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I immediately headed for his office on the second floor, only to run smack into Georgina.
“I—oh, Georgi—I mean, Your Grace,” I corrected myself, albeit through my teeth.
I knew the title was official, but for some reason, addressing Georgina as a duchess didn’t feel much different than calling Sofia a princess just because she was wearing a tiara and a sparkly dress.
“Francesca,” she said through a thin half-smile as she fluffed her hair. She was dressed as elegantly as ever in a pair of cream trousers with a navy blouse and tasteful pearl and diamond earrings dangling from her ears.
“Excuse me,” I said, in a hurry to find Xavier and make things right.
But her voice called me to a stop.
“It won’t work, you know.”
Ignore her, I told myself. You can just ignore her. You don’thaveto engage.
Unfortunately, good manners won over better judgment.
I turned at the landing a few steps above her. “I’m sorry? What won’t work?”
That haughty smile reappeared, this time showing a bit more teeth. “You and my stepson. It’ll never work.”
I frowned, took a step downward, then another, so we were nearly eye to eye. Everyone in this place was taller than me, so I needed the extra height.
“I’m not sure that’s really any of your business,” I ventured.
“Not my business? Darling, please.” She waved a manicured hand. “Allof this is my business. This is my legacy. And if you really think I’m going to allow a pikey little Yank with a bastard brat to become the next Duchess of Kendal, you really haven’t learned a thing on this adventure of yours, have you?”
My mouth fell open. “I—”
“Look at you,” she continued, gesturing up and down my body. “We’ve done our best to help, but you’re still a hopeless mess. Dressed in rags, hair like a dirty black mop, horrid posture, manners like a caveman.”
I straightened at her comments. “Now wait a—”
“And don’t get me started on your dancing, my girl,” she said. “Best leave that to the ones who grew up learning it.” She cocked her head and took a step up so we stood on the same stair, giving her at least six inches on me. “You know, I never realized it before, but you really are quite tiny, aren’t you? Beside the duke, you practically disappear. Or at least look more like his child than a partner ever should.”
It was like she had a dashboard of buttons that she could push to link directly to every one of my insecurities. Button one, height. Button two, class. And so on.
But I had one card left to play.
“I’m still not sure why you care so much who Xavier ends up with,” I said much more confidently than I felt. “After all, it’s common knowledge you’ve been trying to overturn the entail for years, haven’t you?”
She looked at first like she very much wanted to slap me. But then, it was as if a wave of calm swept across her genteel features, leaving behind that typical mask of supercilious knowing.
“I see my son has been chatting,” she replied as she examined the tip of one French nail. “Bad habit he’s formed since starting university.”
“Don’t think Xavier doesn’t know,” I warned her, more than ready to knock the woman off her high horse.
“Oh, of course he knows.”
Okay, maybe not.
“Why do you think we’ve never got on?” she continued. “He fits in here only slightly better than you do, and that marriage certificate is almost certainly a farce. I’ll prove it one day, I’m sure of it. But until then, I won’t have my son’s sullied by the likes of you.”
I sneered. “Because you’re so much more knowledgeable than the queen or all of Parliament, for that matter?”
“When it comes to my late husband, I rather surmise I am,” she said. “And Rupert would have no more married his cook than Xavier will marry a schoolteacher.” She bent down so her steely gray eyes were directly in line with mine. “The fact remains that you are merely a dalliance. A passing fancy, which, if Xavier’s recent temperament is any indication, has long grown stale. And whether he stays the Duke of Kendal or my son takes the title, one thing is true.You, my dear, will never be a duchess.”
“You—you don’t know that,” I said, though my voice was already quivering. After all, hadn’t Xavier just said the same thing in his own way?
