“Y-your Grace!” Lady Charleston stammered. Emery had guessed correctly: this was the woman with the lower voice. “H-how do you do?”
“Oh very well,” Emery said pleasantly, bustling over to the table as she pulled on her gloves. She could see Lady Charleston working overtime to figure out how Emery knew her name and whether or not they had met before. She could almost read the question in the woman’s frightened eyes:Did she hear what I said about her?“I was just visiting with Miss Georgina Holloway before I go shopping for some things my sister-in-law needs. How are you today?”
“I am well,” Lady Charleston said, still sounding a bit shocked by the situation. “Do you know my friend, Miss Henrietta Reed?”
“I am not sure,” Emery said, smiling at the other lady, who looked as if she had entirely lost the power of speech. “But I am pleased to make your acquaintance. Now that I am in London full-time, there are so many people to meet, and I must admit that I have forgotten the faces and names of quite a few young ladies I have met.”
It was a rude thing to say, but Emery was calculating that she would be able to spin it to her advantage.
Miss Holloway had blushed at her words, and Lady Charleston looked shocked.
“Perhaps you have not been in town long enough to learn how to properly memorize the names of all the young ladies you ought to know,” she said sourly.
Emery gave her a pleasant smile. “I chalk it up to the demands of my new role as the Duchess of Dredford. There are many young ladies vying for my attention, many to whom I can grant favor or take it away. Being a duchess is an enormous responsibility. Those I bring into my and the Duke’s inner circle will benefit for years from our attention. But I cannot bring in everyone. There are many who are far too loose-lipped to be allowed into the fold.”
Lady Charleston’s eyes narrowed, while Miss Holloway continued to speechlessly ogle her.
“And are you so sure of your power that you think you can bestow favor on young ladies of theton?” Lady Charleston asked.
Emery merely smiled. “I don’t need to be sure of my power, Lady Charleston. There is nothing I have to do to earn it or keep it. My power comes from my title, and from my husband’s title, and that is something no one can take away from me. I recommend that you remember that in the future: a Duchess always outrankseveryone else, no matter what. So it is best to stay on her good side.”
Lady Charleston’s face flushed, but Emery met this with the most imperious look she could summon, and soon, all the color drained from it.
“I shall remember that, Your Grace,” Lady Charleston said, lowering her eyes. “I hope you have a good day.”
“Thank you. I shall bid you farewell.” She nodded to Miss Theodora Reed and turned and swept away, almost colliding with Georgina as she did.
“Just turn and keep walking,” Emery whispered, seizing her friend by the arm and steering her out of the tea room.
“What happened?” Georgina asked, glancing over her shoulder. “Those two ladies look as if you just threw their teas in their faces.”
“I’ll tell you everything in the carriage,” Emery muttered. “But essentially, I just wielded my power as Duchess of Dredford for the first time. Let’s just hope I used it wisely.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“That was wrong!” Emery said, stamping her foot on the ground as hard as she could. “We have to try again.”
“Are you sure?” Lucien asked, peering down at her from where he stood in front of her, his arms raised, as they once more practiced the waltz. “I thought that was very good.”
His wife scowled up at him. “That wasn’tvery good, and if you thought that was very good, then you’re coddling me or aren’t as good a dancer as you boast to be.”
Lucien blinked, a little taken aback by his wife’s aggressive tone of voice. She had been in a bad mood for the past two days, and he had no idea why. Ever since she’d gone out to meet Miss Holloway after the bouquet of flowers had arrived, she’d been snapping at everyone, correcting Leah whenever she did or said anything wrong at the dining table, and generally behaving like…
Well, like Lucien. When he was still a perfectionist.
Narrowing his eyes, he gazed down at his wife.Why has she suddenly become the perfectionist, obsessed with getting all the rules right? She never cared about any of that.
“I’m sorry if I offended you, Emery,” he said, dropping his hands to his side. “But you really did a very good job during that last waltz. I’m not coddling you.”
“It wasn’t perfect, though,” she insisted, not quite meeting his eyes.
“Since when do you want to be perfect? I thought you saw dancing as something joyful, not something to perfect over and over again until it loses all its joy?”
“And when did you become so disinterested in perfection?” she shot back at him. “There was a time not that long ago when you would have given anything for me to care this much about doing everything perfectly.”
Lucien didn’t answer right away. There was a furrow in his wife’s brow that had been there for days, as if she were carrying around a great deal of tension. And while she was right, that even a few days ago he would have done anything to see her take her duty seriously, now all he wanted was to relieve that tension and ensure her happiness.
“What happened?” he asked gently. “Is thetongetting to you already?”
