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“Now, now, Graham,” Lord Drowshire laughed. “You need not be cruel to the girl. You have it on my authority that she has no interest in finding a husband. Lady Samantha is actually quite the intellectual, which I am sure you will come to see for yourself in time.”

Samantha could not help but like the gentleman that she hardly knew. She had perhaps misjudged him, given that he was a friend of her father’s, but he seemed quite kind.

Unlike her father, who kept his smile plastered across his face until the second they were shown their rooms. He stormed into hers and grabbed her wrist, furious.

“Would you mind telling me what that was all about?” he ordered. “The Duke of Gloryfield could be an incredibly strong ally for us, and you have ruined our chances of that immediately. How dare you?”

“He spoke ill of us, Father, of you. Do you truly expect me to accept that?”

“Yes,” he sneered. “Yes, when someone in a position such as his says something like that, you simply smile and nod and agree. How could you possibly not know to do that?”

“I know that I should, but if someone disrespects my family, then I am going to defend them. I cannot believe that you refuse to.”

“Had it been a lie, I might have refuted it, but you know as well as I do why it is that we are here, surely?”

“To attend Lord Drowshire’s party.”

“To find you a husband.”

“I do not want a husband.”

“I do not give a damn what you want and do not want!” he roared. “You seem to think that because you managed to escape marrying the Duke of Abaddon that you are capable of doing it again, but you will not disgrace me like that a second time.”

Samantha did not think that it was the right time to remind him that the only reason she did not marry the Duke of Abaddon was because her sister had insisted on taking her place.

“I will marry,” she promised instead, “when I find a gentleman that I love. You cannot expect more than that, surely?”

“It appears that you misunderstood me when I told you that I do not care what you want. Allow me to make something very clear to you, Samantha. There is a gentleman back in London, a friend of mine, who has offered to take you as his bride should nobody else want you. He is six and fifty, has very little hair left, is so large he struggles to walk, and he still expects to sire an heir. Now, if that life appeals to you, then you may continue to disgrace our family name over and over. If it does not, then I suggest you quieten down and allow a match to be made during this party. Am I making myself clear enough now?”

He did not give her time to answer, instead releasing his grip on her arm and storming out. Samantha remained still for a moment, trying to steady her breath before turning to her bed and sitting on it, staring at the wall.

He had to be bluffing. To her knowledge, he had few friends to speak of at all, and even then, she could not think of a single one that matched his description. It was an empty threat. It had to be.

Then again, her half-brother would be arriving soon. He would be coming to take his place in the family, and so desperate times had perhaps called for desperate measures, and some deal had been made simply so that her father could rid the family of her.

Walking out into the hallway, she saw the Duke of Gloryfield and Lord Drowshire walking towards her room, and so she ducked back inside.

“It is quite a shame that she is so unruly,” the Duke sighed. “If I were her father, I might also have become as desperate as that.”

“Leave the girl be, Graham,” Lord Drowshire replied firmly. “She is a joy, I assure you.”

“Then she can bring joy to another, for I want nothing to do with either of them. Scoundrels.”

If Diana were there, she would have simply laughed at the Duke’s behavior and made Samantha feel better about her dire circumstances, but she was at home with her husband and children, enjoying the very best things in life.

This time, Samantha was on her own.

CHAPTER 2

As far as parties went, it was not the worst. Samantha knew that, but it did not compel her to want to be there anymore.

Her days of being the better daughter were well and truly over. There was no comparison; she was an unmarried soon-to-be spinster, and her sister was duchess, and her half-brother would eventually be an earl. Then again, there was no comparison between a daughter and a son. She knew that much already.

What Samantha didn’t understand, however, was how interested the other guests were in her specifically. To be sure, at balls there would be one or two interested in seeing her there, it could only be expected when one is so fun to gawk at, but it felt as though all eyes were on her as she entered the room.

She could not stand it.

The dinner was fine, the people there seemed fine, everything was fine, except for her. Samantha was decidedly the opposite. She could not say that, of course. Nobody would care to hear about how she must marry one of the gentlemen in attendance, or else she would be promised to some old friend of her father’s. One could not appear desperate even if one quite frankly was.