“Forgive me, then,” Maria was feeling helpless now. “I do not quite know what it is that I must emulate, and what it is that I must refrain from.”
I am still learning,she thought to herself. But somehow, she was learning in the harshest ways possible.
“It is a bit too late for apologies,” Stephen sighed. “We have already been discovered.”
“You should have told me you felt this way,” Violet made a soft sound of grief.
“I did not want to make you choose between protecting me and protecting your peace.” Maria’s voice wobbled, “Nicholas does too much already. I have a roof because of you both; I have my gowns because of you. My name is yours. But it is borrowed. And men look at me as if they cannot decide whether I am tame or tragic, and I do not know which is worse.”
“You are neither,” Violet was quick to correct her.
“I do not know any of this conversation about being a burden, or tame or tragic. But all I know is that tonight,” Stephen said lightly, “she is simply in the wrong room.”
Violet swung toward him, temper igniting again.
“And you… You could have sent her away the moment you realized she was here. Do not pretend you could not. You did not try very hard.”
“I did not wish to haul her by the arm into a corridor where a footman might take notice,” he said in his defense.
“You might have rung for a maid…”
“To collect a woman from my bedchamber?” His brows rose. “Would that have improved the situation?”
“No,” Violet grimaced, understanding the point that he was trying to make. “I suppose I see what you mean.”
Stephen gave Violet a pointed look. Hearing him speak, Maria got the sense that the duke was someone who liked being right. And always having the last word in.
An argument with him would be truly a nightmare, she thought to herself.
“Then spare me your revision of the last two minutes,” he said to Violet, “I did not wish to shame her.”
The four words seemed to surprise Violet as much as they surprised Maria.
“You did not?” Violet asked.
“No.” He looked back at Maria. “And it would have been… unwise to open the door. Which, I believe, brings us to our present difficulty.”
“Our difficulty is that my sister-in-law is in your chamber at midnight, Your Grace. The rest can be filled in by any gossip within a mile,” Violet replied.
“Not if you walk away now,” he said. “Not if we all do. The house is not yet stirring. We have a grace period of minutes. But the world will, at dawn, awaken in its usual state of appetite. Youknow how hunger is, and we must prevent things from getting to that point.”
“You cannot expect me to stride out of here and pretend,” Violet argued.
Maria could only listen. Once again, she felt as though she had no say in what the course of her life would take.
It made her feel helpless again, but she was the one who put herself in this situation without fully understanding the consequences.
“I expect you to consider the end you want and walk toward it,” he returned.
“And what end do you suggest?”
He did not answer at once. He looked at Maria and then finally spoke. “A week.”
“A week?” Violet blinked.
“Give me a week to find Miss Havenford a husband worthy of her. If I fail, I will marry her myself.”
Maria’s breath vanished, and it felt as though something terrible and amazing had occurred at the same time. Violet spoke up first.