“I thank you.” Not quite certain how she ought to bring the matter to her mind into conversation, she hesitated. “Father, I have heard a rumor that has concerned me.”
A lift of his eyebrow was his only response. With a quickening of her heart, she clasped her hands in front of her. “Father, a gentleman informed me that he heard there were some financial concerns and therefore, he could not consider an acquaintance with me.”
A long, pronounced silence came over the room. It was so thick and heavy that Susanna did not think she could find a single word to speak into it, wondering if her father was going to berate her for even suggesting such a thing.
“A gentleman.”
She nodded, pressing her lips flat together.
“Then might I suggest that you inform this gentleman that you, as the daughter of a Duke, do not take kindly to fellows who listen to unsubstantiated rumors and that you will instead seek out the company of gentlemen who know what a privilege it would be to marry into our family.”
The anger in his voice stiffened Susanna’s spine, her throat constricting.
“I do not think such gentlemen are even worth your time, Susanna,” her father said, flicking his fingers in her direction as if he were dismissing her. “Is that all?”
She was about to nod, about to turn away, only to hesitate. This was her one chance to speak to her father about this matter, her only opportunity to find outwhat it was that Lord Blackwood might have learned about him. “I do not mean to pry, father, but might I ask if everything is… stable?”
The glint in his eye told her that she had overstepped.
“If you are asking me whether or not I am solvent, then I can assure you that I have never had more coin than I do at present,” he said, his voice now a good deal lower than before.
“The gentleman spoke of investments.” Susanna lifted her gaze and held her father’s steadily, doing her best to keep the tiny tremor out of her voice. “And debts.”
“Debts?” The word reverberated around the room, making Susanna shiver. “How dare you suggest such a thing?”
“I – I did not suggest it,” she stammered, taking a step away. “Father, I am only repeating what it is this gentleman said!”
Her father slammed one fist down on his desk, making her jump with fright. “What is the name of this gentleman? Tell me now, and I will speak to him myself! More than that, I will take him to my solicitors and show him all of my investments and the like, if that will satisfy his concern!”
Susanna swallowed thickly. “I – I do not think –”
A rap on the door interrupted her. The Duke’s eyes narrowed, glaring at her, his color heightened. After a moment, he straightened, cleared his throat, and then dismissed Susanna with a flick of his hand. At the same time, he called for the butler to enter and, as Susanna left, both the butler and Lord Yarmouth stepped in.
Sweat broke out lightly across her forehead as she hurried out of the room and along the hallway. Given her father’s response, Susanna had to believe that he was not in any great difficulty financially. If she was to believe him –and Susanna thought she did – there were no debts and no poor investments. So what did Lord Blackwood mean by writing to Lord Lancashire? Had he simply been wrong?
“Whatever are you doing, Susanna?”
She blinked, pulled out of her thoughts. “Maude, I –”
“You are not to come to the drawing room this afternoon,” Maude said, with a wave of her hand as if Susanna were something offensive. “I have three gentlemen already coming to call, and I should like their attention to be solely upon me. One of them is already considering courtship… and he is such an excellent gentleman.”
Susanna forced a smile. “Of course.”
“Good.” Maude turned on her heel and, her head held high, began to walk away. “I am certain to make an excellent match very soon, and you should be grateful for that, Susanna. It means that you will then have your opportunity, once I am wed and settled.”
But then something strange happened. At the far end of the hallway, Maude stopped. She did not turn around — not fully — but her head tilted just slightly, as though some invisible hand had pulled at her shoulder. For the space of a breath, she stood there, one hand braced against the doorframe, perfectly still.
“Susanna, I…”
The words trailed into nothing. Susanna waited, her pulse quickening, hardly daring to hope. But whatever Maude had been about to say — whatever crack had threatened to open in her composure — she sealed it shut before it could widen. Her shoulders squared, her chin lifted, and she stepped through the doorway without looking back. The click of the latch was small and final.
Susanna stared at the closed door for a long moment. She could not be certain what she hadjust witnessed. Perhaps it had been nothing — a momentary hesitation, a stray thought that dissolved before it could take shape. But something in her sister’s voice, in that brief, unfinished sentence, had sounded almost like regret.
It made the ache worse, somehow. If Maude felt nothing at all, Susanna could have hardened herself against the cruelty, built a wall, and kept it standing. But if there was something softer still buried beneath the jealousy and the sharp words — some remnant of the girl who had once crawled into Susanna’s bed during a thunderstorm and whispered,Don’t be frightened, I’m here— then the loss was not simply of a sister’s kindness but of something that had once been real and was now deliberately, carefully destroyed.
Susanna rubbed at her forehead, trying not to allow the pain her sister had brought to torment her. It was always like this with Maude — the casual assumption that Susanna’s feelings were of no consequence, the bright certainty that she was the center of every room she entered, and the total blindness to how deeply her words could cut. Susanna had long since stopped expecting kindness from her sister. But there were moments — like this one, standing alone in the hallway of their father’s townhouse, with the sound of Maude’s laughter already floating back from the drawing room — when the loneliness of it pressed against her chest like a physical weight.
“Miss?”
