Octavian grunted. “Going to turn them intotondiamonds, are you?”
“And what is wrong with that?” Syd snapped even though everyone knew it was the last thing she wanted. Adela, Gory, and Syd were three peas in a pod. They were never going to giggle inanely, flap their fans, or bat their eyes at some nodcock with little brains and a title.
“There is nothing wrong with it, if this is what you truly wish to be,” Octavian said. “But I do not believe this is what you want.”
The blaze in Syd’s eyes extinguished. “It is hard to know what I ought to be or should desire to be when all my life I’ve been told what Icannotbe. Sometimes I feel so frustrated because everything of interest is denied to me. So what else can I do but turn into one of those flitting butterflies and hope to find someone who will not completely squash my dreams?”
“Oh, my dear,” Eloise said, her voice quite motherly and consoling. “We have no intention of changing who you are. What Phoebe and I shall do is polish off a little of the dust around you so that your unique sparkle shines through. That is all. We changed nothing about Adela other than the style of her clothes and perhaps improved a little on the fashion of her hair.”
“Then you sat back and allowed the right man to find her?” Julius asked.
Eloise nodded. “And your brother did. Is this not right, Huntsford?”
Ambrose chuckled. “Adela certainly made a stunning impression on me.”
“The point is,” Phoebe said, “perhaps we had no hand in your first noticing her. But you would never have considered her suitable to be your duchess without the polishing touches we added. Is that not so?”
He reluctantly agreed, for Phoebe was right.
His attraction to Adela was instantaneous, but he would not have leaped to marrying her, not even when Lady Felicity Rose planted that scandal in the gossip rags, unless he had already decided she was worth holding onto. As Adela often remarked, with a little help from friends such as the estimable Farthingale clan, the scandal would have blown over in a few weeks and she could have resumed her wallflower existence.
Adela always had the intelligence to match wits with him, but seeing her in her elegant gowns and liking the way her beautiful curls framed her exquisite face had sealed the bargain for him.
He wanted her as his duchess.
Julius raised a glass in toast. “Lady Sydney, may you find yourself a duke, as well.”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. I would much rather find happiness. But that will require a special man who understands my very heart and soul.”
“No,” Octavian said. “You are asking too much of the man. What man can ever completely understand a woman? I am not saying this to be condescending. We are not raised in the same way. Indeed, we are pushed in different directions from the time of our birth. Even among you three who are the closest of friends, do you know what is in the other’s heart or in her thoughts and feelings with perfect accuracy?”
Ambrose joined in the discussion. “Lady Sydney, I don’t think it is theknowingthat is as important as the encouraging and supporting what the other person hopes to accomplish whether you understand it or not.”
Adela nodded. “Yes, I agree.”
Syd took a sip of her champagne. “I shall defer to your greater wisdom, Your Grace. I think it is obvious I am still struggling to understand all this myself.”
“Most of us do,” Octavian said, his manner surprisingly gentle instead of his usually brittle demeanor. “We men have learned to hide our doubts and fears better. Is this not one of the greatest differences between men and women? You are permitted to express your feelings while we are ridiculed and considered weak if we do.”
Syd cast him a heartwarming smile. “Why, Captain Thorne, are you human after all?”
He chuckled lightly. “Only on the rarest of occasions. Do not get your hopes up, for I am still a big, insensitive dolt.”
Julius suddenly turned his attention to a table in a far corner of the hotel’s dining room. “Gad! Will you listen to that woman cackling? It pierces one’s eardrums.”
Everyone glanced at the corner table.
Adela groaned. “Oh, no. Lady Felicity Rose and her circle of toadies. I hope they haven’t noticed us.”
“They have,” Ambrose said. “She has had her eyes on you from the moment she walked in and saw you.”
“Drat, the girl. What have I ever done to her?”
“Other than steal the duke she wanted?” Gory quipped.
“She has only herself to blame,” Syd added. “Of course, a creature like that never sees themselves at fault. It is always others in the wrong who have thwarted their plans.”
Adela nodded. “I wish I could simply walk over and shake sense into her. Oh, dear. Do you think she will walk over here and cause a scene?”
