Chapter One
“It is an honor to be chosen.”
“But I know nothing about him, Father!” Marigold wailed.
“You do not need to,” George Venton, the Earl of Waterburry, retorted.
Diana entered the drawing room warily. The fact that her mother and father both were present did not bode well, and the fact that Marigold was so emotional only seemed to signify something worse.
Yet, when she stepped into the room, it became clear that it was not just Marigold who was in a panic. All her sisters seemed to know something that she was not aware of because they were fluttering about the room, shock evident on their faces. Poor Arabella looked on the verge of tears.
And that said nothing of Marigold, who looked on the verge ofhysterics.
“What has happened here?” Diana kept her voice firm and calm, but its volume still drew the attention of everyone else in the room.
“Ah, perhaps you can talk some sense into your sister,” their father said.
Diana remained still and silent. Wary, once more. That was perhaps the nearest thing to a compliment her father had ever given her, but the timing of it seemed suspicious.
“Oh! Diana! They wish to marry me off to some man I’ve never met!” Marigold practically flung herself into Diana’s arms, and Diana held her closely almost by reflex, though her gaze was still on their father.
“Marigold has received a marriage proposal?”
She was even more confused by that. At the last several balls they attended; Marigold did seem to have several interested suitors. But none seemed infatuated enough to make her an offer. At least not yet.
“Isn’t it so romantic?” Valery spoke up.
Diana glanced at her with a furrowed brow. It did not seem that anyone else in the house felt the same, least of all Marigold, who simply clutched at Diana’s dress all the tighter.
“He spotted her out of nowhere and knew he had to have her.”
Diana loved Valery dearly, but the girl was clearly deluded if she thought this situation was anything but shocking.
Their father, however, ignored her as he normally did.
“Yes, the Duke of Cardan has made her an offer, and he is on his way just now to collect her.”
The Earl rarely expressed pride in any of his daughters, but this was certainly not the way any of them wished to experience it. Marigold fairly trembled in Diana’s arms.
“Collect her? What is she, then? A package for him to claim? It is a wonder that he has chosen to come all this way himself rather than request her by post.”
The idea that this man, who they did not know, intended to simply pick up her sister without any of the usual formalities that should accompany an offer of marriage was distasteful.
It was clear the Earl did not share Diana’s opinion, as he scowled in her direction and shook his head.
“We are lucky that a duke is interested in one of your sisters. And that he has selected Marigold is an honor to her.”
It certainly didn’t appear that Marigold thought there was any ‘honor’ to it. She was still staring around the room, wide-eyed and terrified. And then she strode quickly to the piano and picked up a paper that had been left there.
“What about this, Father?”
“What about it?” the Earl asked as she waved the paper about like a banner. And then she began to read.
“Many men of the ton are known for their firmness in business, for their steadfast nature and for their ability to achieve their aims in all areas of their lives. However, none are a match for the Duke of Cardan. A man that even the strongest men of business do not wish to come up against in any manner, and who, despite his handsome features, no woman of the ton seems anxious to catch.
The Duke is found to be not simply firm but cold. Not simply steadfast but fearsome. Not simply successful but unfailing. In light of this, is it any wonder that he has yet to marry or even to be seen courting a young woman of the ton? None wish to marry off their daughters to such a man.”
Diana felt her blood run cold.Thiswas the man that their father wished to marry her sister off to?
