Livy nodded, busying her shaky hands by smoothing her blush-colored skirts.
“There is no better time,” she said. “I am a lady of marriageable age. Hadleigh is an eligible widower in his prime. Now that I’m older, our age difference no longer matters.”
“Not to you, perhaps,” Glory said. “I thought the biggest obstacle to your romance was that Hadleigh treats you like a young relation?”
“The two of you certainly bicker like brother and sister,” Fi said dryly.
“I shall simply have to make him see me in a different light. A more mature light.” Livy rose, squaring her shoulders. “How do I look?”
She wore a gown specially made for the occasion. Indeed, her entire wardrobe had been refurbished as her figure had changed in a rather drastic fashion in the past few months. Resigned to her once boyish form, she’d been stunned when parts of her that had been as flat as the Scottish Lowlands suddenly turned as hilly as the Highlands. When the modiste revealed her new measurements, her jaw had slackened.
Mama had merely smiled.“Didn’t I tell you we Kent women are late bloomers, dear?”
Livy hoped her new assets would nudge Hadleigh into seeing her as a grown-up. With that in mind, she had chosen her ensemble with care. The silk crepe was a shade between peach and pink, which she thought complemented her brunette coloring and light green eyes. The bodice bared her shoulders, crisscrossing to a point between her now discernable breasts, where she’d pinned a fragrant gardenia. The rest of the bodice molded to her corseted torso, elongating to a point. The full skirts draped over her petticoats, the overskirt looped up with peach ribbons to reveal her tiered underskirt.
“You look very pretty,” Glory said.
“In a virginal debutante sort of way,” Fiona said.
Livy furrowed her brow. “Is that a bad thing?”
“Not at all. But this is Hadleigh we are talking about,” Fi said frankly. “You know his reputation. He is definitely not the sort of man who dallies with inexperienced misses.”
Fi had a point. During his marriage, Hadleigh and his duchess had been rather scandalous, although Livy’s adolescent ears hadn’t been privy to all the gossip. She had once overheard two sticklers sniffing to one another that the Hadleighs were “not goodton” and wondering why Livy’s parents had invited them to the affair. Livy knew the reason: ever since Hadleigh had saved her life, her parents had treated him as if he were a member of the family.
Neither a McLeod nor a Kent forgot a debt.
After his period of mourning, Hadleigh had emerged a different man. He looked healthier and stronger, emanating a male vitality that drew females to him like flies to honey. It also didn’t hurt that he was a wealthy duke in his prime, with no heirs to boot.
Ladies and light-skirts alike swarmed him, and the scandal rags made fortunes off his supposed exploits. The only females he avoided were the marriage-minded misses. As far as Livy could tell, he was as unaffected by his new popularity as he was by his prior infamy. He was always the same with her, at any rate.
He laughed and bantered with her. Protected her.
And teased her mercilessly the way an older brother would.
I will just have to change how Hadleigh sees me,she thought determinedly.Toshow him I am no longer a little girl.
“Livy wants Hadleigh to offer for her, not dally with her,” Glory pointed out.
Fiona arched her brows. “Doesn’t one lead to the other? Plenty of debs have received proposals on the heels of being compromised.”
“Livy does not want her reputation harmed.” Frowning, Glory asked, “Do you, Livy?”
The rush of warmth in Livy’s cheeks was accompanied by that in her lower belly. Although she shared most things with her friends, some details were meant to be kept private. She had not told the other girls about what she’d seen Hadleigh and Lady Cherise Foxton doing in the stables last year…
Longing, hot and confusing, knotted her insides.
She blurted, “What if I want both?”
Glory stared at her, but Fiona just laughed.
“It is your birthday, after all,” the latter said. “If you want both, then both you shall have. We will simply have to make you look worldlier.”
“You can accomplish that? With this?” Livy waved a hand at herself.
Fi arched her brows. “Do you doubt me, dearest?”
When it came to matters of fashion and flirtation, Fiona was the expert of the three.
