Page 39 of The Odyssean Duke

“And you will not even let us see it?” asked Anna, seating herself in the settee.

“No,” Evelina said. “I do not even know if I will wear it. I only gave him my answer four days ago. How has he already produced a gown for me?”

A gown anddrawers! She had heard rumors of ladies wearing drawers, but Evelina had assumed those were merely scandalous stories meant to entertain a bawdy, raucous audience. She had not imagined for a moment that they might be true.

“I suppose he has a reliable seamstress,” said Anne. “Or maybe the fortune to coax one into working very hard.”

“I suppose,” Evelina muttered, crossing her arms.

“Everyone,” greeted Maria as she entered the room.

“Now, we are all here,” Theodora said. “Regrettably, Rosalind has another obligation this evening.”

Evelina nodded and dropped into the nearest chair. “Shall we have brandy?”

“Of course!” Maria exclaimed with a laugh. “We should be celebrating your good fortune at marrying the duke.”

Evelina smiled awkwardly, thinking about the lace-trimmed drawers that Emma had hopefully thrown directly into a fire but more likely had simply left in Evelina’s room.

“You must tell them about your time in the British Museum,” Theodora said, her eyes shining with mischief.

Evelina had given Theodora only an ill-defined sketch of what had transpired between herself and the Duke of Rothbury, one which omitted everything involving His Grace taking her to that study and what they both had done once they were there.

“It was nothing,” Evelina said, knowing that it was pointless to resist.

Theodora would not surrender until Evelina had told the rest of the Corset Chronicles Club everything that she had already confessed to her sister.

“No, do tell,” said Maria. “What happened?”

Evelina sighed, secretly grateful that there was not more to say. “Truly, it was nothing.”

She told them of her encounter with the Duke of Rothbury in the Greek aisle and how they had conversed in front of a statue of Odysseus. Then, Evelina mentioned seeing Psyche and Eros; she did not quite share the entire truth, which was that His Grace had behaved in a deliberately rakish manner. Instead, she simply told her friends that he had offered to recount the story of Psyche, which she had already known.

“That was all,” Evelina said, adding a one-shouldered shrug really to assure them that there was nothing more to say. “I regret that it was not as exciting as Theodora made it sound.”

“You seem to enjoy speaking to him,” Anna said after a moment.

Evelina glanced at her friend’s stomach, its roundness softened only a little by Anne’s pink gown. “I do,” Evelina conceded. “But that hardly matters. I agreed to marry him because it is a mutually advantageous choice. Nothing more.”

“And I have told you that, regardless of your reasons, marriage will be more enjoyable if you develop some affection for the man,” Theodora said, smiling wryly.

“It seems that she has,” Maria said. “Shall we call him theOdyssean Duke?”

“Oh! I like that,” Theodora agreed.

“It suits him well,” added Anna.

“Hardly,” Evelina said dryly. “I do not think we should name him at all. This duke is quite unlike your husbands.”

“How so?” asked Theodora, sounding genuinely curious.

Evelina sighed. “Your dukes love you. And they wanted far more from a marriage than mine does. He wants an heir and power, and that is not like any of the men you all have married. Perhaps, let’s not afford him a pet name yet.”

Theodora laughed. “You make our stories sound so romantic! My dear sister, I know that you simply adore Alexander, but he did not fall in love with me without hesitation either. Nor is he a perfect man.”

“That is true,” Maria offered. “Our dukes all had their own challenges to overcome before being worthy of us.”

“Yes,” Anna agreed. “If you are going to learn any lesson from us, Evelina, it ought to be the importance of persistence and the willingness to grow.”