Adele wanted to ask, but didn’t want to pry. Since it was just Adele, Louisa, and one of the servants laying out food, Adele asked, “I know Fowler and Swynford are good friends. Did he… are you here to check up on me?”
“Not in the way you’re implying. That is, Fletcher—Baron Fowler—is worried about Hugh rushing into this marriage, but no one questions your integrity, if that’s what you mean.”
“I would be willing to wait. I am not the reason for the haste.”
“No, I suspect your father and Swynford’s mother are the reason for the haste.”
Adele nodded because she agreed, on a number of levels.
“You must understand how this looks,” said Lady Louisa. “I am not much interested in scandal or gossip, but the fact that Swynford has chosen to marry the daughter of an earl of dubious reputation has set tongues wagging. I’ve known Swynford a long time, and he has never been one to make hasty decisions, so I assume his intentions are good in this case. But Fletcher is worried. I don’t even know what concerns him specifically. He seems to think you’ve bewitched Swynford.”
“I tried to talk him out of pursuing me.”
Louisa nodded. “These last few years, Swynford has seemed dead set against marriage. He understands his duty, but has seemed bored or irritated by most of the ladies of theton. I think… I think perhaps something has changed in him.”
Adele had worried about that. His memories seemed determined to only return in trickles rather than all at once, but she’d been worried he’d wake up one morning with all his memories returned and he’d remember something that made him not want to marry her.
“I see the worry on your face,” said Louisa. “I think it is a good change. He’s ready to settle down. He never has been before.”
“Please know that I am not interested in him because of, well, all this,” Adele said, gesturing around the room. She could not deny that the fine furnishings and the beautiful home were wonderful things, but she would have loved Hugh if they’d live in a far more modest house. “I imagine that’s what the scandal sheets are saying. I genuinely care for him.”
“I believe you. Hugh can smell a woman after a man’s money from a great distance. Fletcher jokes it is a magic power of his.”
Adele wondered sometimes what she’d gotten herself into by agreeing to be with Hugh. She hoped that, once the wedding was over and they went to the country and it was just the two of them, this low-level uneasiness she felt would go away. “I don’t want to ruin him, either.”
“You won’t. Our parents’ generation is more concerned with names and titles and reputations than we are, and we are the ones taking over the country. A number of lords have married commoners. The Marquess of Downshire married anAmericanlast year. Everyone was out of sorts about it for about three days, and then we all collectively moved on to the next scandal. This will be like that. People will talk for a bit, but who cares? If you’re happy in your marriage, the chatter of the gossipmongers doesn’t matter.”
Adele nodded. She agreed, but she couldn’t shake the concern that something would go wrong. Would Hugh lose the respect of his peers? Would the enemies of her father, who seemed determined to ruin him, try to ruin Hugh as well? It was hard to set all that aside.
Lady Louisa seemed honest and candid, and Adele thought to ask her opinion on this, but before she could, Hodges knockedon the doorframe. “Apologies for interrupting, my lady, but this just came for you.” He handed her a large envelope.
She opened it. Inside was a letter from her father folded around several bank notes. He congratulated her on her pending nuptials and explained that the money was hers to spend on her trousseau.
“That’s exciting,” said Louisa after Adele explained. “We must go shopping. Please allow me to take you to my modiste. She makes beautiful gowns and she works fast.”
Adele couldn’t help but get caught up in her excitement. “Yes, all right.”
By the time they arrived at the modiste for Adele’s appointment three days later, she and Louisa had become fast friends.
As they waited for the modiste to finish her previous appointment, Adele asked, “When Swynford pulled you aside as we were leaving, what did he say?”
“I am to tell Madame Auguste that if there is something you desire beyond your means, His Grace will cover any shortfall.”
“No,” said Adele, mortified. “My father gave me a great deal of money. Surely it can cover a few dresses.”
“Yes, it can. I am just relating what the duke told me. He can afford it, by the way.”
“I know. But he should not have to… that is, I don’t want…” Adele shook her head, flustered.
Louisa laughed. “It is your choice, of course, but need I remind you that you are about to be the Duchess of Swynford. You should look the part.”
That was the first moment when it really hit Adele that she was to be a duchess. She’d been looking forward to marrying Hugh, had fantasized what their life might be like, but had somehow skipped over the part where she’d be aduchess.
“Oh god.”
“Ah, yes,” said Louisa. “My friend Prudence got that same look on her face three days before she married the Duke of Huntley.”
A seamstress invited Adele to the back. Adele stood as the seamstress took her measurements while two other women brought out bolts of fabric. Madame Auguste appeared and gave Adele a long look. “This blue, it is a good color for you, but this fabric is terrible. I think also… yellow. And violet.”
