Page 17 of It's All About the Duke
“Yes, but I will explain to her that she should have no worries about this and that you and I have everything under control. She will certainly understand that I have no choice in who my guardian will be. Besides, she’s seen the Duke of Rathburne and the other two rakes on occasions at parties and dinners over the past years. Sheavoids them. That’s the proper thing to do. No one in Society should ever know she harbors ill will. She would be the one punished. Not the dukes.”
Eugenia nodded. “I’ll reinforce to her everything you said.”
“Good, because I really don’t have answers to any of this, Eugenia, except I see no reason to change our routine. Veronica will continue to get the gossip from her group of friends and tell it to me. Along with the bits I pick up from Justine, I’ll write the sheet and give it to you. You’ll give it to your maid to hand off to her sister to leave for Mr. Trout when she cleans the publishing company in the evenings. So you see, there is no reason to worry about any of this. All will be good.”
For now.
“Good afternoon, Your Grace. Terribly sorry to keep you wai—”
Marlena turned to see her widowed older cousin, Mrs. Justine Abernathy, waltz into the room with shoulders thrown back, chin arched high, and light-green skirts billowing behind her.
Chapter 4
He could be a rake if he tells you he will return to see you rather than ask you if he may call on you again.
MISSHONORATRUTH’SWORDS OFWISDOMANDWARNINGABOUTRAKES, SCOUNDRELS, ROGUES, ANDLIBERTINES
Both Marlena and Eugenia rose from the settee as Justine made an abrupt stop.
Marlena marveled at Justine’s appearance. Surely her gown, cut low across the shoulders, was more suited for a fancy dinner party than an afternoon dress. A smoky-gold topaz dangled from a thick gold chain hung around her neck. Her ash-brown hair had been beautifully arranged on top of her head with multiple braided green ribbons gracing her crown. In one gloved hand she held a handkerchief in the perfect spot so the delicate lace trim would show.
After looking over the room carefully, Justine stared at Marlena as if she wasn’t quite believing what she was seeing. “I’m sure the Duke of Rathburne was here. When Mrs. Doddle told me I didn’t believe her, so I tiptoed to the top of the stairs and peeped. He was standing in theentryway talking to you. I know it was him. I’ve seen him many times and spoke to him at a ball just last year. He’s divinely handsome.”
“Yes, he was here. I’m sorry you missed him. He couldn’t stay any longer and had to leave.”
“Oh,” Justine said, her tall, buxom figure seeming to shrink a little at the disappointing news. “I didn’t think I took that long to change, but perhaps I did. I wanted to look my best. I couldn’t very well come down to receive a duke dressed, dressed—like you, Marlena. My word! What were you thinking to greet a duke in such a simple day dress? You should have made yourself more presentable.” She looked at Eugenia as if she started to say something about her plain gray dress but then, seeming to think better of it, gave her attention back to Marlena. “Our family may not be at the pinnacle of elite Society anymore, because of the unfortunate turn of events for our uncle, but in this house we most certainly know how to present ourselves and behave properly in front of a duke.”
“Yes, of course we do,” Marlena agreed, remembering how she’d taken the duke to task more than once and argued to remain in St. James. That certainly wasn’t the proper way to behave. But wanting to soothe Justine’s ruffled feathers with the least amount of fanfare possible, she added, “I’m afraid it was unavoidable for both of us. Eugenia had no idea the duke was here when she walked over.”
“So you met him, too, did you?” Justine asked Eugenia, still sounding a little piqued she missed seeing the duke after getting dressed up to meet him and her neighbor hadn’t.
“Briefly, Mrs. Abernathy,” Eugenia answered timidly.
Justine harrumphed and her heavy bosom heaved.
“And I was outside and came around the corner of thehouse to see him standing at our front door. It was impossible for me not to see him or he me.”
“Don’t tell me you were in the garden again!” Justine rolled her dark-green gaze incredulously toward the ceiling and shook her head. “Will you never learn? No, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t suppose I can worry about that now. It’s spilled milk, as we say, and we can’t put it back in the pitcher. I do hate that he couldn’t wait for me after coming over to see me. I shouldn’t have taken so long. We were introduced years ago and I’m quite sure I had a dance or maybe two with him before I wed Wallace. I was much younger then, you understand, and the diamond of the Season that year.”
Marlena doubted the dance. There was no way she could know for sure, but she guessed the duke to be at least five years younger than Justine if not more. But according to Justine, she was the belle of every ball, the most sought-after widow at every party, and every eligible gentleman in thetonwas just one question away from asking for her hand.
“Did the duke seem too disturbed I didn’t make it down in time to greet him?”
That man? Disturbed?
He was too arrogant for such a human emotion.
“Not in the least,” Marlena said honestly, and a little bit perturbed herself. “And rightly so. The duke should have made an appointment, or at least alerted us by messenger that he planned on paying us a visit. It was in poor taste that he came without making us aware of his intentions to call this afternoon.”
“It doesn’t matter about that, my dear,” Justine stated, clearly not willing to budge an inch. “A duke can arrive at anyone’s home at any time and be received. You should have immediately excused yourself to go and make yourself presentable.”
She looked at Eugenia as if to add,both of you.
Eugenia seemed to take that as her opportunity to leave and said, “If you’ll excuse me, Mrs. Abernathy, Marlena, I think I should be going back home now.”
Justine nodded once.
“We’ll talk later, Eugenia,” Marlena whispered as her friend hurried past them with her head down, her chin almost resting on her chest. Turning back to her cousin, Marlena said, “I will take better care with my appearance in the future. I suppose both of us must, as the duke said he’d return another afternoon.”
