“Oh no.” Sarah took an instinctive step back. “Please don’t tell me you’ve promised him I’ll accompany him on some outing or entertain him for tea or–”
“Of course not, but since he is a duke and he did propose, it would have been wrong of us not to hear him out. In the end we made it clear that we would support you in whatever decision you make for your future - that we’d never insist you marry a man you don’t like just because he happens to have a desirable title.”
Sarah blinked. “You told him that?”
“Actually, your father did. He may have phrased it differently but the duke got the message, I assure you.”
Relief swept through Sarah. She sank down onto the edge of her bed.“So then that’s the end of it?”
“Unless he decides to try his luck again, which I seriously doubt. Or unless you change your mind.”
“Why on earth would I do that?”
“Well, for one thing I’m not sure there will be an abundance of gentlemen willing to risk their pride after watching you turn down a duke with such ease. So if you wish to make a match, he might be your only option. For now,” she hastily added.
“One more reason to hate him,” Sarah grumbled. “He ruined my chances.”
“Only until this whole debacle has been forgotten,” her mother said as she took a seat on Sarah’s bed.
Sarah sighed. She wasn’t sure that would happen any time soon, and in the meantime she wasn’t getting one day younger. With six Seasons already behind her –six– she had hoped to make a match sooner rather than later. “His presumptuousness grates on my every nerve.”
“Yes. He’s horribly arrogant, I’ll grant you that.” Her mother nudged her shoulder. “Come, let’s have some lunch and forget this morning ever happened.”
Sarah knew it wouldn’t be quite so simple. Her public refusal of Brunswick would be the subject of conversation in every Mayfair drawing room by tomorrow morning at the latest. She would be judged and labeled ungrateful, impossible to please, and possibly stupid. After all, what woman in her right mind – let alone a soon-to-be spinster – turned down a duke?
Rising, Sarah then followed her mother from the room and down the stairs. “I doubt a man like that has many friends.”
“I really wouldn’t know, Sarah, but you’re probably right.”
“And his family must despise him.” Directing a few verbal stabs at the duke felt remarkably good.
Her mother drew to an abrupt halt on the stairs and turned. “I don’t believe so.”
Sarah tilted her head in question. “No?”
“No.” Her mother pressed her lips together. “They’re mostly dead.”
Dear heavens.
Sympathy gripped Sarah’s heart with such force it started to ache. A distinct feeling of guilt over what she’d just said crept under her skin. “What happened?”
Her mother resumed her descent. “I thought you weren’t interested.”
“I’m not.” They reached the foyer and Sarah paused. “Well, all right. I might be alittleinterested.”
“Hmm...” Her mother raised both eyebrows, but rather than start an argument over the wisdom of Sarah’s curiosity, she said, “I don’t know all the details. From what I gather there was a carriage accident when the duke was a child. He lost both of his parents and his siblings. A maternal aunt is, from what I gather, his only living relation.”
“How awful,” Sarah murmured even though awful wasn’t enough to describe the suffering Brunswick must have endured when he was a boy. Perhaps she hadn’t imagined the haunted look in his eyes after all. Maybe the pain still lingered. It might even be to blame for his reserved aloofness.
Dazed by the tragedy of the situation as a whole, Sarah drifted onto the terrace where her father waited with Athena.
“I was wondering if you’d like to get away for a bit what with everything that’s just happened,” Papa suggested once they’d been seated. “We could go up to the Lake District for a couple of weeks.”
“Actually,” Sarah said, her mind reeling with possibilities and the potential disaster she might be about to set into motion, “I think I’d rather stay here.”
“But he’s right next door.” Her father jutted his chin toward the brick wall separating the two properties.
“Yes.” Sarah took a bite of salmon while everyone else stared at her in wonder. “But running away would not be very conducive.”
