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How much did she know?

“I hear you do not want to marry my brother.” Tiffany made her way over to Mei’s bed, sitting down on the bench at the foot of it.

“I…” Mei felt as though she was starting to sweat, staring at Tiffany. Tiffany stared back at her calmly. Serenely. The way Mei usually felt. But right now, she was undone. Flustered in a manner that she had not felt in years, and certainly never shown to those around her. “Your brother… I mean… we…”

She was floundering, stumbling over her words, which were not coming out as she wanted them to. Likely because she did not actually know what she wanted to say.

I do want to marry him.

I cannot marry him.

Please don’t hate me.

Mei pressed her lips together; nothing she was saying made sense. She had no idea how to respond.

“Sebastian told me that you are worried about what the ton will think.” Tiffany tilted her head, her hazel eyes full of sympathy. “Do you think your friends would not stand by you?”

“Of course you would, but you should not have to,” Mei blurted out. “It is entirely unnecessary for you to do so. Sebastian is a duke. He needs a bride of consequence. Someone who knows how to be a duchess. Someone⁠—”

“Someone who knows how to navigate the ton?” Tiffany raised her eyebrow, interrupting Mei. “Someone who has allies within it, through the connections she’s made and the goodwill she and her grandmother have engendered through their matches? You have far more allies than just our group of friends.”

“I… well…” Mei was floundering again, blinking rapidly as she absorbed what Tiffany had said. She was right, but she was also wrong. “That does not mean everyone will feel the same way. Just look at Kalina. She not only has the bloodline and the fortune, but all of your support, and yet there are still groups within the ton who do not accept her and likely never will.”

“Oh, Mei.” Tiffany leaned forward and reached out her hand. Mei lifted hers automatically, taking it, and Tiffany squeezed her fingers tightly. “Surely, you do not expect everyone in the ton to like you, even if you had been born to a duke and had Kalina’s fortune. There will always be people who do not like you. Some of them will never like me because I was a duke’s daughter and am now a duchess myself, my own mother among them.” Her mouth twisted wryly at the comment about her mother.

Mei felt a surge of sympathy for the other woman.

No, Tiffany’s mother had not been particularly happy when Tiffany married Gregory. If Mei was any judge of character, the current Duchess of Bolton was one of those who would never be happy with anything Tiffany did. She was too afraid that her beautiful daughter would outshine her, and she was right to fear it because Tiffany did so in every way.

Rather than wanting the best for her daughter, the duchess wanted to be at the top of the heap… period. She wanted Tiffany to reflect well on her, but that was about the sum of her desires for her daughter. Having Tiffany become an acknowledged beauty and a duchess in her own right, outranking her once Sebastian married and the Duchess of Bolton became the Dowager Duchess of Bolton, was not in line with the image she had of herself.

“I do not expect them to like me, but they will not respect me, either. They will call me a social climber and fortune hunter or worse.” Mei threw her hands in the air. “If enough of them are upset, they could make all our lives miserable. There are those who do not like you, but they would never cross you.”

“Not in public because I am a duchess, but you would have that protection as well,” Tiffany said gently. “We cannot control what they do or say privately, any more than they can control what we do and say when with each other. Exactly what could they do to make our lives miserable?”

“I… well…” Mei pressed her free hand against her chest, which was starting to hurt. She huffed.

They would be excluded from invitations. That had certainly made things difficult for Kalina’s family before she married Nathanial.

But that had also been before she married Nathanial. Now, they were always invited because he was a duke, even if they were not particularly welcome. Not that they attended those events; they did not wish to grace those hosts with their presence and add to their consequence.

If Mei had not made friends with Astrid and Tiffany and the others… but she had.

Things might be very different if she did not have them as allies. More of Society would be able to ostracize both her and Sebastian if they were to marry, and their children would likely suffer as well. But…

She did have her friends.

Those who would support her.

“I don’t know.” She closed her eyes. “I… your brother… I do not know that he has considered all of this.”

“I think the only thing he has considered is that he loves you.”

Tiffany’s words struck Mei like a blow to her chest. She stared back at Sebastian’s sister. It was possible to see him in her face, and it almost felt like it was Sebastian himself saying the words.

Almost.

And that was when she realized how very badly she wanted to hear him say it.