Page 70 of Project Duke

Nathaniel’s gaze dropped to Calliope’s stomach as her face went scarlet. The thought of a baby was both a thrill of joy and a tug of dread in his gut. They couldn’t know yet if she was pregnant, although it was possible. She could be carrying his child…

And he allowed her to carry a gun; he allowed her to box; he actually took her to Portside! What was he thinking? She was changing him, had him wrapped around her finger, his beautiful little fox.

“Well done, Kelford,” said the dowager to him.

“I’m afraid I wasn’t given much choice.”

“Well, that may be true, but I can see how happy you make my only granddaughter,” she said enthusiastically. “And that is all I’ve ever wished for any of my grandchildren.”

Her gaze went to Hazel, Poppy, and Violet. “Now, now.” She cocked one eyebrow. “What shall we do with you three? Kelford, I know this Season is almost over, but what would you say if we took Hazel out?”

The three gasps that came from his sisters were a combination of enthusiasm, envy, and shock.

Nathaniel sat up in his chair. “Pardon me?” he barked.

“I think Hazel is ready,” said the dowager innocently. “It’s perhaps a little too early for you two,” she said to the twins with a kind smile. “But Hazel is seventeen.”

Nathaniel’s whole body was ablaze momentarily at the thought of horny sons of marquesses, earls, and viscounts looking at his sister with anything but wonder and adoration. He knew what it was to be a young man in their position, what went through their minds, and hated the idea of them thinking anything of Hazel. His smart, rebellious, pretty sister whom he’d protected his entire life.

“I don’t think she is,” he said, his fingers wrapping around the handle of the teacup so tightly he was afraid it was going to break.

“I am, brother,” said Hazel, straightening her back, then licking her lips. “Not that I care whether I come out this year or the next.”

Calliope exchanged a long look with her grandmama.

“Coming out doesn’t mean she’ll have to marry right away,” said Calliope.

“Nor that I want to marry at all,” said Hazel.

“I’m sure you will, love,” said the dowager, “at some point in the future. Not right away, of course. It merely means you’re showing who you are and that you are on the marriage mart.”

“But she isn’t on the marriage mart at all,” said Nathaniel. “She doesn’t even have a dowry yet.”

Because her dowry, just as the dowries of the twins and his own income, were all dependent on the inheritance that was still out of his reach.

“She doesn’t need a dowry to be on the mart,” said the dowager, and her sly eyes moved to Hazel. “Do you, darling?”

All this time, Hazel had been his young sister, a little girl to protect and shield. The little face he’d seen through the window of the carriage staring at him and their dead mother, wide-eyed. He was sure she didn’t remember any of those events that night. She would have told him if she did.

But now, coming out, declaring to the whole world she was a young woman grown enough to marry?

Most of the men who were open for wives would never love them. The thought of someone marrying an amazing young woman like Hazel and not appreciating what a treasure they held made him sick. Made him want to crush something and hit someone.

“I don’t mind,” said Hazel with a falsely indifferent shrug. “I never even wanted to go out to balls and such.”

“Oh, you did, Hazel!” declared Poppy. “You very much did! Don’t you lie!”

Hazel gasped, and the dowager and Calliope suppressed amused smiles.

“I did not!” declared Hazel very loudly.

“Darling, your tone,” reminded the dowager.

Hazel’s face went as red as a beetroot. She put her needlework down, breathing hard. “I remember. And yet, this is another example of why I shouldn’t be allowed to come out yet. No one has taught us how to be like you, Lady Grandhampton, or how to be like Calliope. We’ve been all alone, the three of us, living in Mayfair and yet so isolated from the very essence of the place. Every morning and night, I watch carriages picking up our well-dressed neighbors. Taking them to balls. To soirées. Sometimes they host events right there, and then I see all of them among the beautiful people they know and I…”

She sniffed, and Nathaniel’s heart broke as he saw she was fighting back tears.

“And I’m not one of them,” Hazel finished.