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“Is it that evident?” she asked.

“Sister, I have never seen you smile like this. Your opinion has certainly changed very quickly, in any case.”

“It has, hasn’t it? I do not even know why. I simply sat with him at dinner, and we talked to one another, and the more he spoke the more I wished to hear.”

“Yes, I noticed during the walk that he quite enjoys talking. He enjoys science, yes?”

“Particularly physics, yes. I cannot pretend to understand all of it, but he is happy to explain it to me, and he doesn’t make me feel like a fool when he does so. It makes a nice change from most gentlemen.”

“Indeed. It is quite fortunate that the two of you met so soon into this event.”

“It is. Do you suppose Father approves of him? I assumed he had higher hopes for us than a mere baron.”

“Sarah, you know as well as I do that he simply wants to see us married so that he can be rid of us. He does not care who we marry.”

“In any case, he likely much prefers the fact that you have ensnared a duke.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“That… that is why you were accompanied by the Duke of Lupton, was it not?”

Emma couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her sister was an intelligent girl, yet she had been so confused by something Emma thought was very simple.

“No, Sarah. He accompanied me, I believe, because he is a rake, and I am a lady. He would ‘accompany’ anything in a skirt.”

But she could see the way her sister was looking at her, as if there was more to it than that. Emma knew perfectly well that her sister was incorrect, but she couldn’t find the words to explain why. So she simply looked out of the window. After all, her sister was indeed very intelligent.

More so, perhaps, than Emma gave her any real credit for.

CHAPTER 5

“You were caught with Miss Winston?” Leonard Kingsman, the Duke of Pridefield laughed that evening, taking a moment with him alone in his study. “That is foolish, even for you.”

“I couldn’t stop it! I left to take air, and suddenly she was standing behind me.”

“Then why did you not immediately run for the hills? You are fortunate that it was only Miss Kendall that saw the two of you, else you would have been a husband by the end of the week.”

“I know. It was a dreadful situation. I must have taken things too far at dinner that evening.”

“What do you mean?”

In one motion, Levi drank the whiskey that Leonard had poured him, placing the glass down firmly.

“You know how I am, Leonard. I like to keep up my little facade. It keeps the ladies away. It should, at least.”

“What I find interesting,” Leonard chuckled, “is that you do it to keep the ladies away, and yet Miss Kendall wants you to leave her alone and you cannot do it.”

“That is preciselywhyI am drawn to her. You know as well as I do that we dukes have a target on our backs, especially with ambitious ladies and their even more ambitious mothers. When we meet someone that doesn’t treat us like a cut of steak, we wish to see more of them.”

“There is being treated with respect, and there is vowing to ensure you do not ruin young ladies. That is quite an accusation, you know.”

“And a perfectly reasonable one, if you think about it. I am no paragon of all that is good, after all.”

“As far as she knows.”

Yes, it was all an act, but other than his fellow rakish friends nobody had ever questioned it. His friends had only questioned it because of their own lifestyles, which he chose not to share in. Ladies, less-than-ladies, and their schemes weren’t something that interested him, but he liked the protection a rakish reputation gave him. It led to mothers shielding their daughters from him, fathers refusing matches even though he had a grand estate and was, well, a duke. His wealth meant nothing if itrisked a reputation, and it was the perfect excuse for him not to marry.

“So, what do you plan to do now?” Leonard asked.