“That is water under the bridge,” Camelia said sternly. “And you know if you need anything, even if it is money, Raph and I are always here to help?—”
“No, thank you, Camelia. I am handling everything on my own just fine.”
Camelia sighed. “What is so wonderful about living alone, dear sister? If I were unmarried, I would want to go home to Papa and Margaret.”
Iris sighed heavily. “It is the quiet. The silence and comfort of it. Especially on my evenings alone in that house. It is… peaceful.”
“And it is yours,” Camelia added with a tone of understanding.
Iris nodded in agreement. “At least the supposed heir has not cared to claim the title for the last seven years. So, I get to keep the house, even if it is falling apart.”
“Have you heard from this potential heir?” Camelia looked at her curiously.
Iris thought about it for a second. “No, I have not.”
“Then there is nothing to worry about.” She beamed.
But the knot in Iris’s gut did not ease. “The heir to the title is a married duke with a family who lives far from London. But itseems that he has no inclination to come to town. Even so, I have to be prepared that he might change his mind and eventually show up.”
Camelia placed her hand gently on Iris’s shoulder. “You do not have to stay there if it makes you miserable. You could come live with us. Truly. Raph would insist on it.”
“I cannot impose myself,” Iris said tautly. “I already lived with Father for a short while when his debt left him hopeless. And you and His Grace saved him. You saved all of us. How would it look if your duke saved your sister… again? I cannot be a burden.”
Camelia’s smile dimmed. “You are not a burden!”
“Well, I feel like one,” Iris whispered, smoothing her skirt with a gloved hand. “I wished I had been capable of helping then. Of doing something.Anything.”
“You were there for Papa and us,” Camelia said gently. “That is all that matters.”
“I should have been stronger.”
Camelia took her hand firmly into hers. “You are strong. You always have been.”
Iris looked away as her throat tightened. Paying off her dead husband’s debts was becoming a heavy burden, but she could not dump that on her sister, especially not at a ball.
“Are you ladies ready to meet the scarred duke?” Raph announced on his return with a new glass of wine for Iris.
The sisters exchanged looks and asked in unison, “Thescarredduke?”
Camelia tilted her head to Raph, eyes narrowing. “Tell us what else you know of him, Raph? Truly.”
Raph sighed, leaning slightly against a nearby pillar. “All I know, my dear wife, is that he went off on his own at seventeen, built some sort of fortune for himself all over the country, and now he has inherited the dukedom title, and he threw this extravagant ball to introduce himself.”
“How… unsatisfying,” Iris said softly as she tugged at her skirt.
“You must know more,” Camelia pressed eagerly.
Raph squinted his eyes as if he were deep in thought.
“Thereismore,” Camelia prompted him with a determined grin.
Raph hesitated only a fraction of a second before he shook his head, causing his wife to huff with frustration.
Men are useless when it comes to gossip.
“Oh! I just remembered he was rumored to have killed his older brother,” Raph added casually from behind them, and the sisters whipped around to face him.
“What?”Iris gaped at her brother-in-law.
