AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, you do not have that, so you make the best of what you can,” Rufus warned.
“Look at Phoebe; never have I seen a woman’s smile as delightful and as sweet as Phoebe’s. It is little wonder she was quite the favorite of suitors at her debut earlier this year,” Cordelia remarked as she added more notes to the parchment in front of her.
Hearing Phoebe’s name made Hermione work harder to dry her tears. Phoebe had been a firm favorite of many gentlemen, but her options were now scuppered because of what happened to Hermione.
“Guideline number four, make a man feel special,” Cordelia said with delight. “Any gentleman should believe that you are interested in only them and no one else. Pander to the Duke’s likings, flatter him, and flatter his station too.”
“This is good,” Rufus said from behind her. “What else?”
“Here is where we become more artful,” Cordelia said, revealing a smile on her features that Hermione had never seen before. It was one with a deviousness to it. “Guideline number five, put yourself at a gentleman’s mercy. They like the ability to help a young woman.”
“This is getting worse by the minute,” Hermione whispered.
“What did you say?” Rufus looked over at her.
“Nothing,” she lied, turning back to them. “Pray, tell me how else I am to pull the wool over this poor gentleman’s eyes,” she said with thick sarcasm, earning a firmer glower from her father.
“Number six, catch the gentleman in a compromising position.”
“What?” Hermione said, nearly falling off her chair at her outrage.
“Think of it,” Cordelia said, hurrying to write down her notes. “Once a gentleman is seen in a compromising situation with a lady, to protect both his reputation and hers, he must propose. That may well be your best chance in the month to persuade the Duke to make a proposal.” She drew a line under her notes with a flourish before she passed the parchment to Rufus.
He blew on the ink, trying to dry it a little before he smiled at the notes made, then he crossed the room and placed the parchment in Hermione’s lap. She didn’t pick it up at first. She kept her hands as far away from it as possible.
“I hope you are paying attention, Hermione,” Rufus said, gesturing to her to pick up the notes. “This is the best chance you have of not being a spinster for the rest of your life.” She picked up the parchment and read over the notes again. Her eyes tarried for a long time along guideline number six with some horror.
“What do you think, Hermione?” Cordelia asked. Hermione lifted her eyes, ready to tell them exactly what she truly thought when she saw the anger in her father’s gaze.
“Thank you for your help,” she said and placed the handkerchief on a nearside table. She folded the parchment into tiny squares, as small as it would go, before she stood from her seat. “If you would excuse me, I need some air.”
She walked to the doorway with the two of them following her. “If you see the Duke on your walk, be sure to speak to him,” Rufus warned. “He must think you practically a mute after your display this morning.”
She highly doubted that was the case after she had been so outspoken to him the night before. She nodded once at her father regardless and headed out of the door. She moved along the corridor and down the stairs with some speed, desperate to escape the house.
When she reached the front door, she flung it wide open and stumbled down the steps, hurrying to be out of the house.
As she walked around the house, past the clifftops and heading to the gardens, she lifted her fingers to her lips, passing them over where the Duke had taken his liberty the night before. When she closed her eyes, she could imagine being back there again in the library with the Duke, only this time, in her imagination she didn’t stop him. She let the kiss continue.
Her eyes shot open again and breathlessly she circled the house entirely and headed for the formal gardens at its rear.
The gardens were laid out with formal lines of borders and even high yew bushes that tried to block out some of the wind that came off the sea. Between these bushes, Hermione could catch a glimpse of two people walking together, followed by a third person dressed as a maid. It was Phoebe and Officer Stenham, walking side by side.
Hermione hid behind the nearest rhododendron bush; she loathed to interrupt them. Phoebe had a sweet smile on her face, of a kind that she had never even worn with the gentlemen that had pursued her in London. Officer Stenham was talking at length about something, with Phoebe attentively listening to him.
As they walked past Hermione, she waited until they had disappeared with their chaperone before she stepped out and headed in the direction they had come from. On this side of the garden, a whole forest stretched out before her, far away from the formal gardens or the cliff edge. Hermione wandered into it, longing to be lost amongst the tree trunks for a short while.
Once she was certain that the house was far behind her, she stopped in a clearing and breathed deeply. There was a sound to her left of someone moving about that made her open her eyes.
“You might want to step back again,” the Duke’s voice appeared out of nowhere. Hermione whipped her head around to see him standing not too far from her with a long bow and arrow in his hands, pulled and ready to fire.
