The Duke's Masked Wife

"Do not leave the carriage until I call for you," Sally told Caleb as she exited the carriage parked outside her aunt's house.

Caleb didn't see the need for him to wait behind and asked, "Why?"

"For a dramatic entrance obviously. I want to enjoy seeing my aunt laugh at the news of my marriage even if it is not real and then I want to see that laugh disappear when she sees you. She will not believe that a man like yourself would want me and will be angry," Sally explained.

"You have too much time on your hands to plot all of this," Caleb concluded.

"I thought about this from the moment you agreed to it. This is my way of saying ha to my aunt's face. Please wait here until I return for you. I need this to go as I imagined it to," Sally begged, clasping her hands to show how desperately she wanted him to go along with this exactly as she planned.

"Whatever but note that I am going to use this moment as an example of how women are odd," Caleb said.

"You can sing about it for all I care. Watch your fingers," Sally warned him before closing the door behind her. She looked at her aunt's house and took a deep breath.

Each step she took toward the house increased her excitement now that the moment of her taking her parents away from this place had finally come. She wished that it would go exactly as she planned and she would get to say what was on her mind when it came to her aunt.

Sally opened the gate at the front of the house and walked up the rocky pathway her aunt made her clean daily when she first started to work. Her aunt would watch from the balcony above and yell about how she was doing the job wrong.

"Sally?" Adam called to his daughter as her presence here was a surprise.

Sally looked at her right after hearing her father's voice. If not for him calling out to her, she would not have seen him standing in the midst of the large fruit trees in the garden. "Father, what are you doing outside in the snow without a coat? You will catch a cold. Is there something wrong with the coat I bought for you?"

"No. Your aunt just asked me to shake the snow from the trees so I didn't get the chance to grab my coat."

Sally looked up at the snow falling from the sky and found it to be pointless to shake the snow from the trees when it will be quickly covered again. It was a ridiculous task to give to anyone and not even the servants at Edgar's estate were tasked with keeping the trees snow-free. "Go inside and start packing your things, father. We are leaving," she said.

"Leaving? Did you find yourself in trouble, Sally?" Adam asked, concerned there might be someone Sally owed and wanted to hide from. They experienced this when they had to hide from people who owed money.

"No," Sally shook her head. "I found a better situation. I am taking you to-"

"Sally, what a surprise. It isn't the time you come to visit your parents and after your last visit, I never expected to see you anytime soon. Have you come to apologize or maybe you were fired again," Judith said. She walked out of her home with a large fur coat to keep her warm.

"Apologize?" Sally licked her lips. "My parents will no longer be working for you. I have a new place for them to live in so they will no longer need what you like to call help but it is truly torture. Father, I told you to go and pack."

"What broken down house have you found to take your parents to? Or have you borrowed money from someone who will have your head when you cannot pay it back? Sally dear, I admire this drive you have to provide for your parents but it is becoming ridiculous that you would want to disrupt the life they have now. Just apologize and be on your way. Go on," Judith flicked her hand for it to start.

"I don't recall anything I must apologize for. You on the other hand should apologize for the way you treat your own brother and his family. Father, I am getting married and my fiance is offering-"

"Married," Judith laughed at the preposterous news. "How could you be getting married when you have nothing to offer your husband? Not even an inheritance to help pay for a wedding. You gave that up to help pay the debts, remember? The only man you could have found is someone who is equally in debt. See Adam, I told you there is something wrong with her head."

Adam didn't enjoy his sister not taking Sally seriously. "Sally, who is this man you are getting married to? You did not speak of him to your mother or me. Please tell me you have not gotten-"

"Why is your assumption always trouble? I may have fallen from grace but I am still capable of being loved by someone without there being some mess. Father, the man I am engaged to is giving the house he owns to you and mother to use. You do not have to let her treat you like a slave," Sally angrily pointed at her aunt. "Please get mother and start packing. There is a carriage outside waiting for us."

Judith stepped to the side to look at the front of her house where there was a carriage waiting for Sally and by the looks of it, it was not cheap. "You!" Judith exclaimed, realizing what Sally had done. "Whose bed have you fallen into? Did I not tell you to avoid tarnishing this family further?"

"I told you that I got engaged but I did not fall into anyone's bed. We cannot all be like you who got pregnant before your wedding and had to rush it-"

Judith silenced Sally with a slap as the past Sally was bringing up was not to be known by anyone. Not even by Sally unless her brother spoke of what their parents hid.

"Judith!" Adam yelled at his sister. "We had one rule that you would not lay a hand on my daughter."

"If you would not tell her family secrets and raise her better I would not feel the need to. I didn't have to open my doors to the failing son in my family but I did and this is how I am repaid. Insulted by your daughter each time she visits and now I will have to be told of her secret affairs with the man who has filled her head about a house. Make her leave never to return or shall kick you out with your wife," Judith gave her brother two options.

No matter what, she was the only one who could help her brother and he knew it.

Before Adam could say a word, Sally responded with a slap to her aunt's face with more force than the one she received. She was no longer going to take her aunt's abuse and ignore it because her parents needed a roof over their heads.

"You are a despicable woman who takes her built-up jealousy from over the years and does everything she can to treat her brother like an insect. You should have taken your jealousy up with my grandparents instead of treating my parents this way," Sally replied, glaring at her sorry excuse of an aunt. "I kept my morals to never sleep with anyone so that I would not have to see your satisfied smile knowing that I am ruined."

Judith stood in disbelief that she was smacked by her niece. "You insolent child," she raised her hand again.

"I would not do that," Caleb interrupted the moment before Sally could be struck. "The Duke doesn't like when his people are harmed and I won't take too well to my fiance being slapped."