“To speak with someone.”
“Who?” Marianne asked the question, then followed her sister’s line of sight toward the Duke. “What are you going to say? Rose? Rose?”
Rose ignored her sister as she kept her stare leveled on the Duke, making sure to narrow her eyes. She was not going to be taken advantage of, and he needed to know it.
Surprisingly, the Duke removed himself from his friends when he saw her coming. He strode down the garden path toward her with a gait that suggested he expected the hedges might move out of his way if he needed them to.
He is just so frustrating! He knows how serious this is. He knows how much it means to me. He just does not care. Well, it is about time that he does.
“What is this?” she hissed when she reached him, keeping her voice low.
“Miss Rose,” he said with an exaggerated smile. “How lovely to see you.”
“You tricked me!”
“I did no such thing,” he responded calmly.
“You told me Lord Ellery would be here. That I was to –”
“I thought he would be,” he spoke over her, keeping his voice calm. “It seems he has other places to be…” A raised eyebrow, the meaning clear. “The deal remains, Miss Rose, and if you are as valuable as you claim, his absences should not matter.”
Rose glared at him. “You better not be trying to trick me.”
“I would do no such thing.” His green eyes flicked down her body, and a smile touched them. “I must say, too, Miss Rose, the gown suits you infinitely more.”
“What?” Rose frowned. “More than what?”
“The breeches,” he said simply. “You look infinitely better in the gown. Far more preferable in all the ways which matter.”
Rose’s eyes widened, and she felt her cheeks color with embarrassment.
Rose did not think of herself as unattractive. She had thick and wavy dark hair, blue eyes that were clear and a tad too large for her face, and soft features that many had described as cute. However, she was also quite tall, slender without large breasts, and with wide shoulders that many a boy had mocked her by describing asmannishandtoo muscular.Marianne had always been the beauty of the two, and Rose was perfectly fine with that. Or she thought that she was…
To hear the Duke compliment her like this was—it was…it is a distraction! That is all. He is trying to get inside my head. I cannot let him.
“Perhaps the gown will suit you more,” she snapped, not knowing what it meant, but needing to say something. Then, a final glare, and Rose turned back and stormed away.
All the while, she could feel him watching her, and that feeling was nowhere near as awful as it should have been. If anything, she might have even said that she liked it.
“What did he say?” Marianne asked Rose rejoined them.
“What did who say?” Standing with Marianne was Lady Alison Huntington, a friend of Rose’s, as they were of a similar age and had come up inthe Tontogether.
“Alison.” Rose swept toward her friend and kissed her on the cheek. “I did not know you were here.”
“I wish I weren’t,” Alison sighed and rolled her eyes. “So boring. And Charles–” She nodded across the garden toward her husband. “—is already well past drunk. Perhaps I should stop him?” As she made the comment, Alison was sure to have a large mouthful of wine from her cup, and Rose chuckled to see that her friend was likely even more drunk than her husband.
“Rose!” Marriane pressed desperately. “What did he say?”
“Who?” Alison asked.
“The Duke!” Marianne cried and waved her hands in the air, which had Alison leaning back as she was very nearly whacked in the face.
“Oh, of course,” Alison crooned. “And might I say, Marianne, that a congratulations is in– Oh!” Alison cried out as Marianne spun on her, a little too wildly, sending Alison back, which in turn saw her glass of wine tumble from her hand.
“Marianne!” Rose exclaimed.
“Oh, no!” Alison moaned as the glass of wine splashed red across her yellow gown. “Marianne! Look what you have done!”
