Zoe stood at the window, looking down into the garden. This time she’d obediently donned her nightgown, as well as the heavy wrapper Jarvis had insisted she wear.
“Miss, I hope you’re not thinking of running away this time,” said Jarvis as she turned down the bedclothes.
“If I did, it would only be to get away to think,” Zoe said. “I can hardly believe all that’s happened in one day. My head is a jumble.”
Marchmont at the bottom of the stairs…the presentation…Marchmont lifting her up and spinning her about…the wondrous end of her virginity…and then he’d asked her, andyesshe’d said, because no other answer was possible.
She smiled. He must have had a very anxious few minutes while she was alone in the study with her father.
The duke needn’t have worried.
Yes, she was uninhibited, as Marchmont said. She was not a fool, however. She knew better than to tell Papa what had happened during the return from the Queen’s House.
She had only assured her father that Marchmont had had no trouble persuading her to become his duchess. “I’ve never felt about any man as I do about him,” she’d said, and that was simple truth.
“The Duchess of Marchmont,” Jarvis said in awe-filled tones. “I can hardly take it in myself.”
“I still haven’t taken it in,” Zoe said. “What chance had I to think, with all of them about?”
The hubbub attendant on her arrival from court was nothing to the uproar ensuing this evening at the family dinner celebrating her debut. When the dessert course arrived, her father said he had an additional treat for them all. That was all the warning he gave before announcing her engagement to Marchmont.
“It was funny,” she said. “Everyone was so surprised. Well, not so much Priscilla. She wasn’t quite as much aghast as the rest of them. But it did stop some of my sisters fussing about my traveling alone with him in a closed carriage. They all assumed he took the opportunity to propose because he was blinded by my finery. They couldn’t imagine why any man in his senses would marry me—and they could see he wasn’t drunk when we arrived at Lexham House.” She laughed. “They thought it was the dress—and perhaps it was.” He seemed to find her hoops as exciting as she did.
“Miss, if His Grace hadn’t asked, there’s a hundred who would,” Jarvis said loyally.
“That’s a hundred who don’t know me,” Zoe said. “I know he won’t be an easy husband, but I won’t be an easy wife. Still, we understand each other well enough…” She let out a sigh. “And I’m afraid I do love him.”
“Nothing to be afraid of, miss. I’ve no doubt he loves you, too. Leastways, he will, once he comes to know you better. Come to bed, please. You’ll be needing your rest after such a day. And we’ll be very busy in the next few days, packing your things and getting you ready to move to Marchmont House.” She shook her head. “Oh my, oh my, I can hardly believe it. Back into that house—that Mr. Harrison—and this time you’ll be his mistress. I do wonder what’s going through his head.”
Zoe approached the bed. “Oh, yes. Harrison. I’d forgotten about him.”
“I haven’t,” said Jarvis. “I’m glad at least I shan’t be going there as a housemaid. As you said, I answer only to you—and I shan’t have much to do with him in any event, except at mealtimes. Not that I complain, miss. It’s an enviable place to have. Lady’s maid to the Duchess of Marchmont. Who could have thought it!” She shook her head in wonder.
“I only thought of Marchmont,” Zoe said. “I never thought about the house, that great, immaculate house and all the servants. My goodness. I’ll be mistress there. What fun!”
“Miss, you said I could say my opinion, and my opinion is, Mr. Harrison isn’t going to be much fun.”
Zoe looked at her. “You’re not afraid of that man?”
“Yes, miss, I’m afraid I am.”
“Pish. Nothing to be afraid of. Yusri Pasha’s chief eunuch—nowthatwas a man to fear. It took me years to understand him. But this one, who has all his manly parts?” Zoe paused. “The servants do keep all their manly parts in England?”
“Miss, I don’t think it’s allowed to make eunuchs here,” Jarvis said.
Zoe waved her hand dismissively. “Then there’s nothing to be uneasy about. I do know how to manage a household, and I’ll manage that one.”
Twelve
By Thursday night, the rumors were racing through the Beau Monde.
The servants, as usual, heard the rumors long before their betters did.
At Marchmont House, however, rumor swiftly turned into certainty, and members of the duke’s upper level staff knew well before nightfall that calamity had struck: Their master was marrying the Harem Girl.
They knew it because he told them so.
After the Birthday Drawing Room, when the Duke of Marchmont returned to change from court dress into evening dress, he summoned Harrison into his study. Osgood was there, too, as he always was, to write down whatever needed writing down. He did a great deal of writing down wagers lost and won.
