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“He certainly did not do that,” she laughed. “He couldn’t stand me.”

“Well, that must have changed quickly because he looked at you almost in adoration. Have you truly never noticed it?”

Samantha tried to think back to a time when he had done so, but she could not. He had been friendly with her, but nothing morethat she had seen. She shook her head, and Diana laughed once more.

“You still have things to learn, I suppose,” she sighed, and Samantha leaned forward.

“If this is too personal, you do not have to answer.”

“There is no question too personal, Sister. What is it?”

“Our father was not the best.”

“That is possibly the most polite way of wording it, yes.”

“But besides our aunt, he is the only parent we have ever had. The only example of what a parent should be. Your husband had much the same treatment. How did the two of you know how to be a good mother and father?”

“It was easy for me as we had our mother and our aunt. We have both learned a great deal from them, more than you know before you have children.”

“And the Duke?”

“He learned how not to be, and so the rest of it came quickly enough. Why do you ask?”

“Graham told me that he would be willing to have children if I wanted to, but it concerns me. What if we do not know what to do?”

“Would you like to know a secret?”

Samantha nodded, expecting to learn some sort of magical way to be the perfect mother.

“You will never know. There is no way to know everything, especially when you haven’t had the best example, but you can do your best, and then the rest will follow. When the time comes, you’ll know what to do. It is an instinct.”

“But what if I don’t? It will be too late to do anything by then.”

“Samantha, you are worried about something that is not even happening. You are not with child, and you are not planning to be. There is no need to be so concerned about it all.”

“But I am because I want to be prepared should we decide to have children.”

“If you do, you will be fine. What is important is that you learn from what happened in the past. As long as you do that, you will know what to do. I promise.”

Samantha trusted her sister, and even though she didn’t know whether or not she was right, she wanted to believe she was. Itseemed to have been the case for her, at least, and so there must have been some truth to her words.

“So…” Samantha said after a while, “do you truly think the Duke likes me?”

“Sister, it astounds me that you have not noticed.”

“Well, it is just that he asked me yesterday if we were friends. I was starting to believe that we could have been something more, but now that he has asked me that, I do not know what to think.”

“I feel as though he did not mean it the way that you think.”

“How else could he possibly have meant it? That was exactly what he asked, and there are only so many meanings of the word.”

“I think he is every bit as confused as you. Tell me, do you look at him the way I saw him looking at you?”

“I might. I do not know.”

“Perhaps you do, and he has noticed. If this is the case, how would you expect him to react?”

“If he reciprocated it, I suppose he would ask me. It is because he has not that I am at a loss.”