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“Perfectly well, thank you. Why do you ask?”

“Well,” she explained, writhing her hands together and averting her gaze. “It is just that we saw how your father treated you last night. I didn’t like it.”

She cast an eye to her father, who was nearby but not paying her any attention.

“Oh, that…” Emma replied, setting her jaw. “It is nothing to worry about at all. My father is simply excited to see that my sister has a suitor, and that she has found one so quickly. Isuppose he doesn’t want me to ruin it, even if he hopes that I might find her a man of higher rank.”

“What rank does this suitor have?”

“He is a baron.”

“Ah. I can see why he might be concerned about it, then.”

“I do not,” Emma laughed gently. “I have never been concerned about the rank of whichever gentleman wins the hand of my sister. I only care that she likes him in return.”

“And when that happens,” Cecilia sighed, turning to them, “will you at last find a match for yourself?”

“I have no such interests,” Emma explained. “I am like you, remember? We have no need for suitors, not when we have one another as friends.”

“You shall have us, too,” Dorothy replied, puzzled. “Even when we are married, if we should be so fortunate. You can be both our friend and a wife, you know.”

“I have already told you all my plans. I shall see that Sarah is happy, and then I shall go to live with my aunt in Somerset. That hasn’t changed.”

“Even now that you have met the Duke of Lupton?” Beatrice asked.

All three ladies turned to her and stared.

“Why would the Duke of Lupton change my plans?”

Beatrice shifted from one foot to the other for a moment, unable to look her in the eye.

“You have never mentioned any gentlemen before, that is all. It is a surprise to me that you have had your attention captured by such a man. I do not mean anything by that, of course, but– well, given that you are never one to speak with a gentleman, there has to be a reason why it is different this time.”

“Yes, the reason being that he is insufferable enough to warrant my admonishment.”

They all fell silent for a moment, and then Emma cleared her throat.

“What exactly do you know about him, anyway?” she asked, and her friends giggled.

“I knew it!” Cecilia beamed, “You cannot keep things from us, Emma. We see them even before you do.”

“Then if I were to have an attraction to the Duke, which I do not, would it not be your duty to tell me precisely who he is?”

“Emma Kendall in love with a rake,” Beatrice said dreamily. “Stranger things have happened, perhaps, but I have never heard of one.”

“I am most certainly not in love with him! I do not even know him.”

“But if youdidknow him–”

“No! Now, please, tell me about him before I walk into that pond there and do not return.”

Eventually, the laughter faded and Cecilia nodded.

“The Duke of Lupton is quite elusive. The truth about him is, at least. His father died years ago, that much is known, but it was never said what he died of. Some say it was his own son, though that is hardly believed. One thing is for certain, though. The late Duke of Lupton was a horrible man. It was as though he always had this dark cloud over him, as well as anyone that dared stand too close to him, and so they kept their distance. That never seemed to affect his son, though.”

Emma thought back to her accusation that the Duke had always been given what he wanted, and she questioned it immediately.

“I asked my mama about him,” Dorothy added. “When he came to speak with you, Emma, I thought it might be best that we know as much as possible. She did not know very much, but she could tell me that his late father was completely miserable. All rules and formalities, even for his own family. He liked the power, I suppose. But Mama tells me that the new Duke is nothing like him at all. That has to be good, does it not?”