Page 9 of The Duke’s Matchmaker

“Well, I know that it’s hard to be worried about the marriage mart,” she said. “After all, there is a reason I’ve chosen to distance myself from all that! But I have to say, it’s going to be difficult to keep my distance now, because Nathaniel insists that I help him find himself a suitable bride! He’s so hopeless at it that I suppose even my help seems valuable to him.”

Violet laughed. “My goodness,” she said. “You’re going to be his matchmaker.”

Dorothy groaned. “I don’t see how I can get out of it.” She knitted her fingers together. “He knows I was the one who reported his list, and he says this is the way I can make it up to him. And truth be told, I do feel badly about having done that. It was thoughtless of me, and I wish I hadn’t. So, if there’s a way for me to make it right, I’ll have to do it.” She sighed. “It’s just that I don’t think I’m the right person for the task. I mean, what do I know about matchmaking? I’m as good as on the shelf.”

“You’re only five-and-twenty,” Agnes said gently. “I was older than that when I married.”

“Yes, I know,” Dorothy agreed. “But you were a known spinster and pleased as punch about it, remember? You fell into a marriage with Gabriel nearly by accident. It’s very different for me.”

“I suppose my case was rather unique,” Agnes agreed. “But also, Dorothy, remember that every case is unique. No two courtships are just alike. If it can happen for me, it could happen for you.”

Dorothy shook her head. “This isn’t about me,” she said. “I’m not thinking of marriage for myself. My only struggle is that I don’t know whether I’m well enough equipped to assist Nathaniel in finding a wife. He thinks I am, but truly, what help could I possibly be? What do I know of these matters?”

“Oh, I’d say you know more than you’re giving yourself credit for,” Violet said with a smile. “After all, you’re a wallflower.”

“But isn’t that just the problem?” Dorothy lamented. “I’m a wallflower. I don’t join in. I know nothing about the inner workings of society.”

“Violet is right,” Agnes chimed in. “You say you know nothing, Dorothy, but I think you know more than you realize, because you’re always watching. You’re at every ball, always paying attention to what everyone is doing, and you know all there is to know about the inner workings of high society. You might be the best possible person to help Nathaniel choose an appropriate wife, now that I think of it. He’s lucky to have your assistance.”

“Do you really think so?” Dorothy asked doubtfully.

“Just think of it,” Agnes said. “Couldn’t you tell me right here and now the names of three ladies who have been laid low by scandal?”

“Well, of course,” Dorothy said. “But so could we all, I’d imagine.”

“And you could probably tell me, too, who you think is careless enough with her reputation that she is likely to be embroiled in future scandal, even if she has been spared thus far.”

“I could,” Dorothy admitted, several names immediately coming to mind.

“And,” Violet chimed in eagerly, “If I was to ask you who was seeking to marry this season, and who was being pressed into the marriage mart against her will by an overeager mama?”

“Of course I would know,” Dorothy agreed, beginning to feel more confident.

“Well, there you have it, then,” Agnes said. “You’re very well suited to help Nathaniel find his bride.”

“And he might be a bit of a fool, making a list like that and leaving it where it could be found,” Violet said. “But he isn’t a bad man, so you don’t need to worry that you’re doing anything wrong by helping him. I believe he will be honest with whoever he marries. He will let her know what he wants from a marriage, and he won’t treat her badly.”

“I agree,” Agnes said. “He can be a bit gruff, but he’s a good man.”

Dorothy nodded. She had the same impression of Nathaniel. He was frustrating and a bit thoughtless, but she didn’t think of him as someone cruel. It didn’t worry her to think that she might be responsible for someone finding herself married to him.

“I just wonder what’s made him suddenly decide to pursue marriage, after all these years,” Agnes mused. “I always thought he had no interest in such things, and to be honest, I think Gabriel thought the same. We assumed he would spend the rest of his days as a bachelor. Something must have happened to change his mind—did he give you any hint as to what that might have been, Dorothy?”

Dorothy hesitated.

She knew what had changed Nathaniel’s mind, of course. He had told her outright that there was a child in the picture and that he was looking for someone to fill the role of mother to that child. But how could it be that Agnes and Violet didn’t know this already? She’d been surprised that she hadn’t known Nathaniel had a child, but she had assumed that it must simply have failed to come up when they had socialized in the past. After all, there was no reason she needed to know such a thing.

But surely he would have told his closest friends. And wouldn’t they have told their wives? Agnes and Violet must know that there was a child.

Mustn’t they?

If they didn’t know, she thought, it was not her place to tell them. It was Nathaniel’s business. She wouldn’t share his personal secrets with anyone. She would keep it to herself, even though it might not be a secret at all.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I suppose a gentleman changes his mind about many things over the course of his life.”

She wondered why she didn’t just tell the secret. He had certainly put her in an awkward position if it was true that he didn’t want anyone to know…and yet, here she was, going along with it. Was it just a desire to be a decent person? Or was there something else at play here—something that was driving her to show more loyalty to a gentleman she hardly knew than to the ladies who had been her friends for many years?

And how was it possible that Nathaniel had a child nobody—not even his closest friends, perhaps—knew about?