Page 5 of The Duke’s Matchmaker

“Not that our own sister would have told us if it had,” Honora lamented. “Dorothy never wants to gossip.”

It wasn’t strictly true—Dorothy did enjoy a bit of gossip now and then. But she wasn’t nearly as interested in it as her sisters were.

“Dorothy probably wouldn’t even know if something juicy had happened,” Abigail pointed out, returning to the settee with the paper in her hand. “She’s such a wallflower.”

“Which means she’d have been ideally placed to notice,” Honora countered. “An observer like our Dorothy sees everything. She’s never too preoccupied with her own affairs. She’d have been the first one to recognize an interesting story.”

Honora was more right than she could have realized. Dorothy’s heart beat faster as her sisters peered over the scandal sheet together.

Abigail gasped. “Look at this!” She pointed. “The Duke of Henshaw has made a list of potential brides for himself. He actually wrote it down and let people look at it!”

“My goodness,” Honora murmured. “I didn’t know he was looking for a bride at all.”

“He’ll have a task finding one now that this is out,” Abigail said. “There will be those who are excited by this news, but I think many debutantes will be shocked to know he’s like this—open to marrying almost anyone. Look how long this list is! He’s written down dozens of names here!”

“Mmm,” Dorothy murmured. “That’s a real shame.”

Her sisters looked up at her. Both their eyes were narrowed.

“You don’t seem shocked at this,” Honora observed.

“No, no, it’s very shocking. Appalling behavior.”

“Dorothy, did you have something to do with this?” Honora pressed her. “Were you the one who reported this?”

“It’s fantastic if you were,” Abigail told her. “A gentleman who thinks himself entitled to any lady he wants—as if he were purchasing her at auction—ought to be held to account for his mindset. You’ve done everyone a service by warning them what kind of man he really is!”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Dorothy said, though she couldn’t keep her lips from curving up in a smile. “I didn’t do anything.”

“All right, you don’t have to admit it,” Honora said. “But I know you, Dorothy. You’d be exactly the sort of person to find out about gossip like this, and I believe you were the one to send it in.”

Dorothy turned an unread page in her book and smiled.

The door to the sitting room opened. The housekeeper, Mrs. Banks, came in and looked around the room, smiling at the sisters. “Here again, Lady Honora? Lady Abigail?”

“We wanted to see how last night’s ball had gone for Dorothy,” Abigail said. “If she might finally have found love.”

Dorothy felt her cheeks grow hot. Her sisters were kind to care so deeply for her prospects. She was the last to be unmarried in her family, though both Honora and Abigail had lost their husbands to illness a few years prior. They had homes and staff of their own now, and between their grief and their duties, it would have been easy—and understandable—for them to put her a bit farther from their minds.

“Well, it’s just as well,” Mrs. Banks said. “A guest has just arrived. Mulligan will be showing him in momentarily, and I thought it best to come in and let you know.”

“A guest?” Abigail repeated, sitting up straighter. She folded the scandal sheet and tucked it away. “Someone to see Dorothy?”

“A suitor from last night!” Honora clasped her hands together. “Dorothy, you sly creature, you have been keeping secrets!”

Dorothy shook her head, frowning. “I don’t think it can be someone for me.” She hadn’t danced with anyone last night.

“He says he’s here for you, Lady Dorothy,” Mrs. Banks told her.

“Who does?”

“His Grace, the Duke of Henshaw.”

Abigail and Honora looked at Dorothy with wide eyes, but before anyone could say anything more, the door opened once more, and Mulligan, the butler, ushered Nathaniel into the room.

CHAPTER 3

“Lady Dorothy,” Nathaniel said, his voice sharp as glass.