Page 32 of Her Heartless Duke

If she were to call off their deal and admit to her duplicity, not only would he stop teaching her to dance, but he might evenhateher for it. After all, no man would countenance being made a fool of.

“Have you managed to think of a solution to this, ah,dilemmaof yours?”

She could not lose Isaac—not only for his dancing skills, but also because she found herselfloathto actually lose his company, as she no doubt would if he ever found out that she lied to him about her ties to Lady Vivian.

There was only one other way to get herself out of this mess—she would have to dig into it deeper.

“I had thought to write back to him as Lady Vivian,” she mumbled under her breath. “I was just considering what to write when you came in.”

“So… you mean to pretend that you are Lady Vivian?”

Olivia nodded.

“And write to His Grace in reply?”

She nodded again.

Fiona sighed and smiled helplessly at her. “Well, I suppose that should work for now. I am not sure if you can keep this up for very long though.”

Olivia had no intention of carrying out the farce for much longer than the dance competition. She always meant to tell Isaac the truth—eventually. With her headaches becoming more frequent and her collapse yesterday, she knew that she did not have much longer before the illness would confine her to her bed and eventually take her life.

By then, she thought that it would hardly matter if he ended up hating her for deceiving him.

But for now, she needed his help and she honestly did not want to lose Isaac.

“I suppose I can help you just this once,” Fiona relented with a hapless smile. “Come now, let me see what he wrote again. Perhaps we can come up with a suitable reply that would satisfy him.”

Olivia smiled at her cousin gratefully. “I was thinking that we could keep it more vague.”

“Well, he was not exactly being specific in his letter either, was he?” her cousin remarked, wrinkling her nose. “One would think that he was writing to a mere acquaintance, asking after her health and her family and discussing such trifling matters.”

“Perhaps he thinks it too soon to write about his intentions?”

Fiona nodded. “That may very well be the case. If that is so, then you may respond in much the same manner. Perhaps you may even convince him not to write as much.”

“Oh, that is a brilliant idea! Thank you very much!” she beamed at her cousin. “I have heard that Lord and Lady Pierce are not exactly in favor of His Grace as a suitor.”

“How could they not approve? Is he not a Duke, after all?”

But Olivia could not tell Fiona how the war had truly affected Isaac, ravaging his mind until he viewed death as a welcome respite and not the fearsome thing most people considered it to be.

She could only smile and shrug. “I truly have no idea and he was not exactly forthcoming on the matter.”

“Well, I suppose he would find it embarrassing to discuss at length,” Fiona mused. “One would have to applaud him for his persistence though. It is a rare man who would pursue a lady even after a rejection. I suppose that is what sets him apart from everyone else.”

Olivia smiled simply. There was more to Isaac that truly set him apart—he was also the strongest person she knew.

To have seen such horrors and to carry on living in spite of wanting it all to end… she could not imagine anything harder than that.

“Wait here,” she told Fiona with a big smile. “I shall be very quick!”

“Yes, please, do make it fast!” her cousin laughed. “I still want to go promenading at Hyde Park after.”

Still smiling, she rushed back to her room to pen a letter to Isaac.

How I wish I could tell him just how wonderful he truly is, she thought to herself as she set her quill to paper.

However, Fiona was right—Lady Vivian might not be particularly effusive in her affection when her courtship with Isaac fell through as it did.