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“Then start acting like it!”

“Do not hold it against them, Mother,” Daniel sighed as he sipped on his glass of wine. He wore a cold smirk which he held on Aurelia. “Jealousy makes green-eyed monsters of us all.”

“Jealous!” Aurelia shrieked. “Of who? You?”

“I think you know,” Daniel said with a chuckle.

“Oh, please,” Aurelia rolled her eyes. “You wish.”

“He has a point,” Eveline chided. “You were saying just yesterday to me, how you could not believe that there were as many as two women who would even consider our brother as?—”

“Eveline!” Aurelia snarled. “I told you that in confidence!”

“Please do finish,” Daniel sat up. “Consider me as what?”

“Nothing,” Aurelia said quickly, widening her eyes at Eveline. “Nothing at all.”

“That two women would consider you worth marrying,” Eveline said with a wicked grin. “She was quite emphatic that you would die alone, a boon to the female population of the entire ton, as she said it.”

“I did not!”

The evening had only just begun, and it was already threatening to implode. Caroline looked desperately between her family members, no doubt beyond upset with the way they were behaving. And as for Anthony? He was very quickly losing patience.

He was not a cruel man by nature. Nor was he as quick to temper as so many expected of him. But he had his limits, they were being pressed, and he knew that if things did not redirect soon, they would be well and truly reached.

Control yourself, Anthony. Do not become that man. You must prove to Caroline that you are capable of dealing with her family, as difficult as they are making it.

“Two women!” Caroline spoke up before her mother could say anything. “Daniel, I had no idea you were in the process of courting.”

He blew through his lips. “Why would you?”

“It is not something I had known you to be interested in,” she continued, ignoring the jibe. “Who are these lucky women?”

“You mean unlucky,” Eveline added.

“Nobody you know,” Daniel said.

“Try me,” Caroline continued politely. “Perhaps I know their names.”

“And how would you?” Daniel said with a sneer that set Anthony’s teeth on edge. “It is not as if you were of that world. Before you went and embarrassed yourself, we thought you might never wed.”

“What did you say?” Anthony growled.

“I will ask that you not speak that way of me,” Caroline hurried to interject. “Regardless of what you think happened, it is irrelevant. I am married and the past is just that, the past.”

“Irrelevant, is it?” Daniel continued, lip curling. “That is easy for you to say, locked away here as you have been.”

“Daniel!” their mother warned.

Anthony stiffened and he felt his blood begin to boil. Hands clenched, jaw set, he glared in Daniel’s direction, trying his best not to erupt or say anything which he would not be able to take back. “I would ask that you watch what you say,” Anthony warned him. “While you are in my home, speaking to my wife, it would behove you,boy, to mind your tongue.”

“I am sorry, Your Grace,” Daniel continued, glaring at Caroline. “The evening is young and already I find myself sick to death of this charade. We have been invited here so my sister can parade her false happiness before us as if we are fools. As if we are not the ones who must deal with the consequences.”

“You tell her, Daniel,” Eveline goaded him.

“Eveline...” Aurelia groaned.

“I might have two ladies that I am considering,” Daniel continued as Anthony’s body began to shake. “But it should be twice that! And it would be, had you not gone and shamed us with your...” His lip curled. “Your wonton behavior. Filth, is what is was.”