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Lizzy May clasped her hand.
“Do tell, Ell.”
Why should she? Lizzy May hadn’t told her a thing when she’d met the Duke.
“I can’t imagine what you mean.”
“Is he handsome? Was he at the garden party?”
The heat in Ellie’s cheeks spread across her face and down her neck.
“Should I ask the Dowager with whom you spoke?”
Ellie tipped her chin up to an arrogant angle.
“I spoke to rather a few gentlemen. I’m sure I cannot keep them all straight in my mind.”
“Fine. Don’t tell. I’ll find out from the Dowager.”
Annoyance stole much of the heat from Ellie’s face.
“I truly did speak with many people. The Dowager won’t recall one from another.”
Lizzy May’s smile disappeared. She patted Ellie’s hand.
“I understand if you don’t want to tell me.”
Ellie let out a sigh.
“He’s simply a gentleman. He’s not…” She gestured about the lavish bedroom. “He’s not fancy. A younger son.”
“But?” Lizzy May prompted, sitting up a bit straighter.
“But he’s so handsome, and he wears spectacles, and somehow they only make him more adorable.”
And Ellie longed to remove them from his face so she could see him without them and run her hands through his hair and—
“Spectacles?” Lizzy May repeated thoughtfully.
Ellie blinked, focusing on her sister.
“You don’t know him.”
“Maybe Matthew does.”
Hoping for a change in subject, Ellie asked, “Will the Duke join us soon?”
Lizzy May nodded. A glow of adoration suffused her face.
“He should. He’s setting things in order for his mother’s tenants. The Dowager has been an inattentive landlord.”
“And she doesn’t mind the Duke interfering in her estate?”
That didn’t seem like the Dowager Ellie knew at all.
“She agreed that those on her land should be treated better, but only if she needn’t be bothered to do so, so Matthew is overseeing the allocation of funds and repairs.” Lizzy May plucked at the coverlet. “I did think he’d be in London by now, or I should have remained in the country longer.”
Realising she wasn’t cheering her sister at all, Ellie decided that she could endure being quizzed about Mr. Carmichael for the sake of Lizzy May’s happiness and returned to their earlier topic.
