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“Good.”
She walked toward the door and paused to gather herself.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“Find him a bride.”
She just wasn’t certain which of her friends to try first. Elizabeth, while the daughter of a duke, had strangely been left out of her father’s will. With only her allowance, Jennette didn’t believe Elizabeth would be wife material for Matthew.
Then there was Sophie. As the bastard daughter of an actress and some nameless earl, she had plenty of money from her father, but no real respectability. Matthew needed a woman with both.
With Avis married to Banning, that left Victoria. Jennette frowned in thought. Something about Victoria created doubt in Jennette. She was the daughter of a vicar who supposedly had given her enough money to buy a home, which she converted into an orphanage. However, Victoria was always seeking donations to keep the orphanage open.
Not that she could envision any of them marrying Matthew. Or more specifically, she couldn’t imagine having to watch them with him. Seeing one of her friends come to love and desire him would be far more than she could bear.
As Jennette walked down the hallway, she realized this plan would be much more difficult than she’d impulsively thought. She needed to match him with an acquaintance, not someone with whom she was too close. Entering the ballroom, she scanned the area for anyone she could convince to dance with him. She smiled. No one needed to know who he was tonight.
Miss Lucinda Bartlett stood by the edge of the dance floor longingly watching the quadrille. The daughter of a viscount who reportedly had plenty of money, she might be just the thing. While she wasn’t the most beautiful woman in the room, Lucinda had a quiet sort of beauty that many men respected.
“Lucinda, what are you doing standing on the edge of the dance floor when you could be dancing?” Jennette asked with a smile.
Lucinda’s face fell. “No one has asked me to dance tonight. Apparently, after obtaining the age of six and twenty, I’m no longer in demand.”
“I have a friend here tonight who I know would love to dance with you.” Jennette glanced around for the scoundrel highwayman. After catching his eye, she nodded toward Lucinda.
“Who?”
Jennette laughed at her enthusiasm. “This is a masked ball, Lucinda. I cannot tell you his name.”
Her dull brown eyes lit with excitement. “Where is he?”
“Right here, my dear.” The sound of his deep voice rolled down Jennette’s back until she shivered.
“Oh my,” Lucinda whispered. She leaned forward and said, “Please tell me who he is, Jennette.”
“Not yet,” she replied.
Matthew held out his arm for Lucinda and Jennette watched the pair head for the dance floor. She wondered briefly at the little stab of envy that had pricked her heart, but she quickly brushed aside the feeling.
She had known even five years ago that she and Matthew were never meant to be.
“Did you hear the rumor circulating tonight?” Lucinda asked in a voice barely above a whisper. “It’s quite scandalous.”
“Oh?” Matthew leaned forward as if to listen better. Not that he cared about any gossipmonger’s tale. He’d been on the wrong side of the gossips’ tongues for far too long.
“Someone said they were certain Lord Blackburn was here tonight.” Her eyes widened. “Can you believe he would have the gall to come to Lady Jennette’s ball?”
“Perhaps,” Matthew said tightly. “Just perhaps, the gossips are wrong.”
Her brows knit into a cavernous frown. “Indeed. They have been known to be incorrect at times.”
“Many times.”
“Even still, I should never want to meet that man after what he did to poor Jennette. Can you imagine? The man impaled her betrothed.”
Matthew tried to relax his taut muscles and enjoy the dance. There was no possibility of that with Lucinda defaming him to his face. “Do you think there’s a chance that everything we know about Blackburn is all a falsehood?”
Lucinda looked up at him with confusion. “Whatever do you mean?”
