Her anger grew, not at her father, not at the duke, but at whoever had cornered her into such a situation.
She looked down at her own morning papers, containing her puzzle, but it was a folded scrap of paper sitting on the top that caused her heart to beat harder.
Withdraw,it read, in a hand she did not recognize.Or matters will worsen.
Before she could raise the matter to her father, she was interrupted.
“My lord?” The butler’s knock on the door was slight. “You have a visitor.”
“Who?”
“The Duke of Ravenscar.”
Evelyn and her father stiffened, staring at one another.
“We will meet him in the drawing room,” her father said with a sigh. “Best get this over with.”
He was already sweeping past her and out the door, and she hurried to catch up to him.
“Get what over with?”
“His apology, his proposal, our acceptance.”
“What?” she gasped.
“He had best be proposing, or trouble will be had,” her father muttered.
“You cannot threaten a duke.”
“What’s stopping me?”
“Father, you just… You just cannot.”
“Watch me,” he said, stepping up to the drawing room doors. Evelyn prepared to walk by him and into the room, but he held up a hand to stop her.
“I will do this alone.”
“But, Father?—”
“She will be present.”
They stopped, startled at the voice, turning to find the duke was standing, arms folded across his chest as he stared them down from within the room.
“Your grace, I do not believe we require Evelyn for this conversation,” her father said, but the duke shook his head.
"She stays,” he said, his voice brokering no argument.
“Very well, Evelyn,” her father said with a strained smile. She nodded and entered the room with a curtsy and a small nod of thanks to the duke, although he offered no return expression. He looked exhausted, as though he hadn’t slept all night, yet still impeccably composed — a man used to operating under enormous strain.
Evelyn walked toward the sofa against the window, where the half-open shutters allowed the morning sunlight to creep in. The butler hovered in the doorway, and Evelyn caught his eye. “Perhaps tea,” she suggested, and he nodded, turning away, as though pleased to have a task.
They hadn’t even breakfasted yet.
“Lord Stratford,” Asher began, taking charge of this meeting even though it was in Evelyn’s father’s house. “As I’m sure you have seen this morning, the rumors have grown beyond the Paragon Diamond. I assume they have been made deliberately.”
Lord Stratford nodded before demanding, “Were my daughter’s actions in any way inappropriate?”
“Father!” Evelyn gasped in shock before her father turned his gaze on her.
