as I heard a rhythmic trot on the ground, like that of a ten pound horse galloping at full speed. It could be a carriage, or just a lonely fellow on a horse back who happened to be passing by. I wish it was.

"Hey! fellow!" I waved my kerchief towards him as I sighted the rims of his hat. The horse began to slow down and finally came to a halt just in front of me.

"Hello."

"How do you do Mister?" I always love to put an extra bit of warmth when talking to a stranger, mother said it showed how courteous one could be and could make a stranger help without having you seeming desperate.

"How do you do too? What is a lovely lady doing on this path on a sunny day?"

"I'm heading to town. From the direction on this piece, it is still a bit further, so I was wondering if you could be kind enough to take me downtown. The sun is scorching and it is melting away my thinking organ."

"It is indeed a happy sun today. Hop on lady, the carriage is nearly full, you can shove the clothes aside. I deliver fabrics in the market in town." He grinned, his face looked like he just gave a sardonic smile.

"Thank you sire, you are very kind."

We rode along to the town, it was like a high estate of patricians, king-makers, the reason Elizabeth was contented living in a cottage. A cottage was like a mansion back home. Even with the rays from the sun, the women still held their heads up while walking, looking over their shoulders with one hand clutch to a hand fan. Some ladies stood behind them adjusting their dresses to avoid them tripping over it. Mother always called this kind of women, nobles, they were women of high standards in the society either Duchess, Lady's or people from wealthy homes.

"This is Sterling estate, miss." The carriage stopped by a path.

"Thank you for the ride." I waved at the carriage still holding my smile as he rode on. The estate gate sat opposite the cottage that was in-between a lawn. The cottage looked like every other building in England, with its greyish appearance from a long washed out cement bricks, but unlike other buildings in the estate which preceded from metal gates to tall storey buildings, this was just a small fraction, like different parts of each buildings were cut out and put together to make a smaller one. Aunt Elizabeth had won the hearts of these people when she made the most pulchritudinous dress for a Lady. Now, she makes a good living as a seamstress in town. I walked past the fence_ a half wooden fence that surrounded the cottage. Clothing and sheets swung freely hanging from the clothesline.

I walked along, already feeling the wetness underneath my arm. Mother would not like to see me like this, she always warned that I lacked some bit of modesty as I might not get a good suitor like my sisters. I saw a lady walk out from the door with a basket full of fabrics.

"Aunt Elizabeth!" I called out, it was just a way I showed that I had deeply missed someone. She moved her round body in the flowing dress as she walked towards me.

"Juliet!" She dumped the basket walking towards me and wrapped her chubby arms around me in a tight hug.

"Oh Juliet, it is so lovely to see you again. You are now a full grown woman. How did your trip go?" She pulled away from me.

"Long, but worthwhile. You have been sorely missed. The splendor of this landscape was not adequately conveyed in your letter. But I am here now, thanks to the kind trader."

"Oh poor Juliet, you know I still have a bad eye. Come in, come in." The cottage engulfed me in a feeling of familiarity and warmth. The stream of the fine aroma of hot bread greased my nostrils awakening my taste buds from long hours of compulsory rest which caused my hunger. I rubbed the back of my palm in my weary eyes. The cottage had mitten designs on white kerchief hung on every corner of the wall, which made it look like the walls were made of linen if not for the big painting that mounted in the middle.

It was a picture of Mr. Colton, Aunt Elizabeth's husband. I have missed seeing his face, with his curled up moustache that always sprung up whenever he pulled it out. It had broken Aunt Elizabeth when she lost him to an influenza outbreak. She had lost a son too, Charles, her young soldier, as she always called him, who left her too soon. Now, she was just Aunt Elizabeth, the middle class seamstress with a bad eye.

Continue Reading

You'll also like

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

Huo Wuer
5.0

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

Huo Wuer
4.5

Rain hammered against the asphalt as my sedan spun violently into the guardrail on the I-95. Blood trickled down my temple, stinging my eyes, while the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers mocked my panic. Trembling, I dialed my husband, Clive. His executive assistant answered instead, his voice professional and utterly cold. "Mr. Wilson says to stop the theatrics. He said, and I quote, 'Hang up. Tell her I don’t have time for her emotional blackmail tonight.'" The line went dead while I was still trapped in the wreckage. At the hospital, I watched the news footage of Clive wrapping his jacket around his "fragile" ex-girlfriend, Angelena, shielding her from the storm I was currently bleeding in. When I returned to our penthouse, I found a prenatal ultrasound in his suit pocket, dated the day he claimed to be on a business trip. Instead of an apology, Clive met me with a sneer. He told me I was nothing but an "expensive decoration" his father bought to make him look stable. He froze my bank accounts and cut off my cards, waiting for the hunger to drive me back to his feet. I stared at the man I had loved for four years, realizing he didn't just want a wife; he wanted a prop he could switch off. He thought he could starve me into submission while he played father to another woman's child. But Clive forgot one thing. Before I was his trophy wife, I was Starfall—the legendary voice actress who vanished at the height of her fame. "I'm not jealous, Clive. I'm done." I grabbed my old microphone and walked out. I’m not just leaving him; I’m taking the lead role in the biggest saga in Hollywood—the one Angelena is desperate for. This time, the "decoration" is going to burn his world down.

The Billionaire's Secret Twins: Her Revenge

The Billionaire's Secret Twins: Her Revenge

Shearwater
4.4

I was four months pregnant, weighing over two hundred pounds, and my heart was failing from experimental treatments forced on me as a child. My doctor looked at me with clinical detachment and told me I was in a death sentence: if I kept the baby, I would die, and if I tried to remove it, I would die. Desperate for a lifeline, I called my father, Francis Acosta, to tell him I was sick and pregnant. I expected a father's love, but all I got was a cold, sharp blade of a voice. "Then do it quietly," he said. "Don't embarrass Candi. Her debutante ball is coming up." He didn't just reject me; he erased me. My trust fund was frozen, and I was told I was no longer an Acosta. My fiancé, Auston, had already discarded me, calling me a "bloated whale" while he looked for a thinner, wealthier replacement. I left New York on a Greyhound bus, weeping into a bag of chips, a broken woman the world considered a mistake. I couldn't understand how my own father could tell me to die "quietly" just to save face for a party. I didn't know why I had been a lab rat for my family’s pharmaceutical ambitions, or how they could sleep at night while I was left to rot in the gray drizzle of the city. Five years later, the doors of JFK International Airport slid open. I stepped onto the marble floor in red-soled stilettos, my body lean, lethal, and carved from years of blood and sweat. I wasn't the "whale" anymore; I was a ghost coming back to haunt them. With my daughter by my side and a medical reputation that terrified the global elite, I was ready to dismantle the Acosta empire piece by piece. "Tell Francis to wash his neck," I whispered to the skyline. "I'm home."

Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

Dorine Koestler
4.1

I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved. He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again. "Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports. For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian. In return, he treated me like furniture. He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste. I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home. So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco. I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage. But I underestimated Dante. When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat. He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book