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“I’m not trying to attract you!” she snapped.

“You don’t have to try, Bea.” He was close enough so she could see faint stubble on his jaw. He stepped away before she could think how to answer, strode to the door, and walked out.

The clock began chiming ten o’clock. Bea leaned back against the library table, her knees weak with relief. They hadn’t been caught together.

The door opened, and she put on a bright smile for Lady Paget. “I—”

It wasn’t Lady Paget, or a maid with a domino.

It was Regina.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“What are you doing here?” Bea blurted out. The wild thought went through her head that Regina meant to apologize.

Regina’s hard gaze practically struck her in the face.

No apologies.

Jonah’s sister sauntered across the room, her gauze skirts floating around her. Her skirts had obviously been pressed dry. “I want to give you a warning. And some information.”

Bea nodded and crossed her arms, leaning back against the library table. “Be my guest.”

She was gloriously unafraid. Why had she ever been afraid? This poker-like girl couldn’t touch her.

“You may not take my brother.”

Until that moment, Bea hadn’t clarified the future for herself. She smiled. “Actually, I will. I plan to marry the duke.”

Pure shock went through Regina’s eyes. She’d been bluffing, trying to warn Bea off.

“I don’t mean that the way Petunia did,” Bea added, beginning to enjoy herself, just as Lady Paget predicted. “I truly mean it—whether Prudence has such an inclination or not. She can’t have him.”

“My brother hasn’t asked you to marry him!” Regina’s voice went up a full scale.

“Not yet.” Bea let her smile widen. “We’ll be sisters-in-law, Regina.”

“You simply cannot!”

Her gasp, stiff shoulders, and curled fists caught Bea’s attention. The problem here was Regina’s, not hers. The girl was in a profound rage.

“Is this because you don’t like my figure?” she asked with some curiosity. “You can’t expect everyone to be as beautiful as you are.” Regina had flaxen hair and a slim figure. She was beautiful.

Yet Bea was beautiful too. Curvaceous and perfect, according to Jonah.

“Don’t smile like that!” Regina hissed, coming closer. “You can’t have him. I never meant for the two of you to be in the carriage together.”

“Actually, you are the reason why we found each other,” Bea said. “Our first dance was at your instruction, and then you brought him to my table during supper, and finally you asked him to escort me home. He’s gone to fetch his carriage now.”

Regina’s face went red. “I had nothing to do with it!”

Bea sighed. Hopefully, time would help them endure each other’s company. “So, you came to warn me away from your brother. Is there anything else you’d like to say?”

“The duke needs a very different woman,” Regina said. Her expression shifted. Suddenly she looked winsome, a little sad. “You don’t know him. He has … defects. He must marry a woman at the very top of society. I’m trying to persuade Lady Martha to drop her fiancé and take my brother instead, out of the goodness of her heart.”

“Defects?” Bea laughed. “Are those like my defects, the ones that Jonah likes so much?”

“Don’t be disgusting!” Regina spat.