Page 49 of The Duke's Rules Of Engagement
It was that thought that kept him going.
Chapter Fifteen
The day had not gone well. Jo had had no money to put meat on the table this week, and they were running out of tea. Late this morning, she’d received a note from Mr. Pellegrini. The woman he had decided to pursue had declined his offer of courtship. That had never happened to any of her clients before, and it was a blow. Poor Mr. Pellegrini. How had Jo recommended someone to him who would turn him down? It was a lapse of judgment on her part. She was furious with herself.
The truth was, she’d let the Duke of Crestmont distract her. She’d been so caught up, between his kisses and matching him with Miss Cherrington, that she’d failed Mr. Pellegrini.
“How is Lilly?” Mama asked that afternoon as she and Jo mended old stockings in the parlor. “When she sits with me, she is all smiles and her usual buoyant self, but I know she has been hurting.”
Neither Jo nor Lilly had shared the scheme regarding Harriet Cherrington with anyone. Jo had sworn Lilly to secrecy. She knew as well as anyone that secrets had a way of spreading. Keeping it between the two of them was the one way to keep it safe.
“She’s better,” Jo said reassuringly. “Slowly returning to herself.”
“Shame on that boy for breaking her heart,” Mama said. “She must have really loved him.”
“She did.”She still does, Jo thought.
Mama smiled softly. “Like I loved your father.”
Jo’s heart squeezed as Mama’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Papa loved you, too.”
She remembered sitting in church and listening to her father’s sermons, which had often been about the Christian ideals of love, compassion, and community. One of his sermons had been about matrimony, how it was a perfect communion between like-minded people who respected, admired, and most of alllovedeach other deeply.
She’d been about eight years old when he’d first given that sermon. She was fairly certain that it had sowed the seeds of her future profession. She’d spent the rest of her formative years dreaming of love. While she dreamed, she also studied as many marriages as she could, those that contained that kind of love and those that didn’t, and analyzed what made marriages fail and what made them succeed.
How she missed her father.
“I’ll go check on her before my appointment.”
“With the duke?” her mother asked.
“Yes.”
Mama pressed her lips together. “Do be careful with him, Jo.”
“Yes, Mama.” With her cheeks heating at the thought of howun-careful she’d been with him at Lady Campbell’s ball, Jo set her darning down and headed upstairs. When she leaned into Lilly’s open doorway, Lilly looked up from her desk with a soft smile on her face.
“What are you doing?” Jo asked her.
“Writing a letter.”
“To whom?”
“Charles.” Seeing Jo’s eyes widen in alarm, she quickly added, “Don’t worry! I won’t send it. I have decided to write him a little every day until we are together again, and then I shall give him the letters all at once.”
Her expression glittered with optimism. She was truly convinced that Jo was going to make this work.
Lilly’s glitter scattered over Jo and fizzled away like sparks colliding with ice.
Oh no.She dropped heavily onto the edge of the bed as the realization struck her like a sledgehammer.
Her heart didn’t want to make this work.
She was developing affectionate feelings for the Duke of Crestmont.
Which was stupid.
And useless.
