Page 33

“What is your name?” Harriet Fitzroy, the Dowager Duchess of Soulden, asked, her face expressionless.

One could make the mistake of thinking nothing was wrong, going by her expression, but the palpable tension in the room spoke volumes of her anger.

Of course, the Dowager Duchess thought Arabella was nothing more than a paramour. They’d had no prior knowledge of her. No proper Society lady would be found unannounced and unchaperoned in a man’s house.

“Lady Arabella Burk, sister to the Earl of Thorne.”

Eyebrows around the room shot up. Well, the man Arabella assumed to be Edward’s brother seemed unsurprised by her declaration. The other woman she suspected was his brother’s wife had raised her eyebrows—they nearly disappeared into her hairline. She was a pretty blonde whose cherubic features caused one to stare.

The Dowager Duchess had raised a single eyebrow, but the rest of her face was still blank.

“The Thorne seat,” she stated. “That is a beautiful property. I haven’t visited in years.”

Arabella shifted her weight from one foot to the other, waiting to be asked to sit.

“Mother—”

“Edward, I do not appreciate you bringing your… friends to our home.Your family seat.”

Arabella watched, impressed by the older woman’s ability to convey her displeasure through veiled words. This was a skill only noblewomen with the highest training in decorum could pull off.

“Mother, it’s not what you think,” Edward argued, sounding like he was holding back a laugh.

“Oh. So I am to assume she’s not your paramour?”

“She is not.” He placed a hand on the small of Arabella’s back, and it took everything in her not to shiver at the contact. “She is my wife. I present to you Arabella Fitzroy, the Duchess of Soulden.”

This time, his mother’s eyebrows rose to her hairline. “You got married?!”

“Yes.”

How he kept his tone even, Arabella didn’t know. She felt like a cow at an auction, with the way they were staring at her.

“Why?”

Arabella looked at her husband, wondering what explanation he’d give his family.

“Why not? You’ve wanted me to marry for the last few years.”

“Yes, and I expected that if you did, I’d at least be informed.”

“Is she expecting?” his sister-in-law asked.

At her question, his mother gasped.

“No,” Edward almost snapped.

His family let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Well then, what was the need for the rushed wedding?”

“I fell in love.”

This time, the eyebrows of all three occupants disappeared into their hairlines.

“Arabella stole my heart with her smile a few months ago, and I knew I couldn’t wait to make her my wife.”

“You courted her for months?”