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Now all she had to do was convince her husband—the man who had organized his entire search for a bride out of his desire to keep his name out of gossipmongers’ mouths—to return to the direct line of scandal.

“That,” he said simply when she’d explained the scheme, “is a terrible idea.”

“Benedict—” she began.

He interrupted her. Lord, but she’d thought they were past all that.

“And,” he added, as if she hadn’t spoken at all, “a waste of time. The whole benefit ofbeingmarried is that a man no longer has to do the dreadful things he’s compelled to do when trying togetmarried.”

And she’d thought the interrupting was rude! How lovely to know that she was merely an excuse to avoid Baroness Montman’s Annual Spring Musicale, not, say, an entire human being.

She took a measured breath, reminding herself that she was asking him for a favor, and that shouting at him was unlikely to make her case for her.

“I understand your reticence,” she said evenly. “But Benedict, these are my sisters.”

He had already returned to the papers on his desk which, really, was so dreadfully rude it was going to give her a nosebleed. At her words, however, he looked up at her in faint surprise.

“Well,youare welcome to go, of course,” he said like this settled things. “I am not your jailer, Emily. Do feel free.”

And then he, once again,went back to his work.

Emily clenched her jaw until it hurt.

“It doesn’t work,” she said, her tone now decidedly terse, “unless you are with me.Wehave to appear normal. Together. Otherwise, thetonwill assume that you’re ashamed of me and will continue to talk.”

“That,” he said shortly, “is idiotic.”

She was approximately ninety percent certain that he meant to say that thetonwas stupid for assuming such a thing, not thatshewas stupid for predicting such an assumption. But she’d swallowed down her pride several times already in this conversation, and her patience was apparently at its end.

It was only the issue of patience, she told herself. It was not that her feelings were hurt because he seemed so uninterested in helping her. Not at all.

Whatever the cause, the acid in her voice was apparent.

“Right,” she said, dripping sarcasm. “So, your little maxim about showing a united front in public—that was only when it was somethingyoucared about, then? Because I seem to recall you very stubbornly insisting that you are not a hypocrite, and I cannot say that I believe that in this moment.”

The shift to a fearsome frown was so swift that Emily was briefly transported back to her father’s foyer, back to the ballroom where they’d first quarreled.

“Don’t be deliberately obtuse,” he reprimanded. “This is not a matter of providing a united front in public—you are attempting to coerce me into going into public to demand a united front.”

“If you think there is material difference between the two, you are less clever than I thought,” she sniped back. “But apparently, I am only good for some things. Good enough for your bedchamber, but not good enough to say that I don’t embarrass you?—”

“Benedict! I’ve returned!”

Of all the people in all the world, there was nobody Emily wished to see less in that moment than the Dowager Countess. Yet thereshe was, swanning into the room with timing so bad it was farcical.

She ignored Emily entirely.

As did Benedict, Emily noted with an internal shriek of rage. His mother’s entrance snapped up every ounce of his attention in an instant. It was notpositiveattention, she allowed, but still. It was a bitter, ugly reminder of where she stood in his eyes.

“What are you doing here?” he asked flatly as the Dowager Countess swept her skirts dramatically before sitting in an armchair and propping her chin on her fist with an insouciant grin.

“I live here, Benny; don’t be silly,” the Dowager Countess trilled. She had ignored Emily completely and continued to do so, the gesture becoming more and more obvious in its intentionality as it went on.

“It’s not even been a week,” Benedict growled.

“Hasn’t it?” The Dowager blinked innocently. “No, I’m quite sure it has.”

“You were meant to be gone a month,” he said, now sounding as thoughhewere clenching his teeth very hard. Good, Emily thought sourly. She hoped it was uncomfortable.