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“Sir, can you please take my trunk and bags to the dock, so they can be carried to the ship?” Lady Anna Beauregard asked the older gentleman who drove the carriage that brought her to the port. She had met him the day before and arranged to be picked up before daylight at her sister and brother-in-law’s house in London, where she had been staying.

Anna’s mind drifted while she waited, thinking of how she had stayed in her bedchamber the week following her brother’s announcement of her forthcoming marriage. She found refuge there, in her self-inflicted prison, taking even her meals there, not wanting to see or speak with anyone. The only human contact she had was with her lady-in-waiting who tried unsuccessfully to coach her from her chamber.

While in her room, she had gone over every reasonable and even unreasonable idea she could manufacture in her mind that might get her out of her impeding doom. It seemed no plot she contemplated gave her the end she was looking for.

The Duke of Nottaway had even called on her twice during the week she was told, but both times she refused to leave the safety of her room. What use would it be for her to meet the Duke, since she had no plans of being forced into a pre-arranged marriage with him or anyone else? This was just another way of her protesting the event.

(Check back tomorrow for part 2 of Chapter2…)