“Plain speech, Miss Havenford. It is a simple question, and you must answer it if we are to get anywhere. Any other man? Besides Rondell.”
She stared at him blankly for a moment before gathering herself.
“No. Most men avoid me.”
“They need not,” he said immediately.
“You know why they avoid me,” she said. Her voice was without much emotion. It was something that she had learned to avoid.
He gave her a look, as if to say ‘elaborate’. She sighed heavily in return.
“Because of my upbringing.” The words came out flat. “Because gossip sticks to girls from infamous places. Not even a dowryscrubs it off. It is not a mystery, of course, and I do not need to pretend about it. I have accepted that this is my past.”
His jaw worked. “You deserve better than cowards.”
“I don’t need cowards. I don’t need a crowd.” Her chin lifted. “I don’t need another suitor at all, after all. I believe I am just fine. I’ve already found my future husband.”
He went very still.
“Mr. Rondell is lovely, really.” She folded her arms, bracing. “He is interested. He is kind. He….”
Stephen turned abruptly. There was an anger on his face that she had not seen before from him. “You have found your future husband.”
“I just said….”
“You have found him,” he repeated. “That is all I needed to hear.”
He reached for the latch.
“That is not an answer,” she said, stepping after him. “What is wrong with….”
“Go to sleep, Miss Havenford.”
“Your Grace…”
He opened the door. “Lock it.” And he was gone.
The latch clicked. Silence flooded the room so fast her head rang. She stood there with her hand in the air and no one to spend her anger on.
What a strange interaction that was.
She did not sleep that night. How could she?
Maria was groggy in the morning when she was woken up by her maid. A footman came at nine with a message:His Grace requests your presence.TheHisGracedid not mean Stephen. It meant Nicholas.
Violet opened the door to Nicholas’s study before Maria raised her hand to knock. Violet’s eyes were steady; her mouth was tight. It made Maria’s stomach drop.
They never look this serious. Something must have happened.
Nicholas stood behind his desk, hands braced on the blotter as if the wood might give him instructions. He looked very much like a man trying to be two things at once: a brother and a duke.
“Come in,” he said. “Sit. Or don’t sit, if sitting is worse. I cannot tell. Sit,” he decided, and came around the desk to pull out a chair anyway.
Maria sat, feeling that standing would be awkward, perhaps.
“What has happened?”
Nicholas looked to Violet. Violet gave him the smallest nod. He cleared his throat.