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“My oh my, she is so well behaved and what manners,” his mother commented.

You have no idea, he thought bitterly.

“The two of you look rather happy,” Louisa noted of Isabella and Duncan. “Do I detect a budding romance?”

Isabella rolled her eyes. “Hardly. The fact that we are not fighting, while agreeable, is not cause to get too excited.”

“But still...” Louisa looked smug. “I was watching the two of you when you arrived, and you seemed...” She shrugged. “Rather good together. Better than good, in fact.”

“Looks can be deceiving.”

“How so?”

“We are behaving, Louisa, but only because the man has given me no other choice! It is hard not to be cantankerous when all the man does is compliment me and give me gifts.”

“The nerve of him! What’s next? He’s going to take you away somewhere nice for a holiday? Paris or what-have-you? Shame on that man. Shame on him!”

Something had to give, and tonight was proving to be the final straw.

The ball was typically gallant and grandiose in all the ways that these events often were. Brightly and ostentatiously dressed women. Smartly dressed men. Dancing and drinking and plenty of chatter as the throngs of excited guests moved to and fro across the open ballroom.

It was a social event, a chance to relax and have a little bit of fun. But Isabella was so tense with nerves that fun was the very last thing on her mind.

Duncan was just working so hard to keep her from doing or saying anything that might cause alarm. He was desperate for her to behave. And where to the casual observer it looked like a happy little marriage the two had carved out for one another, it was anything but.

Only... Isabella didn’t know what she was going to do. Or how she was going to do it. She had been set on upsetting the apple cart tonight, finally doing something! But with how congenial and pleasant Duncan was being – howgenuinehe seemed. It was hard to find the enthusiasm.

The irony that her husband being nice to her might threaten to destroy their marriage before it even had a chance to begin, was not lost on Isabella.

“Who is that?” Louisa said suddenly.

“Hmm? Who?”

“That?” Louisa grabbed Isabella by the arm and directed her attention across the ball room. “Who His Grace is speaking with.”

Isabella found her husband and saw immediately to whom her sister was referring. She was a tall and elegant looking woman, a tad older than Duncan, with dark features and shining white skin that stood out against the darker gown she was wearing. Very pretty, Isabella thought. And clearly very interested in her husband.

The woman was flirting with Duncan. Slapping at his chest. Laughing at everything that he said. And even though Duncan appeared to not be encouraging her, she persisted nonetheless!

As to how Isabella felt about it? She wasn’t entirely sure.

Logically she should not have cared. After all, she had long since convinced herself that she did not like her husband and that this marriage was never going to be a love match. So what did she care who he flirted with?

Yet as she watched the two speak, she could not ignore the knots twisting in her stomach. Knots of jealousy which didn’t make any sense! Even if they should have.

“That looks entirely too friendly,” Louisa said in a huff. “Don’t you think?”

“I am sure it is fine...”

“Fine?” Louisa scoffed. “It is not fine. If that was my husband, I would let him know it too. Honestly, the nerve of the man.”

“Louisa...” Isabella's brow tightened as Duncan nudged the older woman with his elbow and whispered something that had the woman laughing. “They are just speaking.”

“Even if they are, it is highly inappropriate. To behave that way at an event like this one – with friends and family about? His Grace should know better.”

Isabella opened her mouth to again tell her sister that it was perfectly fine. But then an idea struck her, like lightning, such was the power of this idea and the reaction that it sent through her.

Louisa made a good point. Even if her husband was doing nothing wrong technically, he should still have known better than to allow that woman to behave that way toward him. And with his wife in the same room! Even the most docile of wives would have every right to speak to their husband about doing such a thing.