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“I just wish you would reconsider,” Louisa begged. “Even the dress...” She bit into her lip, eyes flicking down the length of the scandalous garment. “Perhaps something a little plainer?”

“You don’t like the dress?” Isabella’s eyes lit up. “Something tells me the Duke is going toloveit.”Not that I care about such things!

At the risk of sounding pretentious, Isabella had always considered herself a beauty. Perhaps not in the traditional sense, for her blonde hair was a little too dark to be angelic, and her curvy body was perhaps not the norm for what she knew men liked. But even still, she was more than happy with what God had given her to work with. And in this dress...

The dress was scandalous to say the least. A low neckline and a tight waist. Certainly not appropriate for a dinner party with family and friends. And certainly a piece that the Duke was sure to take note of, hopefully be undone by, and be left regretting his decision to force her into this debacle in the first place.

But again, the Duke had brought this on himself.

It had been a week now since her meeting with the Duke. A week left to ponder. A week left to consider. A week left to plan! And plan, Isabella did.

She had run through that night a million times and above all else, what she was most annoyed with, was how quickly she had caved. So taken was she by the Duke’s presence, so overwhelmed by how assured and commanding he was, she had folded like a house of cards and succumbed to his every whim.

It was so unlike Isabella that it was startling – more her sister than herself, for Louisa had always been more agreeable.

But that was in the past and Louisa had to focus on the future. The dinner party was tonight, and Isabella had decided that if she was to go through with this farce of an evening, that the least she could do was make the Duke pay for it.

And pay he will...

“Just make sure that mother does not find out,” Isabella said, turning back on her sister.

“She won’t,” Louisa sighed. “As far as she is concerned, you are with a friend tonight, and I have reached out and made sure that the lie will hold. Oh, I hate having to do this!”

“I wish I could say the same...” Isabella pumped her eyebrows. “Alas, I would be made a liar if I didn’t say that I was almost looking forward to it.”

That was a lie. Isabella would rather had stayed home tonight, existing in a world where she had never heard of His Grace, Lord Duke Fangsdale. But that simply wasn’t the case. Rather, she would exist in a world where His Grace wished that he had never heard of her instead.

At least one thing will be certain. By the time tonight is through, I won’t have to worry myself with seeing His Grace ever again. Of that, I can be sure.

If it was not for the fact that Isabella knew His Grace to be a man of few words, she might have thought that he had been struck speechless. Perhaps he still was? Those few words he was going to say being knocked from him at the sight of her in that dress.

She arrived on time to his elegant manor; without a doubt one of the finest, and biggest estates that she had ever been in. A far cry from the London home she and her sister and mother were now forced to live in. She knocked on the front door, expecting a butler or servant to answer, only to find His Grace on the other side.

“Your Grace...” Her smile was over the top, as was her curtsey. “Thank you once again for this most wonderful opportunity you have given me. I cannot tell you how grateful I am.”

He didn’t speak. At least not straight away.

Standing in the doorway, as imposing and gigantic as she remembered him to be, he simply looked at her. His dark eyes narrowed slightly. His lips pursed together. He studied her, moving up her body, pausing on her waist and then her chest, moving to her face, and then her eyes, which he held unblinking.

The confidence that Isabella had been feeling all day and right up until now left her in an instant. Her mouth turned dry. Her body turned hot. And she began to fidget nervously.

Perhaps this dress was a bad idea?

There was something about this man that undid her. It wasn’t that she found him attractive –Ido not! Yes, he was attractive, but she wasn’t attracted to him. It was how detached he was, how easily he took control with no more than a look. Once again, she felt her own sense of power leave her and she began to consider in very real terms if tonight’s plan was worth going through with.

Or more to the point, if she were able to, such was the way she felt in his presence.

“You are late,” he said eventually.

“I...” She blinked, not sure what to say.

“But you are here, so it is of no consequence.” He stepped back and opened the door wider, indicating for her to come inside.

“Oh!” She gave her head a shake, trying to find her confidence again, and hurried inside. The closing of the door behind her had her jumping. “Sorry, I thought I was – I did not realize I was late.”

Well done, Isabella. Really asserting yourself, aren’t you!

“It is no matter.” The Duke stepped in behind her, looked as if he was about to rest a hand on the small of her back, but then stopped. “We have only just sat down. So, if you do not mind...” He indicated for her to walk with him across the large foyer.