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“ T hey say all kinds of things about him,” Caroline informed Arabella as the modiste took her measurements.

“What kinds of things do they say?” Arabella asked.

She had to admit, she was curious about the gentleman who was to be her husband.

And Caroline knew far more than she did.

Arabella spent most of her time at social events monitoring her sisters, keeping an eye on their prospects and doing her best to ensure that they didn’t come to harm.

Without that obligation, Caroline had always been freer to socialize, and even though she could be a bit of a wallflower, she was more alert to the gossip of the ton than Arabella could ever have hoped to be.

“Well, they say he’s the most charming man in London,” Caroline said. “He always seemed very charming to me. They say he can win over a young lady with a smile.”

“I find that difficult to believe. He hasn’t won me over,” Arabella huffed.

Prudence let out a laugh. “What do you mean, he hasn’t won you over? You’re marrying him!”

“For practicality,” Arabella argued. “Not because I’ve been charmed.”

“If you say so,” Prudence said skeptically. “I think he’s handsome.”

“He is handsome,” Arabella agreed. “That doesn’t mean I have to lose my senses.

He is marrying me for his own reasons. I don’t know what they are, and I don’t trust them, but it’s not because he’s fallen for me.

He doesn’t even know me. And because I know that , I can’t possibly be charmed by him. How could I be?”

“I don’t know,” Caroline relented. “I don’t know much about that sort of thing. But in books, when a lady falls in love, it’s not because it makes sense. It’s because she’s simply unable to help herself.”

“I’m not like the ladies in your books,” Arabella said. “I am able to help myself—even when it comes to the Duke of Redmayne. And you certainly aren’t going to see me falling in love with the first gentleman who tries to charm his way into my heart. That isn’t going to happen.”

“But don’t you want to be in love?” Prudence asked her. “Wouldn’t it all be more grand if you were?”

“It’s perfectly agreeable to me just as it is,” Arabella said.

“The Duke has agreed not to put pressure on me to live a life I don’t want.

I’ll live in his home with him, and I suppose I’ll have to learn to be a duchess, but that’s as far as any of this is going to go.

I doubt we’ll even be friends to one another. ”

“Don’t be like that, Arabella,” her mother scolded. She was examining bolts of fabric, but now, she turned to face her daughter. “Whatever you may think of him, the Duke is a good man. He truly is coming to your rescue by agreeing to marry you. He did not have to do it.”

“I’m aware he didn’t have to do it,” Arabella said.

“Then why aren’t you more grateful?”

“Mother, surely we both know he hasn’t done this for my sake?

” Arabella exclaimed. “I don’t know what his reasons could be, but they are his own.

I’ll cooperate with him, and I’ll live as he wants me to.

” Because he’s not asking anything of me that I’m not all right with.

“But I’m not going to pretend he’s done me some big favor by agreeing to marry me because he hasn’t.

He has his own reasons for wanting this. ”

“I can’t imagine what you think those reasons are,” her mother said.

“What Caroline is telling you is very right, Arabella. This is a gentleman who could have any lady he liked. With just a glance, he is capable of seduction. And then there’s the fact that he’s a very wealthy duke.

Why, he has already sent money to your father.

Can you believe it? He didn’t have to do any such thing. ”

“I told him to do that,” Arabella related. “I told him I wouldn’t marry him unless he paid Father’s debts.”

“You talked about your father’s financial affairs with the Duke? Oh, Arabella, what were you thinking?”

Arabella stared. “Mother—did you think he had sent money at random as a gift? Of course, he knew about Father’s debts. Why else would he send us money?”

“Well—I suppose I did think it was just a kindness!” her mother said. “Oh, Arabella, don’t look at me like that. Sometimes people are just kind to one another, you know.”

“Don’t look at you like what?”

“Like you don’t even recognize me.”

“And what do you mean, sometimes people are just kind ? Do you mean to imply that I’m not familiar with the concept because—what?

Because I’m not a kind person?” That was an allegation that couldn’t be borne.

Arabella didn’t want to be prideful, but she knew she had a habit of putting her sisters’ needs ahead of her own, and it was one she had worked hard to maintain.

She wouldn’t allow her mother to imply that she wasn’t a kind person.

Her mother sighed. “Don’t take umbrage, dear. All I meant was that you don’t always see the best in people. And the Duke is the latest example of that. You haven’t even said your vows, and already you’re talking of your suspicions about him—about how you don’t believe his intentions to be pure.”

“What would pure intentions even look like in this instance?” Arabella asked.

“You know he’s not in love with me, Mother.

You must know that. He doesn’t even know me.

We’ve had two conversations, and one of them took place after he had already asked for my hand.

He didn’t do so because he loved me or even because he liked me. ”

“But he respects you,” her mother replied. “He has enough regard for you to not want your reputation destroyed at his hand, Arabella. Please try to remember that this man does not have to make you his wife.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Arabella relented.

“All I’m saying is that a gentleman as handsome and charming as he is could have any lady he liked.

And it’s as you said—he did not have to choose me.

All I’m saying is that he must have had his own reasons for having done so.

I don’t know what those reasons could be, but I’m sure I’ll find out in due course.

And when I do, I will be prepared for that. ”

Her mother sighed. “You truly can’t just accept that this situation has worked out advantageously, can you?”

“I can,” Arabella said. She looked at Prudence, who was now fingering a bolt of satin with a wistful look in her eyes.

“The point of all this is that Caroline and Prudence will not be ruined. That’s why I’ve agreed to this marriage.

That’s why I can acknowledge that it is for the best. There’s no other reason for me to want it. ”

“You don’t want to be married to a duke?” Caroline asked. “I think it’s all terribly romantic, Arabella.”

“There’s nothing romantic about the terms of our arrangement, Caroline.”

“Well, not right now ,” Caroline said patiently. “But that’s how it always is in the beginning?”

“What are you talking about?”

“This is how it goes in the stories. When you first marry, there isn’t anything much between you and your husband.

He’s handsome, but he vexes you, and you don’t know what to make of him.

You agree to the marriage because it’s convenient or because it solves a problem.

But then he takes you to his home, and you begin to spend time together, and slowly, you become fond of one another. ”

“That’s how it happens in your books, is it?”

“Every time,” Caroline confirmed confidently. “Of course, you don’t like one another now. Of course, you’re suspicious of him. That’s just because your romance hasn’t had time to blossom.”

“I’m beginning to think I shouldn’t have allowed you to read all those books,” Arabella said.

“They’ve given you some funny ideas, Caroline.

Just because things work that way in stories doesn’t mean they will work that way in real life.

Most of the time, when a man and a woman marry for convenience, that’s all it ever is.

I will consider myself fortunate if we manage to get along with one another, never mind ever falling in love. That isn’t what this is going to be.”

“You can’t know that for sure,” Caroline argued.

“You should give it a chance, Arabella. You should give him a chance. He might surprise you. He already has surprised you, hasn’t he?

Showing up to ask you to marry him when you were so sure he wouldn’t do that?

He could surprise you again. Even if he does have his own reasons for wanting this marriage, you can’t know that those reasons are anything you would disagree with. Maybe he thinks you’re beautiful!”

“It couldn’t be that,” Arabella countered.

She knew she wasn’t hideous, and if her family had had money or status, her looks probably wouldn’t have been a factor one way or another.

But as the daughter of a poor baron, she would have needed to be truly remarkable in order to catch the eye of a duke. And she wasn’t.

She looked like her sisters. A little taller than she ought to be—although she had noticed that she was a few inches shorter than the Duke, so that was something.

She was slender, which was good, but she knew a lot of gentlemen preferred curvier ladies.

Her hair was an unremarkable pale brown, not the rich chestnut or the radiant auburn she might have longed for if she had gotten to choose for herself.

She did like her eyes, a hazel color that seemed to sparkle in the right lighting.

When she was feeling generous toward herself, she could imagine that her eyes might captivate some gentleman, that he might want to spend his hours staring into them.

But even in her imaginings, the gentleman gazing into her eyes had already decided she had something more to offer him.

He had always fallen for her wit or her charms first.

That couldn’t be said of the Duke. And he had spent no time whatsoever staring into her eyes. So, whatever this was about for him, Arabella knew it wasn’t that he had been so entranced by her beauty that he’d wanted her for his own. That simply wasn’t a possibility.

“Well, whatever you may think of him, he’s done wonders for our family,” her mother said firmly. “And he’s going to do even more. He’s said there’s more money where that first sum came from. Your sisters will have all they need to find husbands of their own.”

“You’re right,” Arabella agreed, and for once, she truly was in wholehearted agreement with her mother. “That’s what’s really important.”

“Just make sure you’re a good wife to him, and that you don’t disappoint him,” her mother urged. “The last thing we want is for him to have regrets about all this and call it off.”

Arabella closed her eyes as the modiste slipped a gown carefully over her head. In a few days’ time, she would be married. It still didn’t seem real.

Her mother was right. She would have to do all she could not to be a disappointment to the Duke.

And she hoped he would not be a disappointment to her.