Cassian could not argue against that. He hoped that Lady Adelaide would want to fix everything she found, for he did not like any of it either.
CHAPTER 6
Adelaide did not like the attention.
She had always hated it, for it made her feel as though she had to pretend to be someone else.
Peering at herself in the seamstress’s mirror anxiously, she wondered just what other people thought when they saw her.
“I must say,” Dorothy said warmly as the ladies looked at fabrics, “in a mere few days, you have already changed perceptions.”
“Marrying a duke will do that,” Cecilia remarked, holding a bolt of fabric up to Adelaide’s arm and then removing it. “That is what happened to most of us, after all.”
Adelaide blinked, watching as the ladies fussed around her. She had known Cecilia for long enough, but the other ladies were strangers to her. They were beautiful, elegant, and poised in a way she had always wanted to be but had always fallen short of.
In any case, they had insisted that she use their given names, and they had all taken her under their wing. She was too grateful to question it.
“Is it difficult to be a duchess?” she asked. “I am told that it is, but I cannot see it being any worse than being a viscountess, for example.”
“It depends on how good a duchess you wish to be,” Emma replied. “If you wish to truly make a difference, then it is tireless. You shall spend your life helping your husband’s tenants, attending events, and running your household. But if you ask me, there is no more enjoyable work than that.”
“It is daunting at first,” Beatrice added, “but once you realize that those around you respect you a great deal, you’ll settle. It becomes much easier with time, I assure you.”
It was better to hear it from Beatrice because she had struck Adelaide as the most timid of them.
Adelaide was not timid by any means, but since her return to London, she had been afraid she would ruin herself entirely, and thus had grown quieter.
She wished it were not the case. Hargrave had had a greater effect on her than she wished to admit, and she hoped that it would change once she officially became a duchess.
She turned to the ladies she would soon call friends to find them studying her intently. “What is it?” she asked.
“You seem to be bursting with questions,” Cecilia noted with a small smile. “And yet you have not asked one.”
“I do not wish to be a burden. You are already doing far too much for me. You do not even know me, except for Cecilia.”
Emma stepped toward her and pulled her into a tight embrace. Though surprised, Adelaide accepted it with gratitude, for she very much needed friends.
“We are here for you,” Emma promised. “All four of us have been where you are now, and we want you to be the happiest you can be. If it means asking us a thousand things that you do not even think are important, that is all the better. We want to help you, Adelaide.”
“Well, I suppose I want to ask about my fiancé. They call him the Dragon Duke, but other than that, I do not know much about him.”
“I have my thoughts,” Cecilia said quietly.
“And yet you are here to help me marry him!”
“Because you insist that this is what you want. I shall be pleased to welcome you into our group of duchesses, but that does not mean that I am thrilled.”
“I am,” Dorothy chirped. “If you ask me, he is misunderstood. I have had several conversations with him in the past year; he is a joy to be around.”
“You only say that because he studied botany.” Cecilia grimaced. “That is hardly fair.”
“He is also kind! Cecilia, I know that you are trying to protect her, but it is not as though you have the highest opinion of men in general. You only like your husband and our husbands.”
“Because it so happens that they are the only ones I can tolerate.”
“Then what issue do you have with the Duke of Ashford? As far as I know, he has done nothing to you.”
Cecilia fell quiet for a moment.
