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“ Y ou see?” Arabella’s father raged, pacing back and forth across the floor of the sitting room. “You see ? I told you we shouldn’t have sent them to that ball! I told you they had no business at an affair like that! I knew it was going to end badly—didn’t I say that?”

“Oh, Stephen, for God’s sake—you didn’t know this was going to happen,” Arabella’s mother said faintly.

She sat on the chaise, fanning herself intermittently with one hand which Arabella felt was rather dramatic of her.

It was true that the night’s events were very serious—she wouldn’t deny that—but nobody was going to pass out over what had happened.

Caroline was curled up in a ball on the chair closest to the fire, tears streaming down her face.

Arabella’s frustration with her mother did not extend to her sensitive sister, who probably truly could not help the reaction she was having.

In all this mess, the thing Arabella felt worst about was the fact that Caroline had been among the group of ladies who had seen her in the library with the Duke.

It must have been shocking. She wondered what her sister was thinking now, but she was too afraid to ask.

Prudence had no such fear. “Why is Caroline crying?” she demanded, looking about the room to try to find the person who would answer her. “What happened at the ball? Was someone cruel to Caroline? Who was it? Was it because of the gowns?”

Arabella let out a sigh, unable to help herself. She always tried to be so patient with her sisters, but at the moment, Prudence was making that difficult. “Prudence, for goodness’ sake, stop asking so many questions.”

Her mother rounded on her. “You don’t think Prudence ought to have questions about this? You know, it isn’t just your future you’ve ruined, Arabella. What’s going to happen to your sisters now?”

Arabella knew. She had thought about that concern the whole way home as Caroline had cried next to her in the carriage.

She had known that one of the many reasons Caroline might be upset was that her own prospects were likely seriously damaged now.

Bad enough that she had destroyed her own future—how would she live if she had done the same to her sisters? It was unimaginable.

And she knew there was nothing to be said. She needed to sit here and accept her parents’ reprimands on the subject. It was the very least she deserved.

Now her father turned to her. “Just exactly what were you doing in that room with that man?” he demanded. “Why was your gown loosened? What could you possibly have been thinking?”

“I didn’t know he was in there,” Arabella said. “I went in to fix my sleeve.”

“A likely story. Nobody is going to believe that, Arabella.”

“It’s the truth,” she insisted.

Her mother dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. “I just don’t see how you could be so careless, Arabella. You’ve always been the responsible one—I expected so much more from you.”

Yes, I have always been the responsible one—because no one else in this household takes any responsibility.

Because if it wasn’t for me, Caroline and Prudence wouldn’t even eat three meals a day.

There’s no call for looking at me as if I’ve fallen down in my duties, Mother, when you are so negligent with your own!

But she couldn’t say any of that. She had never said any of that, and now was not the time to begin with such accusations.

What she had to do here wassimply get through the conversation they were having.

Once she had made it through, she would be able to take stock of where things stood and hopefully decide what needed to be done next.

“Perhaps the gentleman will make an offer to protect her reputation,” Arabella’s mother suggested, sitting up a little straighter. “Perhaps this will be the making of her.”

Her father scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said.

“This is the Duke of Redmayne we’re speaking of.

He knows perfectly well that he doesn’t have to do a thing.

He will be able to walk away from this without a scratch on him, without any damage at all to his reputation.

All he has to do is say that Arabella tricked him—which, for all we know, she did. ”

“Father!” Arabella objected. “You don’t truly think I would do such a thing.”

“Well, I didn’t think you would do anything I’ve heard you describe tonight,” her father said. “I thought there might be trouble at this ball, but even I would never have believed it would be anything like this. I am forced to wonder if I know you as well as I thought I did, Arabella.”

“I’m beginning to think you don’t,” Arabella replied frostily. She got to her feet. “I’m going to retire to my room.”

“You’re not going anywhere. We need to figure out what we’re going to do about all this.”

“I understand. And we will figure it out,” Arabella agreed. “But right now, I’m asking you to give me the night to think things over.”

“We don’t have the luxury of time,” her father informed her. “This will be in the scandal sheets by morning.”

“Well, there’s nothing we could do about it tonight anyway.

Let me get some rest, and in the morning, I will come to you with a proposed solution.

” She had no idea what she thought she was going to come up with overnight, but what she did know was that nothing was going to be helped by sitting here in this room and going over and over what had happened for the rest of the evening.

The door to Arabella’s room began to open. She knew before she saw the visitor who it would be—Prudence was the only person who didn’t knock.

Her sister flounced in and threw herself on the foot of Arabella’s bed. “Is Caroline telling the truth?” she whispered, wide-eyed. “Were you really locked in a passionate embrace with the Duke?”

“I am utterly certain that isn’t what Caroline told you.”

“Well, no,” Prudence confessed. “But she did say that you and the Duke were alone in a room together and that you had begun to remove your clothes. She says that’s what everyone is so upset about. Is it true?”

“What’s true is that I was trying to mend a tear in my gown,” Arabella said.

“I don’t think it would have stayed on my body for very long if I hadn’t done something about it, so truly, I had no choice.

It was my bad luck that the Duke was in that room—and I suppose I should have looked around more carefully before I loosened my gown, but I did check.

He was hiding in the shadows. I assure you, I wish he hadn’t been there! ”

Prudence nodded. “I don’t think it was your fault,” she said loyally.

“Is Caroline all right? Is she very upset?” Arabella’s stomach squirmed with guilt. “It’s her I worry about most. She’s just come out. This was supposed to be her season, and now, who knows what will become of her?”

“I think she’s worried about you,” Prudence said. “She says you’ll be ruined now.”

It was blunt, but Arabella found herself—oddly—appreciating her sister’s candor. It was a relief to speak plainly. “I think she’s right,” she said. “It’s very unlikely that I will ever marry now. Perhaps I’ll be sent to the country to live with Great-Aunt Eleanor.”

Prudence laughed, for this was an old family joke—when someone refused to finish their dinner or practice their music, there would be a threat of being sent off to live with Great-Aunt Eleanor as punishment for the misbehavior.

But then she saw that Arabella wasn’t laughing. “You don’t mean it, do you?”

“I think it might be the best thing for me now,” Arabella said. “Certainly, it would be the best thing for you and Caroline— the only hope you have for a future that isn’t tarnished by this scandal. It will take time, but it’s possible that if I vanish, eventually the ton will forget all this.”

She felt a heavy, sinking sensation in her chest as she said it, for she didn’t think it was very likely that her indiscretion would ever be forgotten. She felt the chances were far greater that even if she disappeared tomorrow, the stain of what had happened would linger.

“Go back to your own room,” she told her sister, resting a gentle hand on Prudence’s shoulder. “We can speak about this more tomorrow. For now, you and I both need to get our sleep.”

“I don’t want you to go and live in the country,” Prudence said. “I don’t care what happens to me. I don’t care if I never marry. I want you to stay here, Arabella. You’re my sister. You can’t just go away.”

“I understand,” Arabella replied, wishing she could simply promise Prudence she would stay.

Whatever was to happen now, it wouldn’t be that easy.

She cursed the Duke of Redmayne mentally for being in that room and for not revealing himself at once when he had seen what she was doing.

Hadn’t he been the one in the wrong? But her parents were right—he would suffer no consequences, even if he showed no sign of wanting to save her from disgrace.

Not that I would want to be saved by that man anyway. A marriage to him sounds dreadful. If it wasn’t for the risk to my sisters, I would say I’d rather be sent off to live with Great-Aunt Eleanor!

Arabella passed a sleepless night. Every time sleep drew close, she recalled the powerless feeling of being alone in that room with the Duke—the horror at the realization of the compromising position she’d gotten herself into.

It had all happened so quickly . That was the worst of it. Arabella’s life had never been easy, but in a matter of moments, it had been utterly destroyed. And it was very possible that her sisters would be ruined along with her. All over a moment .

Finally, tears came to her eyes. She let them come, hoping that the release of emotion might enable her to sleep at last. But even when she had cried herself hoarse, sleep still evaded her.

By the time morning came, she felt twitchy with exhaustion. With no hope of rest, she dragged herself down to the breakfast table.

Her parents had come down early—perhaps they hadn’t been able to sleep either.

Now they were waiting to confront her. “Well?” her father said without preamble.

“You promised that if we allowed you to go to bed last night, you would come to us with a solution in the morning. What have you come up with?”

Of course, Arabella had no idea what to say.

She had no solution for what had happened.

Even the idea of going to live with her great-aunt seemed pathetic in the light of day, for it wouldn’t solve the problems her sisters now faced.

And that was what her parents wanted from her, unfair though it seemed—a solution.

They wanted her to give them a way to make the whole thing disappear.

She couldn’t do that.

She was just opening her mouth to tell them so when the butler entered the room. “Begging your pardon, Lord and Lady Highgate—you have a visitor.”

“A visitor, so early?” Arabella’s father frowned. “Who is it?”

“It’s the Duke of Redmayne, My Lord.”

Arabella’s mother gasped. “So, he has come to make us an offer!”

“Don’t get excited,” her father said. “More likely he’s just here to tell us how little he thinks of our daughter and her inability to behave with any decorum.

We shouldn’t get our hopes up.” He pointed to Arabella.

“You are to accompany us into the sitting room and remain silent. Not a word to him. You’ve done enough damage, and now, I’ll be the one to speak to him. ”

He rose from the table, beckoning to his wife and daughter. Seeing that she had little choice in the matter, Arabella followed along.

She felt adrift in confusion. Was it possible her mother was right? Could the Duke have come to propose marriage after all?

She was deeply torn.

If he had… on one hand, that would spare her sisters from disgrace. That could only be a good thing.

But why on earth would the Duke wish to marry her?

What could he possibly stand to gain?