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Emily sighed and looked at her hands, “But he is the only strong contender so far.”
Daniel smiled easily at her. “It is much too early in the game, dear Emily. Next week, Lord and Lady Hadley will be holding a ball.”
“Well, about that…” Emily trailed off. “The reason I asked you to come was precisely that. Thanks to your ‘lessons’, I can decently attract a man in the ballroom setting. Beyond that, I still need to know how to able to keep his attention.”
“You mean when he comes to pay you a call?” His Grace supplied gently.
She nodded and blushed. “I have never had a gentleman pay me a call,” she said ruefully. “And quite frankly, I have no idea how I am supposed to act in such circumstances.”
He gave her a brief, cursory glance. “For one thing, you should dispose of these hideous rags you are wearing right now. They do absolutely nothing to make you more desirable in the eyes of men.”
She turned a bright red and nodded. “But…I have never bought my own clothes. Lady Rutbridge insists that these are the best, but they somehow never look good on me.”
Lady Rutbridge is an absolute imbecile, Daniel disdained in his mind.If not, she is a horrendously jealous woman determined to sabotage a girl half her age.
If that was not disgraceful enough, he had no idea what was. Sadly, it was a common enough occurrence amongst the Ton—women were far more attentive to offspring that came out of their own bodies than those that came out of other women. If the previous Marchioness had been alive, Emily would not be in such dire straits.
“I shall talk to your brother and see if he knows somebody who can help,” Daniel reassured her.
To the best of his knowledge, Benedict had once bedded a rather popular modiste, who was well-known for providing young ladies with sumptuous gowns in the latest fashions. If his friend managed to end that affair quite amicably, then Madame Dubois could be relied upon to provide Emily with more suitable wardrobe selections.
“Benedict will only laugh at me.”
It is the neglect of the whole of your family that contributed to your circumstances,Daniel wanted to tell her. Instead, he kept it to himself, for he knew that her tender heart wanted to believe the best about the people she loved, but he resolved to have a serious talk with his friend soon after.
“Your brother will not laugh at you, I assure you,” he told her gently. “Why don’t we make it so that he will be quite occupied fielding off your suitors?”
Emily laughed a little at that. “You did hear what he said last night at the Hawthorne ball. He does not seem as supportive of my efforts as you make him out to be.”
“He will be supportive once he sees the error of his ways,” His Grace replied sagely.
“You do not know Benedict—”
“My dear Emily,” the Duke interjected, his authoritative voice brooking no argument. “Do you know what is the quickest way to make a man acquiesce to whatever you want?”
She blinked at him. “I…have absolutely no idea, Your Grace.”
He smiled at her. “Quite simple, my dear.Make it seem like it was his idea.”
“What…oh.”
As her eyes widened in realization, Daniel knew that his words were not wasted on her. She was a quick and intelligent student, requiring very little in the way of instruction—and he greatly admired women who were quick-witted.
In his estimation, Emily quickly rose up the ranks of women he considered to be acceptable company.
In the afternoon light, the soft waves of her hair turned a fiery red-gold, her complexion almost luminous. Her brown eyes were round and shone with an intelligent, if naïve, sheen.
Even that disgrace of a gown that she wore could not hide the fact that beyond her painfully shy nature and social ineptitude, she was a highly desirable woman in the physical sense. One just needed to dig a little deeper to find it.
A pity that many of the gentlemen in society are shallow fops and dandies, content to squander away their family fortune, he thought derisively. And once they joined the ranks of penniless, landed aristocracy, they did what they always did to survive—marry a woman of ample fortune to keep their empty titles afloat.
His father had been such a man, and Daniel was determined to never follow in that man’s footsteps.
Now, he was of the strong opinion that Emily herself should not end up with such a man either.
CHAPTER5
“It is endearing how you try so hard, sister dear.”
