She wasn’t the only one who had noticed. Though her father was oblivious, Edwina was openly staring at her from their father’s other side, but she waited until the meal had ended to say anything.
“My goodness,” she whispered, pulling Lavinia to one side as everyone filed out of the dining room. “What are you wearing, Lavinia? And wherever did you get it?”
“It was a gift,” Lavinia murmured.
“A gift fromwhom?”
“You must promise not to tell anyone,” Lavinia said. “I don’t know whether or not I’m supposed to say.”
“You can’t mean that someone has been giving you gifts in secret, can you?” Edwina looked both awed and a bit elated. “Who would do such a thing?”
“It wasn’t really a gift,” Lavinia said. “It’s from the Duke of Loxburgh.”
Edwina gasped. “The duke! He must have taken a fancy to you!”
“No, he hasn’t at all. It’s nothing like that. Honestly, I think he finds me rather pathetic,” Lavinia said. “But he feels as if he owes me. I did him a service the other night. I think he’s making too much of it all, and I told him so, but if he can ease his conscience by buying me a few gowns, the least I can do is to allow it.”
“Yes, I quite agree!” Edwina said happily. “You look positively radiant! Oh, I wish I could get a duke to feel that he was inmydebt and buy me such lovely things!”
Lavinia laughed. “I’m sure every gentleman at this party would beg you for the privilege,” she assured her sister. “In your case, it’s simply a matter of picking one.”
“Well, you look beautiful,” Edwina said. “And just think—now you can probably find someone you’d like to marry! Already I can see that more gentlemen than ever have their eyes on you—though of course, you’ll want to give the first consideration to this duke of yours.”
“Of course I don’t,” Lavinia said. “Haven’t you been listening, Edwina? He has no interest in me, and I’m hardly interested in forcing the matter with him. Besides, I’m not interested in him that way either.”
“Why not?” Edwina asked. “He sounds like a kind man, and besides, he’s a duke.”
“If having a good title was enough for me, I would marry whoever it is that Father has chosen for me and be done with the whole affair,” Lavinia said. “I’m sure he’s made a respectable selection, after all. But it’s not enough. I want tofeelsomething for the person I marry, Edwina.”
“And do you mean to tell me that you feelnothingfor the gentleman who has done all this for you? Nothing at all?”
Lavinia hesitated.
“You’re thinking about it,” Edwina said triumphantly. “That means you aren’t sure.”
“It doesn’t mean that,” Lavinia said. “It only means—there was a moment at the dressmaker’s shop yesterday. A strange moment.”
“What sort of strange moment?”
“He was talking about…well, he was talking about my neck, actually,” Lavinia said.
“Yourneck? That’s very odd.”
“I know. I thought so, too. And then he came up alongside me—like this—” She approached her sister to demonstrate. “He touched my neck here. Very gently.”
Edwina stepped back, frowning. “Oh,” she said. “I can see why you don’t like him, then. That’s very forward of him. He shouldn’t have done it.”
“No, you misunderstand me,” Lavinia said. “I didn’t dislike it at all. It was…I don’t know how to explain. I rather enjoyed it.”
“You enjoyed it? Him putting his hands on you like that?”
“Don’t think less of me,” Lavinia begged her sister.
“I don’t. You know I never could. But Iamsurprised, Lavinia. You’ve never seemed like someone who would welcome such an intimate touch from a near stranger. What made you do it?”
“You suggested that I might have feelings for him.” Lavinia blushed.
“Are you telling me that you do?”
