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“Stop it.”

“I know, I shall arrange a party. A celebration, for surely that is --”

“I said stop it! You are not helping!”

She snorted. “Is that what I am supposed to be doing? Helping?”

Isabella glared at her twin. “If I had known that you were going to be so... so frustratingly smug, I might not have bothered telling you in the first place!”

“Forgive me, Isabella. But it is not every day that one learns their twin sister had become secretly engaged after what was supposed to be an innocent dinner party. Good heavens, I can’t help but wonder what it was that His Grace put in the wine.”

“And as I explained already, it is not as simple as it seems – I did not mean it!”

“Oh yes...” She rolled her eyes. “The words simply tumbled out on their own accord. I have warned you, Isabella. Time and time again, have I not? That tongue of yours, and your insistence on using it so with such haphazard abandon, was bound to land you in trouble sooner or later. Sooner, it would seem now.”

“So, that is the way of things, is it? Rather than helping, you are going to mock me?”

Louisa shrugged. “Can I not do both? As tragic and truly shocking as this is...” Her eyes flashed and she pressed her lips together to keep herself from laughing. “You must admit, from where I am seated, it is rather amusing.”

“It is not!”

“On the contrary, sister...” A snort escaped her lips, and she covered her mouth.

In response, Isabella fixed her sister with a glare so cold that it could turn ice to water. Louisa, typically, felt no such effect, still struggling to keep herself from giggling, for she knew that deep down, Isabella was not angry at her. It was herself who Isabella was furious with.

Well, myself and the Duke... mostly him.

It was just last night that Isabella and the Duke had become unofficially engaged – although the way that the Duke’s mother and grandmother spoke about it, one would think it was written in stone.

Thankfully, the night had ended shortly thereafter, and Isabella had found her way back home where she had tucked herself into bed, closed her eyes, and prayed that when she woke all this would be nothing more than a bad dream from which she was yet to wake.

Typically, no such eventually occurred.

It was real. So very real. And having no choice but to accept it as such, when her twin sister whisked her back to her bedroom and demanded that she tell her of the previous evening, Isabella was only too happy to comply.

She told Louisa everything, her hope being that her sister might see a way out, a mistake made, a path forward that Isabella had not noticed but could be taken to get her out of this mess.

"What of mother?” Louisa had suggested. “Perhaps she will be able to do something? It is not proper that His Grace announce an engagement without first asking her.”

Isabella snorted. “Mother? She will be beside herself. You know she wants nothing more than for me to marry. And a Duke at that?” She shook her head. “No, I do not think mother is the one who will save me.”

“Then there is nothing to be done,” Louisa sighed.

“I cannot marry him!” Isabella cried. “It is absurd! Insane! Surely, he must see that!”

“I am certain that he does,” Louisa agreed as she stilled her laughter. “Unfortunately, and you know this to be true, now that it has been spoken of, there is little to be done to stop it. You said that his mother and grandmother both think of it as fact?”

“They do...” She pushed her lips together as she remembered the tears of joy in his grandmother’s eyes.

“That is it. His Grace is likely as trepidatious as you. But to go back on his supposed word like that...” She shrugged. “You know how men are when it comes to their honor. They would rather walk across broken glass than have it challenged.”

“There must be something I can do!” Isabella pleaded. “Mother is yet to find out. So far, only a few know of it. If I can convince him to change his mind somehow...” She looked at her sister with desperation, needing an answer. A solution!

“There is one thing I can think of.”

“Yes? Anything!”

“Marry the man.” Louisa looked flatly at her sister. “He is a duke. From what you have said, he is rather handsome --”