Page 83 of The Duke’s Hidden Duchess

Tomorrow, then, they would ask Mrs Loxley for nothing she was unwilling to give.

Chapter Eighteen

The gown box had been delivered at four and stood upon the dressing-room table, still corded. Selina had not opened it and did not mean to while there was anyone present to watch her do so.

At a quarter past, the door opened without a knock.

“I am coming, and you cannot stop me. If you mean to send me to bed while the two of you fight my battle without me, I shall follow you. I shall take a hired chair to Lady Marwood’s if I must, and stand in the doorway and make such a scene that you will both wish you had simply allowed me to come.”

Georgiana ran out of breath and finished on what remained of it.

“There. That is my argument. I had a better one on the stairs.”

She stood in the middle of the dressing room with her chin at the familiar family angle and her fingers worrying the end of her sash.

Selina put down the hairpin she had been holding.

“I have no intention of sending you to bed. I do, however, intend to give you a part in this evening which is less satisfying than the one you have probably devised for yourself. Sit down and hear it before you agree.”

Georgiana remained standing.

“I can listen perfectly well from here,” she said. “Tell me.”

Selina turned from the glass. “Giles means to accuse me publicly. Rowland matters because he was the man who threatened you, and you still possess the letters he sent: the one insisting upon a clandestine meeting, and the later one threatening publication if you refused.”

Georgiana’s face tightened.

“I kept them.”

“I know. If they are needed tonight, you will produce them. You will not make a speech. You will show the letter and say only what cannot be disputed.”

“What am I to say?”

Selina considered.“‘He sent this letter to me.’”

Georgiana counted silently.

“Six words.”

“Six true words. Then let his own hand do the rest.”

“You think I want to stand up and denounce him.”

“I think you do.”

“Well, I do.” Georgiana looked down at the carpet. “I have rehearsed it, if you want the truth. Last night. There was a very fine part in the middle where I called him a coward to his face.”

“I am sure it was excellent.”

“It was.”

“And Rowland would answer it. He cannot answer his own letter quite so easily.”

“I know.” Georgiana’s hands went back to the sash. “That is the tiresome part. I know you are right and still prefer my speech.”

“You may deliver it to me tomorrow morning if you continue to feel deprived.”

“I shall hold you to that.”