Her poor Papa had done an about face and hurried back out again, no doubt wondering if the black veil Miss Mayton wore had anything to do with it.
Rosalind sighed. It was all over. There was nothing further to be done. She’d given Conbatten every chance to come to her rescue and he’d refused.
She could not ignore what his feelings were. Or rather, what they were not.
“That’s it then,” she said softly. “Our Beatrice was once convinced she would be a spinster, but after all it will be me.”
“Because you could never consider anybody but Conbatten,” Juliet said.
“Never.”
“Certainly,” Miss Mayton said, “there must be some rational explanation for the duke’s refusal to duel.”
“Yes, there is,” Rosalind said. “He does not have me in his heart as I do him. If I were the one being challenged, I should take up my pistols forthwith and race to the nearest green to win Conbatten. He only joked that Archibald wished to be the next baron.”
“But wait, Rosalind,” Viola said, “perhaps that is where it all went wrong. Sending Archibald, the brother, as the second. This led the duke to believe that Archibald wished to see his brother killed and perhaps had even urged him to it.”
“That could be it,” Cordelia said. “The duke might have felt he must put a stop to actual fratricide, despite his love for you.”
“That makes sense,” Juliet said. “If you had only said the second was a friend, then the duke would not have worried that he participated in some unsavory family plot.”
Rosalind’s mind grasped at what she knew to be a very weak straw. At Lord Cannerly’s dinner, she had described Archibald in less than glowing terms. The duke had declared that a person such as that likely wished the elder brother dead and out of the way.
“I am certain that must be it,” Miss Mayton said from under her veil. They had discovered in the carriage that while getting their aunt’s sideburns on had been no trouble, getting them off again was near impossible. They did not know what they were to do about it.
“The duke would likely have agreed to fight the baron if the second had not been the brother,” Cordelia said.
Just then, Tattleton had come in with the tea tray. As he laid the service, Juliet said casually, “By the by, Tattleton, you remember that glue you gave me?”
“Yes, Lady Juliet.”
“Well, there have been some mishaps with my project to make a poem collage. So I was wondering—what can one use to get glue off?”
Tattleton appeared startled by the question. “I am not entirely certain,” he said. “I believe the only thing that softens it is hot water. At least, that is what the carpenter who came to fix a chair joint last year told me. He had Cook boil water to get it loose.”
“Excellent,” Juliet said, nodding to Miss Mayton. “When we go above stairs, can you send a pot up?”
“Hot water. To use on a paper collage, my lady?”
“It will be tricky, no doubt, but I’ll have to give it a try.”
Tattleton nodded, though Rosalind did not think he looked at all enthusiastic over sending up a pot of hot water to Juliet’s collage of poems. He was probably worried that she’d spill it all over.
The butler retired from the room and closed the door.
“There now, Aunt, we shall have Bess’ fur off your face in no time,” Juliet said.
Now that the problem of her aunt’s sideburns had been resolved, Rosalind’s thoughts went back to the duke. It was at once hopeless, and yet she found it very hard to give up all hope.
Were she to give up all hope, then she must proceed in misery forevermore.
But what else could she do? He would not be driven to declaring himself.
“I think what has happened,” Miss Mayton said from underneath her ghostly veil, “is that we have executed a well-thought-out plan, but for one detail. We should not have made the brother the second, but naturally we could not see that at the time.”
“But what now, Aunt?” Cordelia asked. “If we cannot drive him to a duel, what else could there be?”
“It seems to me that we have not boxed him in sufficiently,” Miss Mayton said, bobbing her head up and down. “He imagined it safe enough to refuse the duel, but what if this lovesick baron were to pose some real danger to Rosalind?”
