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Aunt Caroline gave an admonishing cluck of her tongue. “I’ll not listen to that silliness from you, Emma Buckland,” she scolded kindly. “Of all people you should know that there are more important things in life than malicious tabbies who gossip. Life is short. You’ll not hide away here for the rest of the season. I want you to go upstairs now and prepare for Lady Montgomery’s soirée.”
“I can’t,” Emma looked at her aunt aghast.
How could she expect her to mingle and talk with people after such a crushing blow, how could she endure people’s stares?
“You can and you will,” her aunt was firm, her mouth set in a grim, determined line.
“But...“
“No arguing.”
Chapter Four
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After the death of Alexander’s father, Rebecca, Duchess of Daventry, wished Alexander to fill the home she had just left with grandchildren.
But Alexander had studiously avoided doing just that. To his mother’s despair upon taking up his role as the Duke, he had ardently pursued society’s most beautiful young widows, and not the fresh crop of debutants that appeared every spring.
“Honestly, Alexander” his mother sighed, placing her cup on its saucer and glaring at her handsome son who sat opposite her. “It’s as though you’re actively seeking out a reputation as a rake and a cad.”
Alexander responded with a sigh of his own, his handsome face cloaked in annoyance ; this damn business with the Buckland estate again.
“I was not seeking to cheat the young lad out of his inheritance, mother,” he said, with no little irritation.
“And now Emma Buckland will struggle to find anyone to marry her. It’s not like it’s her first year out, Alexander, young ladies don’t stay young forever.”
Alexander struggled to resist rolling his eyes at his mother’s prim remark.
“Well maybe there is someone who’ll marry her,” Alexander said absently.
It would solve two of his problems, the Buckland estate and his lack of a wife, not to mention his lack of interest in wooing on. This was a most practical solution indeed.
The fact that Miss Buckland was the most delectable creature he had seen for some time was an added bonus, he thought happily to himself.
“Who?” Rebecc
a’s face was shocked, and she set down her teacup. “Not you?”
“Why not me?” Alexander gave his mother a wicked smile. “Have you not been telling me that I need to settle down? Miss Buckland is an attractive young lady, I can give her brother his estate back with no loss of face… I don’t see any problems at all, do you?”
“Well no, not technically, Alexander,” his mother replied delicately. “But don’t you think you ought to ask the girl first?”
“What girl would say no to being a Duchess, mother?” Alexander said with a smile.
***
“No, no, absolutely not.” Emma stood in Lady Montgomery’s garden, staring up at the Duke of Daventry in disbelief. Had he gone completely mad?
“Why not?” the Duke stared down at her, his dark eyes flashing in annoyance.
“Because I don’t like you, let alone love you,” Emma replied exasperatedly. “Earlier you could not even offer me a civil arrangement to buy back my brother’s debt, and now you are offering me marriage? I think you are quite mad, Your Grace.”
Honestly, Emma pressed a tired hand to her brow, could today get any more exhausting? She had arrived at Lady Montgomery’s soirée earlier that evening, in her finest gown, determined to face down the gossiping tabbies of the ton.
As the evening wore on, she had endured the other guest’s pitiful stares with weary resignation, but then her discomfort had only been escalated by the arrival of the Duke of Daventry. Emma had done her best to avoid him, though everywhere she turned he was there, attempting to make his way over to her.
Before her aunt could find her in the crowd, she snuck out onto the veranda for a breath of fresh air. She couldn’t dance with anyone else, not right now anyway.
