Page 41 of Courting the Wrong Duke

The duchess had spoken with neither condescension nor false pity, only the quiet practicality of a woman who understood exactly how quickly society could destroy a reputation. She had offered sensible advice. Honest advice.

And yet, Rosalind could not shake the memory of catching Augusta watching her across the gallery.

That fleeting expression. The strange feeling of having been measured without quite knowing why.

Perhaps she had imagined it.

Perhaps she had simply allowed too many days of uncertainty to make her suspicious of kindness itself.

She was still turning the thought over when a familiar voice broke into her reflections.

“My lady?”

Rosalind turned, relief softening her features almost at once. “Nelly.”

Her maid hurried toward her, looking as though she had been searching every gallery in the building.

“I have been wondering where you'd gone. Mrs. MacMillian said you were speaking with the Dowager Duchess.”

“I was.”

Nelly's gaze drifted down the corridor where Augusta had disappeared. “And the Duchess of Aldermere.”

Rosalind nodded. “She walked with me.”

Nelly's eyebrows climbed. “Well?”

The single word drew an unexpected laugh from Rosalind.

It felt good to laugh. She had almost forgotten what it sounded like.

“I confess,” she admitted as they began walking together, “I do not quite know what to think of her.”

“She seemed pleasant enough?”

“She did.”

That was precisely the difficulty.

Rosalind frowned as she searched for words that refused to arrange themselves sensibly.

“She was thoughtful. Kind, even. She spoke of my father with such compassion that I nearly believed I had mistaken her entirely.”

She hesitated.

“And yet I cannot rid myself of the feeling that there is something... hidden.”

Nelly glanced sideways at her. “Hidden?”

Rosalind nodded slowly. “She gives me the feeling of an abandoned house.”

Nelly blinked. “An abandoned house?”

Rosalind felt faintly absurd trying to explain it.

“Perfectly respectable from the outside. Beautiful, even. But you cannot shake the feeling that if you opened the wrong door, you would discover something no one intended you to find.”

She laughed softly under her breath.