“Oh!” Georgina, Emery was pleased to see, turned an even deeper shade of pink at the suggestion. “Well… I don’t know… We are such good friends. Perhaps it would be strange?” Her eyes darted to Henry’s, then she looked away quickly.
“It wouldn’t be strange at all!” Emery declared, before Henry could say anything. His eyes had gone very wide, and he looked mildly panicked. “I’d dance with him myself, but after our broken engagement, I think that would cause far too much gossip.”
“But I…” Henry looked between the two of them. “I did not plan to dance tonight. Lucien told me it would be better if I did not.”
Emery waved away this concern. “Lucien is not your keeper. He may be the head of the family, but he cannot keep you from dancing. Especially since, as Georgina said, gentlemen are scarce. You would be doing all the ladies here a favor by dancing! And that could only improve our family’s reputation.”
She smiled at him so sweetly and so convincingly that he could brook no opposition.
“I s-suppose you are right,” he stammered at last, then turned to Georgina. “Miss Holloway, would you do me the honor?”
He held out his hand, and Georgina set hers in his, her eyes shining up at his.
“Yes, Lord Henry,” she murmured. “I would be honored.”
Henry’s hand closed around Georgina’s, and then he led her away to the dancefloor, Emery watching them go with a satisfied smirk on her face.
Somebody around here should get a love match,she thought to herself,even if it isn’t me!
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Your Grace, a bouquet of flowers has arrived for you.”
Emery looked up from where she was reading on the settee in the parlor to see one of the maids standing in the doorway, looking excited.
“For me?” Emery repeated. “Sure you are mistaken. All of the bouquets we have received so far have been for Leah.”
“They are for you, Your Grace,” the maid said. “And oh what a marvelous bouquet they are! Some of the finest flowers I’ve seen in all my life.”
Emery looked around at where her sisters-in-law were sitting, embroidering or reading on the other sofas. Leah had lowered her embroidery and was looking wonderingly at Emery, while Eve and Celeste were exchanging conspiratorial glances.
“Why would someone have brought a bouquet for me?” Emery wondered out loud. “I am married and only danced with my husband all night.”
“Perhaps you have a secret admirer!” Eve gushed, her eyes sparkling.
“You certainly lit up the ballroom last night,” Leah said. “I wouldn’t at all be surprised if you had caught someone’s eye.”
“It would have been so lovely to see you,” Celeste said, setting down her book and gazing between Leah and Emery. “Both of you.”
Emery bit her lip. As much as she was pleased by the idea of receiving flowers, she didn’t want to distract anyone from Leah or take away the attention that she deserved as a debutante. What if Leah resented her for receiving flowers or thought that Emery had tried to upstage her? But when she glanced again at Leah, her sister-in-law was grinning.
“I for one really want to see these marvelous flowers! Bring them in, Hannah.”
The maid curtsied and disappeared back into the hall, and a few moments later, she had reappeared in the doorway, followed by a footman carrying one of the most lavish and beautiful bouquets Emery had ever seen in her life.
“Oh my goodness,” she whispered, her heart beginning to hammer and a strange, fluttering feeling filling her stomach. “They are gorgeous!”
The flowers were made up of the traditional roses, but also wildflowers in vibrant colors. Emery wasn’t even sure she could have named all the flowers in the bouquet. Some of them looked exceedingly exotic.
“They must have cost a fortune,” she murmured, standing and accepting the bouquet from the footman.
“Worth it for a duchess such as you,” Leah said with a wink.
“Does it have a card?” Eve demanded. “I want to know who got them for you!”
“It does,” Emery said, her hands shaking slightly as she detached it from the flowers. Peeling open the envelope, she pulled out the card and stared down at the writing on it.
At once, every inch of her seemed to come to light, as if she were a tree full of candles that had been lit all at once. It was from her husband.
