The Duke's Masked Wife

"Kate, you must be out of your goddamn mind if you are thinking of digging a hole. She has no right to order you around. Get up," KKatrina ent down to pull Kate up from the ground where Kate was squatting.

"Mother, we only have to play nice for now. Father is going to find a way to make me be the one to marry the Duke," Kate shook off her mother's hands and continued to dig. "Ah!" She yelled, falling to the side when an earthworm popped out of the dirt.

"That is why I said to get up Kate," Katrina stepped back as she too was afraid of the tiny creature. "This is ridiculous.

"This is so gross. This better all be worth it in the end. I am not letting her take what is mine," Kate used a stick to fling the worm from in front of her. "Father already has someone he's going to marry Alessandra off to so she can't marry Edgar."

"Really? He never mentioned anything to me," said Katrina.

"You wouldn't have kept your mouth shut if I did. Kate, Alessandra is going to the kitchen. Get someone else to do it," Desmond didn't like seeing his daughter looking like a servant.

"You there," Kate called out to a passing maid. She was more than happy to make someone else do the dirty work. "Finish digging this hole with your hands right away."

"Did Edgar leave or is he in the kitchen with Alessandra? I want to have a word with that girl."

"You can't, Katrina. The Duke made it quite clear if we mess with her in the two days she's here he will kill both of us. I wouldn't take his words lightly," Desmond coughed, still feeling Edgar's grip around his neck. "Play nice with her."

Katrina couldn't believe Edgar threatened to kill her. She placed her hand on her forehead as she almost stumbled backward from the shock. Wasn't it enough that Alessandra stole Edgar from Kate? "She must have placed a spell on that man. Is she really cursed?"

"I told you we should have thrown her out long ago but no one ever listens to me. What do we have to do now father? Edgar seems to be wrapped around her finger if he threatened you. Alessandra must've cursed him," Kate was starting to believe that more than anything else.

Desmond didn't believe it like his wife and daughter but he couldn't understand what was happening. He was starting to question if the Duke really did fall in love with Alessandra at first sight. "I can't allow Alessandra to go live with the Duke on her own in two days-"

"She's going to live with him? In his big mansion!?" Kate exclaimed, taken aback by this news. "Father," she whined, stomping her right foot repeatedly. It wasn't fair Alessandra would get the luxury of living with Edgar.

"I'm going to send you there with her as an escort. That is the only way I will allow Alessandra to go with him and it's the only way for you to get close to the Duke. This is your last chance, Kate. If you mess this up, there is nothing else I can do for you. You must seduce Edgar while you are there."

"It would be better if I become pregnant with his child. He would have no choice but to take me instead of Alessandra. We all know the Duke isn't going to sleep with her and he's still a man. He needs someone to lay with," Kate suggested. She didn't mind sleeping with a man like the Duke when she wasn't wed.

"Kate," Katrina wasn't so sure of this. It was best for Kate to keep her virtue.

"I agree with Kate," Desmond said, ignoring the fact that Kate would be sleeping with someone when she wasn't married. He found the whole virtue thing to be ridiculous now. "She just needs one try to get pregnant. We wouldn't have to worry about her virtue as she'll end up with the Duke."

As much as Katrina wanted Kate to be with Edgar, she preferred to continue with the principles she raised Kate with. To only sleep with a man she was married to or else she would be ruined. "Are you sure you can do this Kate?"

"Of course, mother. His only other option would be Alessandra. Do you really want her to become the duchess instead of me? I will seduce the Duke and have his child. It would help if his mother would come around. She likes me," Kate recalled her run-in with the woman.

Due to chasing around behind Edgar, Kate had met his mother once before and after a short conversation, his mother was rooting for her.

"I should start picking out my finest dresses now. Excuse me mother, father-"

"Kate, you have to finish burying the kitten. Don't do anything stupid these two days," Desmond was worried for his life and didn't trust Kate to understand the gravity of the situation. "Do this first, let Alessandra know you are done, and then start packing."

"Yes, father. I will get the kitten." Kate was so excited to go live with the Duke that she had forgotten her plan to get revenge on Alessandra for making her dig a hole with her bare hands.

Kate hurried off to go to Alessandra's room before she would return to her bedroom. The dead kitten wasn't the only thing she was looking to get. There was something else valuable in Alessandra's room that deserved to be buried. "Do they really think I would let her get away with stealing what belongs to me?"

Kate opened the door of what she liked to call the vilest room in the home. It belonged to someone who should have never existed. "That stench is horrible," she covered her noise as the faint scent of something horrible filled her nose.

It wasn't hard to guess where the dead animal was.

"Her room is disgusting. Where the hell is it?" Kate opened Alessandra's closet looking for what she truly came for. Her eyes lit as she found what she was searching for right away. "Why are you holding unto the dress of a woman who ran away and left you here, Alessandra?"

Kate took out Alessandra's mother's wedding dress from her closet. It was no doubt a beautiful dress but something like this was not suited for someone as gloomy as Alessandra. Kate was doing her a favor by getting rid of it.

It would have been perfect to show Alessandra the dress getting buried but she was meant to play nice. This took away a piece of the fun but it still felt good.

Kate quickly closed back the closet as she had found it and grabbed the box with the dead kitten. The stench no longer bothered her now that she was going to get her revenge.

Kate wrapped the wedding dress around the box as she hurried back outside. Reaching the door leading outside, she peeked outside to make sure her parents weren't still standing where the hole was being dug.

"They're gone," she smiled. She was glad they had left or her father would have stopped her from doing this.

Kate approached the maid who was still digging out the hole with her hands to drop the dress and box into it. "Cover that up as fast as you can."

"But my lady, this is-"

"What gives you the right to question me? Do as I say or I shall have you fired. If anyone asks who went to get this box I shall tell them you did and you will say?" Kate stepped on the maid's hand awaiting the obvious answer.

"I was the one who got it," the maid sobbed.

"Wonderful. You people do have common sense after all. Now hurry," Kate stood with her arms folded, excited to see the dress be buried.